Sophisticated Lady, a song from Duke Ellington

melodies:  In the main theme, notes often move in small steps, and they make big leaps in the chorus.   The two parts, main theme & chorus, blend together well despite their differences;  the whole song uses notes in creative ways to make melodies that are carefully designed to be unusual yet beautiful.

music:  You can enjoy hearing two versions of Sophisticated Lady:  from 1950 {source: This excerpt, with main theme & chorus, spanning 1:24, occurs near the start of an 11:32 version from a CD, Duke Ellington: 16 Most Requested Songs (1994, Sony Music Entertainment) recorded by the Duke Ellington Band in 1950.}   /   and from earlier {whole song, 3:04, from The Best of the Duke Ellington Centennial Edition – the chorus is 0:57-1:22, with another version at 1:50-2:18}     /     I.O.U. — Eventually, here you'll find one or more files (of me playing trombone and/or keyboard) with a simple non-embellished version, containing only the essential notes, of melodies in the main theme & chorus.

variety:  In a basic non-embellished version of the chorus, in the first 11 notes the melody uses 8 of the 12 chromatic-scale notes.  It's sort of like "12-tone music" where a composer tries to use all 12 notes in succession without repeating any, but (by contrast with most 12-tone music) in this tune Ellington arranges the notes in a way that is intended to sound melodious, and it does.     {iou - later I'll check 15 notes of the chorus, to compare 8-of-11 with X-of-15}

inspiration:  Duke's concept of a sophisticated lady was inspired by three of his grade-school teachers, who "taught all winter and toured Europe in the summer."  And this idea inspired the "moods, feelings, and images" in the music he composed. (*)

transcription:  Later there will be a "visual transcription" here, showing the notes and pattern-shape of melodies in the main theme (often moving in small steps) and chorus (with big leaps).

* this is quoted from the "Imagery and Mystery" part of my page about
  Musical Improvisation — Making Music with Creativity + Theory