Lloyd Hanson wrote:
> But, and I know this will cause an argument, it is not the Summertime
> Gershwin wrote.
Yesterday I wrote that you wouldn't get an argument from me. Well, I
need to refine my response. I _won't say that Patricia Barber's
version of Summertime is what Gershwin wrote. Obviously that's not
the case. His harmony did not consist of nothing more than a tonic
pedal, and he didn't write it in A minor, and he didn't write it so
low. Instead I have a more radical idea.
I suggest that the Summertime Gershwin wrote for Porgy and Bess is an
arrangement of his song Summertime. That arrangement does not define
his composition Summertime, but is simply one possible way that he
might use it. Patricia Barber's version is also an arrangement of the
song Summertime. It is not an arrangement of the arrangement that
Gershwin wrote for Porgy and Bess, but an arrangement of the song
that Gershwin arranged for the opera. So where do we find the song
Summertime in its essentials? I would say that the song is defined by
its melody, harmony, and lyrics, but not by its key and not by how
high or low it is sung. The essentials of Summertime are therefore
reducible to a lead sheet: a single page containg the melody and
chord symbols written in a convenient but arbitrary key. Obviously
the lead sheet is not to be found in the score of the opera. And I
don't know whether Gershwin ever actually wrote a lead sheet, but he
certainly could have (so could anyone else who knows the song),
because a lead sheet is all that is necessary to define the
composition Summertime. Anything Gershiwn wrote for Summertime in
Porgy and Bess is elaboration.
Is every compostion reducible to a lead sheet? I don't think so, but
I'll have to address that later because I have a student arriving in
a few minutes.
John Link
http://www.cdBaby.com/JohnLink
Check out my CDs:
http://www.cdBaby.com/JohnLink2 (John Link Sextet)
http://www.cdBaby.com/JohnLink (John Link Vocal Quintet)
|
|  |
