Charlie Parker : the analytical study of twenty-two performance versions of Now's the time.

Abstract

This analytical study scrutinizes Parker's improvisation technique by closely examining his twenty-two performance versions of Now's the Time with the aim of instituting a comprehensive analytical model for related studies. A brief chronological sketch of Parker's life and other biographically correlated information are organized and presented in chapter two of this study. The selected information regarding all surviving versions of Parker's Now's the Time is included in chapter three. It contains biographical information that is specifically linked to Parker's Now's the Time, the associated discographical data of the surviving versions, and a brief analytical discussion concerning the thematic material of Now's the Time. The associated literature reviews and the discussion of the adopted analytical model are presented in chapter four. The improvisational components that are examined in this study, including thirty-one selected motives and nineteen figurations and improvisatory elements, are individually addressed in this chapter. The individual analyses for the twenty-two surviving versions of Now's the Time are organized chronologically in chapter five, attempting to establish an inclusive synthesis of analytical inquiries and surveys with the schematic layout of the aforementioned analytical model. The principal analytical graph, included at the end of each individual analysis, is an exhaustively annotated transcription. The selected analytical aspects of Parker's improvisatory treatment by comprehensively evaluating the statistic data listed in the individual analysis are provided in chapter six. Fifteen sections, including Parker's improvisatory treatment of the thematic elaboration, the opening statement, and other numerous associated topics are assembled into a systematically organized discussion by emulating the basic layout of the analytical model. The appendix section contains seven items, including an annotated bibliography of the available English-language analytical literature on Parker's music, an annotated bibliography of Parker-related articles in Down Beat magazine, and other supplementary articles and entries.