Music Manuscripts, Scripts, and Compositional Materials
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Boatwright, Ruth Ellington, 1914-2004
setName: label: See more items in
content: Ruth Ellington Collection of Duke Ellington Materials
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1930-1981
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0415, Series 1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Includes original manuscripts (parts and scores), copy scores, lead, lyric and copyright sheets, published music and arrangements of compositions by Duke Ellington, his main collaborator Billy Strayhorn and many of the band members including Johnny Hodges and Cat Anderson. The bulk of the material is music (consisting of scores, lyric and melody sheets or melody with chord changes) from Tempo Music, Incorporated used to establish copyright. Although the materials date from 1930-1981, the bulk is from 1942 when Tempo was established until Duke Ellington's death in 1974. Of particular interest are the Strayhorn manuscripts and compositions (some before the Ellington-Strayhorn partnership), early arrangements of Black, Brown, and Beige (the scripts from Black, Brown, and Beige, along with the negative book for the same piece), several negatives for Pousse Cafe; scores and parts (seemingly complete) for A Drum Is a Woman, and quite a few lead sheets for the multi movement work The River.

The series is arranged into seven subseries including Subseries 1.1, Music Manuscripts; Subseries 1.2, Published Books; Subseries 1.3, Oversize Material; Subseries 1.4, Manuscript Notebooks and Untitled Music; Subseries 1.5, Tempo Copyright Sheets of Non-Ellington Material; Subseries 1.6: Uncopyrighted Submissions; and Subseries 7, Notes, Scripts, and Compositions.