The River

ELLINGTON 1899-1974

Written near the end of the American master’s life, Duke Ellington’s The River premiered 1971; the work is a ballet that was created in conjunction with legendary choreographer Alvin Ailey for the American Ballet Theater. Though decidedly programmatic, the ballet’s narrative of creating a musical story of a river (its birth, bubbling from the ground, life, and journey), is a wonderfully unusual program; it is a narrative based on gesture and abstracted musical association rather than a specific denotative plot. Absent a very particular or overly specific plot, the audience is obliged to create and imagine their own more specific stories that go along with the general musical outline that Ellington has provided us.

The opening movement, entitled Spring, depicts the nascent river bubbling from the ground, growing in size from a small trickle of liberated groundwater to something much bigger and grander. The work begins with a horn solo, completely and starkly alone, whose exotic melody is then spun out to an expertly handled and almost cinematic climax.

The eponymous body of water’s next phase — a rush of water finding its ultimate place in the geography of the world — is Meander, cast in a surprisingly urban, bluesy treatment. This gives way to the Giggling Rapids, a sparkling, fast, and irrefutably entertaining three minutes of music. Here Ellington shows his deftness in rendering the non-musical musical: beginning with a cleverly written piano solo, the movement unfolds in a swirling triple meter where we can hear the strings rush and spin, always quickly and usually playfully.

The final movement, Village Virgins, draws upon tropes from American sacred music; the solemn chorales at the opening have a distinctly church-like sound. This character is not lost, even as the drumset and bass coerce the strings into a sliding, swinging answer. The chorale does win out, of course, and a triumphant last chorus is shared by the entire orchestra.

  • Anthony Suter

Concert Performance

Orchestration

2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, strings