Zodiac Suite (piano arrangement)

c. 1944-1945

Full score and parts

This edition of Williams’ Zodiac Suite presents music for the twelve-movement suite recorded by the composer at the piano in 1945. It is based on all available takes recorded, most of them kept in the Mary Lou Williams Collection at the Institute of Jazz Studies, as well as manuscripts, unveiling a complex work, malleable and always changing. This edition seeks to render that fundamental aspect of the work. To do so, several options for performance are included: sections that were omitted or added, variants, fully transcribed alternate versions, anterior versions, etc., presenting a complete text.

Later and earlier arrangements of individual movements, such as “Taurus Mood,” the 1955 version of “Taurus” and the unrecorded “Libra Mood” are published as well in this volume.

Also included is Williams’ arrangement of “Scorpio” for three pianos, written for Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and herself sometime later in the 1940s. It was never recorded nor performed..

Contents:

• Foreword (incl. reproductions of the original manuscripts), 13 p.Full score, 163 p.

• Full score, Zodiac Suite, 33 p.

• Full score, “Scorpio” for three pianos, 10 p.

• Appendices, 19 p.

• Sources, Editorial Notes, Bibliography, Discography,  10 p.