The Billy Strayhorn Master Editions
are printed performance scores and
parts derived directly from the handwritten manuscripts of composer and
arranger William Thomas "Billy" Strayhorn.
List of Titles
Like all other Chicago Jazz Archive collections, the Billy Strayhorn Master Editions do not circulate outside the Archive and are available for consultation by appointment only. Due to copyright restrictions, the Archive cannot provide photocopies or scans of entire scores and parts.
The initial fifty-six Billy Strayhorn Master Editions at the Archive were a collaboration between Billy Strayhorn Songs Inc. and Dutch musicologist Walter van de Leur. Those scores, with parts and research notes on the editions, were purchased and donated to the Chicago Jazz Archive by the University of Chicago Library Society, in honor of University President and jazz enthusiast Don Michael Randel.
A second set of twenty-six Billy Strayhorn Master Editions was presented to the Chicago Jazz Archive by Billy Strayhorn Songs Inc. on March 29, 2003, at a Strayhorn concert by the Chicago Jazz Orchestra. More information about the festivities surrounding the gift is available from the University of Chicago Chronicle, and there is a March 28, 2003 interview with Billy Strayhorn Songs Inc. representative Alyce Claerbaut on WBEZ's Eight forty-eight with host Richard Steele.
The scores and parts in the gift are for newly discovered Strayhorn works, many of which were never heard during Strayhorn's lifetime. These twenty-six Billy Strayhorn Master Editions were also a collaboration between the Billy Strayhorn Songs Inc. and Walter van de Leur; see Mr. van de Leur's book, Something to live for : The music of Billy Strayhorn, Oxford University Press, 2002.
