Armstrong

Armstrong

1. Instrumentation

   • Trumpet
     • Virtuosic intro
     • Begins with a cadenza
     • Pitch bend (11)
     • Fast vibrato
     • Fast lip trill (18)
     • Long high note in last chorus
   • Clarinet
     • Sustained harmony notes during chorus 1
     • Low tessitura during 3rd chorus
     • Vibrato in 3rd chorus
   • Trombone
     • Sustained harmony notes in chorus 1
     • Smear (slides to next note, 15-16)
     • Glissando (18-19)
     • High tessitura in chorus 2
     • Bent note in 26
   • Piano
     • Comping
     • Virtuosic (chorus 4)
     • Stride bass (chorus 4)
     • Tremolo (50)
   • Bock a da bock and scat singing

2. Structure

   • 12 bar blues- linked to harmony
   • Intro, 5 choruses, coda

3. Tonality

   • E flat major
   • Ends with chromatic variant of plagal cadence

4. Harmony

   • 12 bar blues prog
   • Turnaround (ends on V7 eg 18)
   • Chromatic decoration (17)
   • Dominant chord with aug 5 (6)
   • Dom 7th (10)
   • Dim 7th (26)
   • half dim 7 (65)
   • added 6th (12)
   • I9 (57)
   • Secondary dominants (20)
   • Substitution chords (24)
   • Dominant pedal (63)
   • Blue notes

5. Melody

   • Cadenza like passage
   • 3 note melodic motif
   • 13-14 diatonic mel
   • 15-17 chromatic mel
   • Blue notes- create clashes with chords (40)
   • Descending sequence in coda
   • Improvisation

6. Rhythm

   • Piano gives 4/4 pulse
   • Syncopation
   • swung rhythm (4)
   • irregular groupings

7. Texture

   • Monophonic (1-5)
   • Homophonic 1st chorus
   • Parallel 3rds (trumpet and clarinet 8-9)
   • Parallel 10ths (piano 43-44)
   • antiphony (30-34)
   • Ragtime like accomp (stride bass)