Have some Ellington for Christmas! Friday, October 22, 2010
Finally the fantastic Ellington adaptation and arrangements for Tchaikovsky‘s Nutcracker Suite are available for purchase and performance. This new edition of Tchaikovsky's “Nutcracker Suite,” arranged in 1960 by Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, was assembled from the original manuscripts held in the Strayhorn Repository and the Ellington Collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. For purposes of accuracy, the manuscripts were cross-checked carefully with the original Duke Ellington Orchestra recording (Columbia CS 8341). Titles in the suite include, Overture”, “Toot Toot Tootsie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Flutes)”, “Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)”, “Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy)”, the “Entr’acte”, “The Volga Vouty (Russian Trepak)”, “Chinoiserie (Chinese Tea)”, “Dance of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)”, and “Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Coffee)”.
Not for the faint of heart, this suite is well worth the work needed to pull it off! Rated at a grade 6 difficulty there are plenty of exposed solis and solos as well as extensive woodwind doubling.
If you have the horses, give yourself a holiday treat and tackle this major opus!