Such Sweet Thunder is one of the many masterpieces composed by Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn. Recorded between August 1956 and May 1957, it was commissioned for the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. The work's title was taken from lines in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "I never heard so musical a discord, such sweet thunder". The mention of discords is apt, since some parts of the suite show that the composers were extremely adventurous in the sounds they created, including the discords which so aptly convey the agony behind Madness in Great Ones.
A1 | Such Sweet Thunder | 3:22 |
A2 | Sonnet For Caesar | 2:59 |
A3 | Sonnet To Hank Cinq | 1:23 |
A4 | Lady Mac | 3:40 |
A5 | Sonnet In Search Of A Moor | 2:22 |
A6 | The Telecasters | 3:05 |
B1 | Up And Down, Up And Down (I Will Lead Them Up And Down) | 3:09 |
B2 | Sonnet For Sister Kate | 2:23 |
B3 | The Star-Crossed Lovers | 3:59 |
B4 | Madness In Great Ones | 3:26 |
B5 | Half The Fun | 4:19 |
B6 | Circle Of Fourths | 1:45 |
B7 | Suburban Beauty | 2:58 |