Afro-Modernist Compositional Strategies in Selected Works by John Lewis: 1952-1962
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Afro-Modernist Compositional Strategies in Selected Works by John Lewis: 1952-1962 Christopher Coady School of English, Media and Performing Arts University of New South Wales This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music. 2011 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. 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Date ……………………………………………........................... ii Abstract The idea that African-American expressive culture is organized around a core trope of vernacular “masking,” a process that both maintains and subversively extends African- American cultural presence, has recently gained momentum in the field of jazz studies. This theoretical framework, termed Afro-Modernism, has proved particularly influential in the revision of musical products dismissed as pastiche. Although “Third Stream” works are frequently assigned such labels, many Afro-Modernist scholars have excluded them from the “masking” paradigm due to a perceived overemphasis of Western art music tropes. This thesis challenges such readings by first exploring what appears to be an internal inconsistency in Afro-Modernist logic when a “balance” between audible European and vernacular elements is required for a “masking” work to be deemed successful. It subsequently demonstrates cause for jazz artists to have pursued Western art music “masks” in the 1950s by detailing the way in which perceived hegemonic alignment enabled economic success for many musicians in the wake of the 1940s big band decline. John Lewis in particular is shown to have both embraced Western art music constructs and to have heralded the vernacular foundation of his works during this period. An analysis of Lewis’ oeuvre between 1952 and 1962 explores the paradox of these competing interests in works performed in both clubs and “Modern” music venues. The main findings of this analysis show that many of the Western art music sonorities emergent in Lewis’ work result from the innovative deployment of vernacular devices. Lewis’ multi-movement works Three Little Feelings (1956) and The Comedy (1960) coalesce around a style of thematic repetition rooted in African-American cultural practice – one that overlaps with, but is also distinct from, Western art music thematic development. The use of improvised counterpoint and blues derived riffs in the works Concorde (1955) and Versailles (1956) in turn are shown to meet Western art music expectations regarding polyphonic thematic treatment in the fugal realm. Such findings contrast readings of Lewis’ work that depict Western forms as pushing vernacular tropes to the side, indicating instead the central role of the vernacular in Lewis’ work, even during the creation of Western art music veneers. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank several people for their help and support during this project. First and foremost, I wish to extend my sincere thanks to my research supervisor Associate Professor Dorottya Fabian for her unwavering support and guidance. Her analytical and organizational skills are without parallel and her advice has greatly impacted the quality of this work. I am indebted to the staff of the School of English, Media and Performing Arts at the University of New South Wales for their invaluable comments during postgraduate reviews, their willingness to read and edit sections of this thesis, and their financial assistance in providing me with both administrative and teaching work over the past several years. In particular I would like to thank: Dr. John Napier, Dr. John Peterson, Dr. Emery Schubert, Dr. Iain Giblin, Dr. Christine Logan, Associate Professor Robert Walker and Dr. Paul Dawson. I am also grateful to Dr. Ian Collinson and Dr. Denis Crowdy for reviewing several draft chapters of this thesis and to Sophie Pusz for her comments on the final manuscript. I acknowledge here the financial assistance of the Graduate Research School at UNSW, which took the form of a University International Postgraduate Award held during my candidature. There are many fellow postgraduate students and friends who have supported me forming a list too long to include here. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have held their company. I must single out the Emery family for the many kindnesses they extended to me during my first years in Australia and to my partner Caitlin, whose love and support enabled the completion of this work. Finally, I wish to extend infinite thanks to my parents Ann and James Coady, who remain my greatest inspirations and role models and to whom this thesis is dedicated. iv Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgments iv List of Musical Examples vii List of Figures x List of Audio Examples xi List of Video Examples xii Introduction 1 Purpose and Rationale of the Study 1 Methodology and Presentation 6 Chapter 1: Signifyin(g), Call-Response, and the New Critical School of Jazz Studies: A 9 theoretical framework for the analysis of 1950s syncretic jazz works 1.1 Historical Underpinnings of Afro-Modernist Musical Analysis 10 1.2 The Power of Black Music: Afro-Modernism in the Musical Realm 24 1.3 Reading “pan-European” Approaches to Jazz Studies 31 1.4 Reading “pan-European” Approaches to Third Stream Music 36 1.5 Afro-Modernist Models of Jazz Analysis 42 Chapter 2: Cultural Context and Afro-Modernist Reading of Selected 1950s Syncretic Jazz 51 Composition 2.1 Afro-Modernist Roots of 1950s “Modern” Jazz 53 2.2 Expanding the Jazz Market: Jazz Goes to College 59 2.3 Expanding the Jazz Market: The Creation of “Modern” Music Venues 66 Chapter 3: The Role of Rhythmic Essentialism in John Lewis’ Marginalisation from African- 86 American Expressive Culture 3.1 Essentialising Rhythm in Jazz Discourse 87 3.2 The Effect of Essentialist Rhythmic Discourse on Lewis’ Portrayal in the Popular Press 98 Chapter 4: Survey of Lewis’ Works and Analysis of Afro-Modernist Strategies (1952-1962) 112 4.1 Survey of Lewis’ Works: 1952 – 1962 115 4.2 Musical Analysis of Afro-Modernist Strategies 137 4.2.1 Contrapuntal Signifyin(g) 138 4.2.2 Thematic Repetition 150 v 4.2.3 Embedded Vernacular Forms 170 Chapter 5: AfroModernist Subversion of the Jazz Deviance Trope in Lewis’ Film Noir Scores 178 5.1 “Crime Jazz” and the Jazz Deviance Trigger in Film Noir 179 5.2 Subverting the Jazz Deviance Trope: Sait-on Jamais (1957) 183 5.3 Subverting the Jazz Deviance Trope: Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud (1958) 189 5.4 Subverting the Jazz Deviance Trope: Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) 191 Conclusions 199 References 206 Scores 219 Filmography 220 Appendix (a): “The Signifyin’ Monkey” 221 Appendix (b): Concorde (1955). Atlantic LP 7005. Exposition, mm. 1-25. Transcription. 223 Appendix (c): Formal Outlines of Selected Works 226 Appendix (d): Sait-on Jamais (1957) Soundscape 256 Appendix (e): Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) Soundscape 260 Appendix (f): List of Recorded Works 265 vi List of Musical Examples Example 1.1 Thematic counterpoint in ‘Light’ (Burrows, 2007, p. 64) [Reset in Finale]. 47 Example 2.1 Revelations (1957) Opening Theme mm. 1-4. Published Score [Reduced and set in Finale]. 70 Example 2.2 Revelations (1957) mm. 28-9. Published Score. 71 Example 2.3 Revelations (1957) mm. 169-73. Published Score. 72 Example 2.4 Concorde (1954) Fugal Subject, Bass. mm. 1-7. Published Score [Reduced and set in 79 Finale]. Example 2.5 Three Little Feelings (1957) Theme. mm. 1-5. Published Score [Set in Finale]. 81-2 Example 4.1 Concorde (1955). Atlantic LP 7005. Thematic motif behind piano solo. mm. 32 – 39. 139 Transcription. Example 4.2 Concorde (1955). Atlantic LP 7005. Revision of thematic motif behind piano solo. mm. 49 140 – 56. Transcription. Example 4.3 Versailles (1956). Atlantic LP 1231. Exposition. mm. 1 – 8. Transcription. 142 Example 4.4 Versailles (1956). Atlantic LP 1231. Thematic motif behind piano solo. mm. 25 – 40. 142 Transcription. Example 4.5 The Queen’s Fancy (1953).