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Gershwin: Summertime (p.366)
Context
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George Gershwin became famous in the 1920s and 30s as a composer of songs
for musicals and films.
He did not want to be pigeonholed as a popular composer, though, and also
wrote concert pieces, such as Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and a Piano
Concerto, which are all heavily influenced by jazz and the musical vocabulary of
popular music.
His one opera, Porgy and Bess, appeared in 1935 and is set in a black community
in one of the southern states. The subject and casting is very unusual for the
time and has not really been repeated in any well known opera.
Text
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The song Summertime is a lullaby sung by Clara to her baby, painting an
idealised picture of life, since the characters on Catfish Row, where the opera is
set, are all poor and an’ the livin’ ain’t easy for any of them.
Structure
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Simple strophic song with an introduction. Verse 1 begins at the end of b.7 and
finishes in b.24: verse 2 repeats the melody, with minor alterations and a richer
accompaniment, starting in b.25.
Melody
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Four x 4 bar phrases in the pattern A Ai A B in each verse. The A phrases fall
gently from the initial high F sharp, whilst the B phrase rises up to the top note
and falls back to the tonic.
Fairly small melodic range of an octave (F sharp to F sharp), apart from the
unwritten high B, which is usually put in by singers on the last note of verse 2.
Largely based on a pentatonic scale (B D E F sharp A) with the C sharps at the
end of the second phrase the only note outside the scale. The pentatonic scale
reflects the influence of folk music on Gershwin’s melody.
Note the written out swing quavers (b.9) and the syncopations (b.15-6) which
come from jazz.
Harmony & tonality
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B minor, but tinged with jazz-influenced blue notes (the F naturals in b.1 are
flattened 5ths).
The E natural in b. 14/32 (accompaniment RH) is a flat 3rd set against the
major 3rd in the LH – it is basically the same idea as the false relations found in
Dowland’s song, but here the e natural is a blue note.
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Occasional whole tone scale passages add colour – the rising melody in b.19 – a
sound which comes from European art music (cf. Debussy, for example).
There is a fair amount of chromaticism in the accompaniment (b.12 & 20, for
example) which comes from concert music and popular music of the 20s and
30s.
The chords often have added 6ths (b.8-11), 7ths (b.12 & 13) and 9ths (b.25)
common in the popular songs of the day, but also found in Fauré’s song.
Note the circle of fifths progression at the end of the song (b.41-4), also
frequently found in popular songs and used by Fauré.
The accompaniment
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Orchestra – the score in the Anthology is a reduction for piano.
Languid and slow moving, with portamenti between the chords (not notated) in
b. 8-10. The orchestral textures get a bit more complex and mobile each time
the singer ends a phrase on a long note, carrying the music forward to the next
section.
Warm string-based textures, but with wind instruments (and the bells) to add
colour; name the wind instruments in the following bars:1-2
3-4
19
22
The second verse is enriched by the added wordless voices and the high violin
countermelody, whilst the solo line is doubled by an oboe.
Question
Compare and contrast the composers’ approach to harmony, melody and
accompaniment in Fauré’s Après un rêve and Gershwin’s Summertime.