Epilogue: Making Changes

Abstract

Romare Bearden tells a story about Duke Ellington that is wonderfully apt for the conclusion of this book: “He was looking at a score by Tchaikovsky, and he was making changes in it. [Laughter] Billy Strayhorn said, “What are you doing?” “I’m making changes,” he said. “Do you know this is Tchaikovsky?” Billy Strayhorn asked. [Laughter] “I know. He is a great composer. But what I have to do for this band has to be this way. We’ll still get it, but it has to be this way.”¹ Particularly intriguing is the mobility of “it” in the final sentence: in the first part, “it” could refer to Tchaikovsky but, in the second part, the emphatic “this way” turns the meaning of “it” into Ellington’s changed version. Citing Shakespeare has sought to traverse the space between the free-floating double referent of “it,” understood both as the Shakespearean text and as the new contemporary work. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I argue that the more it changes, the more it is not the same thing. Quotation is transformation; citing means making changes.