Launcelot Allen Pyke, II 
Jazz, 1920 to 1927: 
an analytical study 

2 Vols. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms (UM 
order no. 62-4988), 1962. (lISp., pos. film $2.75; 
State University of Iowa diss.) 

Frank]. Gillis 

This doctoral dissertation, filled with a miscellany of errors of fact 
and judgment, points out the need for academic advisers qualified to 
direct scholarly papers dealing with jazz. It is unfortunate that as 
colleges and universities become increasingly aware of the interest 
and importance being attached to jazz, few faculty seem to be avail-
able for guiding those researching and writing on this vital aspect 
of American culture. Whereas much of the carelessness is the fault 
of the author, his advisers apparently lacked knowledge of the 
musical and esthetic values of jazz, and of the available reference 
works. Whether this condition can be attributed to the failure of 
music departments to recognize the validity of jazz as a significant 
musical phenomenon, and fit for scholarly enquiry, or to a shortage 
of qualified teachers, it is a rather sad situation that should soon be 
rectified. 

Pyke's work, a study based upon ten transcribed jazz tunes recorded 
during what might be called the classical period of New Orleans 
improvised ensemble jazz, is divided into two parts. Volume I, com-
prising the text, deals with the background and musical characteristics 
of jazz, and Volume II contains a transcription of the ten tunes with 
the melodic instruments notated in score. Before one gets too far 
into the text, several serious errors turn up. First, it should have 
been brought out in the title that the study is restricted to Negro 
jazz. Second, one of the recorded versions transcribed and analyzed, 
Bunk Johnson's Original Superior Band playing "Down by the River", 
was recorded in 1942, not 1922, as stated, and thus should not have 
been considered in the study. Third, in his treatment of "a representa-
tive selection of New Orleans jazz" the author fails to include even 
one of at least a dozen significant recordings made by Jelly Roll Mor-
ton's Red Hot Peppers in 1926-27, a group that many jazz critics, 
writers, and enthusiasts would quickly name as one of the two out-
standing jazz units-the other being King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, 
represented in the dissertation by four selections-playing in the New 
Orleans ensemble style. 

The entire work-the sections on the historical background of jazz 
and on musical analysis, the bibliography and the transcriptions them-
selves-is carelessly done and contains many errors. Some are simply 
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due to negligence. It is unforgivable for anyone writing on jazz to 
notate the blues scale with a flatted sixth instead of a flatted seventh, 
and this incorrectly from a source (p. 78). Some are undoubtedly 
typographical, and some are due to mistakes of fact. They are too 
numerous to bring out in any great detail here. Furthermore, many 
of the ideas presented are not clearly stated and show the author 
to be without complete command of his subject. Finally, a good deal 
of the important literature in the field has been neglected. A study 
in which King Oliver and his recordings play such a major role should 
have utilized, or at least cited, King Joe Oliver, by Walter C. Allen and 
Brian A. L. Rust (Belleville, N.J., 1955), the definitive work on the 
man, his life, and recordings. 

I find it hard to believe that this dissertation could have been 
accepted as a piece of scholarly research and writing. Its basic idea-
the transcription and analysis of tunes taken from a certain style 
period of jazz-is good. Such an undertaking, however, requires a 
broad knowledge of the music, historically, esthetically, and theoreti-
cally, and a fine hand to develop it. Pyke was weak in the majority 
of these requirements. Yet, with more care, and with proper guid-
ance, he could have done much better. 

FRANK J. GILLIS is acting director of the Folklore Institute, Indiana University. 

Joseph Emilio Rotondi 
Literary and musical aspects 
of Roman opera, 1600-1650 

Ann Arbor: University Microfilms (UM order no. 
59-2265), 1959. (287p., University of Pennsylvania 
diss.) 

Barbara Russano Hanning 

Any study and revaluation in English of early opera deserves the 
interest of musicologists, but one which promises a "unique approach" 
through a consideration of literary as well as musical aspects is espe-
cially welcome. For it was particularly in this formative period of both 
Florentine and Roman opera that the librettist played an important 
role in determining the ultimate shape of the work. Whether the text 
was written by a humanist poet, "to make a simple test of what 
the music of our age could do" (Rinuccini in the deciation of his 
Euridice, 1600), or by the composer himself who chose from among 
those literary forms and conventions available to him, it cannot have 
failed to influence the musical setting. One is therefore pleased to 

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