Duke Ellington Three Black Kings
Duke Ellington Three Black Kings, Ballet for Orchestra Program Notes
Duke Ellington Three Black Kings – “Three Black Kings, Ballet for Orchestra” is Ellington’s last work, and while he followed his practice of not completing works until shortly before their performance, he left detailed instructions. It’s a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated six years previously – its finale is dedicated to him with a prayerful but exultant gospel mood. The first two movements are connected, musically and with the subject of biblical Black kings. From the Nativity, the magus (of the Magi, Persian priests or sorcerers) King Balthazar’s opening evokes the music of Africa, with tom-toms, jawbone and especially the marimba, an instrument whose name is from the Bantu language. Its fast, lush central music has a middle-eastern flair. Part II, King Solomon’s movement, begins with a calm and beautiful contrast to Balthazar: lush chords support violin, harp and oboe soloes. The music shows Ellington’s brilliance across musical styles, as flutes, English horn, muted trumpets and vibraphone then make for a light-jazz sound over a bossa nova/Jazz samba feeling. Biblically, Solomon’s court was described as abundant in every luxury, and this sounds like a perfect mid-century musical depiction of that splendour. Henderson completed one of several orchestral versions of this piece, and it was performed in 1975, in ’76 at a performance attended by First Lady Betty Ford, and was also choreographed by Alvin Ailey. The brilliant American Jazz composer, Edward ‘Duke’ Ellington (the Duke nickname came from a childhood friend) was born into a musical family in Washington DC, where he went to technical school, studied piano, took various odd jobs, and began composing. In the 1920s, he was drawn to the artistic, musical and literary creativity of the Harlem Renaissance, and from age 24, started leading a band at the famous Cotton Club. When still a teenager, he’d written a rag, which he then composed into numerous genres of styles: his musical creativity would make him a powerhouse in Jazz, but he contributed far beyond it, too. Countless songs have become standards – Take the “A” Train, Caravan, Don’t Get Around Much Any More; but his brilliant orchestrations lent themselves to his symphonic music. There are some fantastical re-compositions of symphonic classics (Grieg’s Peer Gynt, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker), as well as concert pieces for orchestra: Harlem (1950), Black, Brown and Beige, music for movies, and later, operas. He worked with talented collaborators, including his son, bandleader and arranger Mercer Ellington (b. 1918), orchestrator and composer Luther Henderson (1919-2003), and conductor and professor Maurice Peress (1930-2017). Ellington’s 1974 funeral was at Morningside Heights’ St. John the Divine, with 12,000 mourners. Born: April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C. Died: May 24, 1974, New York, NYThree Black Kings is an orchestral suite by Duke Ellington, left unfinished at his death in 1974 and completed by his son Mercer Ellington. The three movements pay tribute to Balthazar, one of the Biblical Magi, King Solomon, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Ellington worked on the suite in the early 1970s, and it was posthumously premiered in 1976 by the American Ballet Theatre with orchestrations completed by Mercer Ellington.
A typical performance lasts approximately 15 to 18 minutes.
Each movement has a distinct character — the first is ceremonial and grand, the second richly melodic, and the third deeply expressive in tribute to Dr. King. Listen for Ellington's characteristic blend of jazz harmonies within a classical orchestral framework.
Three Black Kings was one of Ellington's final large-scale works and reflects his lifelong commitment to celebrating African American history and culture through music. It stands as a deeply personal artistic statement from one of America's greatest composers.
