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- Ellington, Duke
- Gould, Morton
Duration: 4 minutes
Description: Duke Ellington (1899–1974) composed Sophisticated Lady in 1932, and Morton Gould (1913–1996) created his luxuriant arrangement for string orchestra, harp, and celesta in 1946, transforming one of Ellington’s most celebrated jazz ballads into an atmospheric concert work for string choir. Ellington later recalled that his conception of the “sophisticated lady” was inspired by several of his childhood schoolteachers, whose elegance and summer travels to Europe represented sophistication to the young composer; Mitchell Parish subsequently supplied lyrics to Ellington’s originally instrumental melody. An early version was recorded by Ellington’s orchestra in September 1932, while the familiar commercial recording made on February 15, 1933, helped establish the piece as a major popular success. Gould, himself equally at home in classical and American popular idioms, recasts Ellington’s distinctive harmonies and sensuous melody in a rich orchestral palette, passing the theme between high and low strings while harp and celesta add delicate color; Ellington aptly characterized the original as a “blue mood piece.” Today, Sophisticated Lady (arr. Morton Gould for String Choir) retains a valued place in the American string-orchestra repertoire, offering performers and audiences a particularly elegant meeting of the jazz and symphonic traditions while preserving the melodic and harmonic character that has made Ellington’s original an enduring American standard. Instrumentation: Hp.Clst: Str divisi (3 Vn pts, 2 Va pts, 2 Vc pts; 6-6.6.5.5.5 in set) Reprint edition.