Spaces in Between: A Swing-Informed Approach to Performing Jazz- and Blues-Influenced Western Art Music for Violin

Abstract

This dissertation explores issues related to performing art music for the violin that references jazz and blues. Because western notation cannot convey many subtleties of rhythm, typical scores provide imprecise instructions for creating swing, which is for many a defining feature of jazz and the blues. Moreover, since swing is not one sound or rhythmic sense, scores convey little about how a composer understands it. My aim is to help performers better realize a composer’s conceptualization of swing. Following an overview of scholarship on swing, I analyze the “Blues” movement from Ravel’s Violin Sonata No.2, Copland’s Nocturne and Ukulele Serenade, and the “Socrates: Alcibiades” movement from Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium.” To understand how each composer conceptualized and notated swing, I explore jazz and blues recordings that are representative of their respective time periods. My analysis of each composer’s notion and notation of swing is supplemented by interviews with expert jazz musicians, who assessed several recorded versions of the pieces. Their comments helped me pinpoint and analyze key factors that contributed to their preferences. Although certain subtle processes emerged as fundamental to a swing-informed approach, it became clear that a strict “how-to” guide to performing swing was problematic. I also found that less rhythmic alteration can actually be the best strategy for creating swing. To further explore how classically trained violinists can convey swing, I explore five playing techniques. They are not far removed from accepted classical methods and do not require radical reworking of playing mechanics or the music. However, as I argue, they do clarify jazz violin practices and provide possibilities for expressing swing’s sensibilities. While the swing-informed approach provided is a general guideline to performing swing-influenced pieces for violin, it is my hope that the methodology will be a blueprint for performers of any instrument who wish to make informed choices that facilitate the realization of composers’ “high-level” intentions.