George Hamilton Green was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1893, and was hailed as the world’s greatest xylophonist while still a teenager. He passed away in Woodstock, NY in 1970, after an astonishing career as a concert virtuoso, recording artist, radio performer, ground-breaking jazz improviser, composer, and teacher.
During the decade from 1915 to 1925 Green’s name was instantly recognizable to anyone who listened to popular dance music on the phonograph. He made literally thousands of recordings for the major record companies, including Victor, Columbia, Brunswick, and Emerson, appearing as leader with ensembles such as the Green Brothers’ Novelty Band, and as featured soloist with groups like the All-Star Trio and Earl Fuller’s Rector House Orchestra. He was a prolific composer and lyricist, but it is his legacy as a performing artist that continues to the present time. He pioneered a classical technical approach to the xylophone, which still serves as the foundation for modern keyboard percussion playing.
An Indian Story was composed by Green as a solo piece for xylophone. It was recorded on the Columbia record label in 1927 with Green himself as the featured soloist. The music is composed in a stylized vocabulary that was common to the era of the early 20th Century, particularly in the case of music that accompanied motion pictures. The music is sentimental and clearly sympathetic to its subject in the vocabulary of its time.
27 page score, arranged for full orchestra (25 parts)
