Approaching jazz composition through the music of Billy Strayhorn

Leonie Freudenberger

Name: Leonie Freudenberger Main Subject: Jazz Saxophone Research Coach: Karst de Jong Title of Research: Approaching jazz composition through the music of Billy Strayhorn Research Question: What are the most important elements of Billy Strayhorn's compositions? How can I incorporate his compositional approach in my own writing? Billy Strayhorn (1915–1976) was a jazz pianist, composer, arranger, orchestrator and lyricist whose works have influenced the genre of jazz music until today. The research contains two phases: First, the analysis of his compositions. Second, the attempt to compose originals using the detected stylistic, harmonic, melodic and conceptional tools. Considering the enormous oeuvre that Strayhorn produced, it is inevitable to make a selection of songs to analyze. My criteria for this selection are the following: Which songs have become part of the standard repertoire in jazz, performed by various artists throughout the 20th (and 21st) century? Where can I find aural trademarks, which I recognize both as a listener and as a player and which contribute to my personal perception of the “Strayhorn sound”? Can the compositions be reduced to a lead sheet and performed by a small jazz combo without losing their essence? My final intention is not only to compose using Strayhorn-typical elements and tools, but also to write music for myself as a performer and for my group to play it. On longer terms, I hope that I can abstract this method further on and profit from it beyond the results of this research. Biography: Leonie Freudenberger, born 1988 in Baden-Baden (D), has played the alto saxophone since her childhood. She started her professional jazz education at the University of Music in Mannheim in 2008 and came to Den Haag in 2011, where she finished her Bachelor's degree. Apart from her Master studies, she writes music and performs with her own group and takes part in various projects, playing alto and baritone saxophone.

Blood Count

Published in 1967, Blood Count is one of Strayhorn’s last compositions. He suffered from terminal cancer, and his hopeless prospects reflect themselves in his music. Not only is the title conclusive, but also the piece in itself has an emotional air somewhere between melancholia and fatal desperation. Once again, the ballad is written for Johnny Hodges on lead alto.

Blood Count is written in D minor. The form could be described as AABAC, with slight differences between the “A” sections. “A” consists of two essential parts: first, 4 bars of altered dominants underlining a 2-bar phrase that is imprecisely sequenced. Starting out with two 16^th-notes tied to a following long note, the phrase is unsteady, rhythmically almost free.

The second half of “A” is a D minor pedal with a chromatically moving 5th degree: Dm-Dm^7(#5)-Dm⁶-D⁷. In jazz theory, this occurrence is commonly known as CESH: Contrapuntal Elaboration of Static Harmony, meaning that one voice of a chord is moving, while the rest is static. It can be found variously in jazz music, e.g. in Ellington’s In a Sentimental Mood.

In the melody, one 16^th-note motive is repeated three times: F-E-Eb-D, slurred to a dotted half-note F.

The minor CESH motion creates a certain dramatic, while the repetition of the 16^th motive gives unease. The last chord, D⁷, does not resolve; instead, there is an abrupt cut back to the first chord F^7#11 and “A” is repeated. This time, the D pedal has major chords on top, again with a moving 6^th; the 16th motive is diatonically adapted.

In the B section, a 2-bar phrase is played first on G⁶, then on Gm⁶, and then on F^maj7. Again, the repetition, the stagnation and the tension of the chromatic motion have an impact to the listener. To modulate back to “A”, Strayhorn used one of his regular devices, in this case: half-note chromatically ascending dominant chords, each one with a 13 as melody note.

“A” comes back, followed by the “B” section, in which the alto plays some ad-libs over the chords instead of the melody. “A” is repeated once more before the piece reaches the final coda-like “C” section. From here on, it seems to literally die out. The melody loosens up until it disappears. In the background, triads move down chromatically on top of an A pedal: E/A-Eb/A-Dm/A-F/A, repeated, ending on Dm.

Strayhorn, on his deathbed, was not afraid to give Blood Count the full emotional range of terminal illness. The orchestra recorded the piece only once, on Ellington’s tribute and farewell to his companion entitled And His Mother Called Him Bill.

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