“Summertime” from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess is doubtless one of the one most popular songs in the Great American Songbook. But did you know that neither the tune to “Summertime” nor the lyrics are by George Gershwin?
First, let’s start with the lyrics.
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Porgy and Bess is based upon the novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward. Published in 1925, the novel was first adapted for the stage in 1927 by the author’s wife, Dorothy Heyward. The play, in turn, inspired George Gershwin’s Porgy, which he called “an American folk opera.”
DuBose Heyward collaborated with Ira Gershwin to craft the libretto for Porgy and Bess, even spending time together in Charleston, South Carolina, to research African American communities and their music.
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The lyrics to “Summertime” are by Heyward. Stephen Sondheim, the acclaimed composer and lyricist, wrote in his book Invisible Giants: Fifty Americans Who Shaped the Nation But Missed the History Books:
“DuBose Heyward has gone largely unrecognized as the author of the finest set of lyrics in the history of the American musical theater – namely, those of Porgy and Bess. There are two reasons for this, and they are connected. First, he was primarily a poet and novelist, and his only song lyrics were those that he wrote for Porgy. Second, some of them were written in collaboration with Ira Gershwin, a full-time lyricist, whose reputation in the musical theater was firmly established before the opera was written. But most of the lyrics in Porgy – and all of the distinguished ones – are by Heyward. I admire his theater songs for their deeply felt poetic style and their insight into character. It’s a pity he didn’t write any others. His work is sung, but he is unsung.”
Who gets credit for the music of “Summertime”? That question is a little more complicated. The melody is strikingly similar to an African American spiritual, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.”
Many commonly known spirituals today have come down to us from a collection of songs gathered by a white scholar during his visits to African American communities near Charleston, South Carolina, and published under the title Slave Songs of the United States in 1867.
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While “Motherless Child” was not part of Slave Songs, a printed score of the song was available in print as early as 1899. When Gershwin and Heyward spent time in South Carolina to create Porgy, or perhaps even before, they could’ve encountered “Motherless Child.”
The melody of the first printed version of “Motherless Child” only bears superficial similarities to “Summertime.” The most significant difference is the key. “Summertime” sounds dark and doleful, in part, because it’s in a minor key. This printed version of “Motherless Child” is in a major mode (with a few blue notes thrown in at the end).
Of course, spirituals exist in countless versions. By the time that Gershwin and Heyward were doing their research for Porgy in South Carolina, “Motherless Child” had changed into something decidedly different.
Paul Robeson, the great singer, actor, and civil rights activist, recorded the song in the 1930s. In his version, we could easily replace the words to “Motherless Child” with those to “Summertime” to hear how the original tune was subtly changed.
Source: https://t-tees.com
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