Summertime - musical analysis

Summertime by George Gershwin

George Gershwin is one of the Twentieth Century’s most revered composers. Though his life was short-lived and he died at the age of 38, no one can dispute that he had a great input on the music scene. He started working as a pianist in 1913 and became a staff composer at a publishing firm in 1917. A year after this he had written his first hit ‘’Swanee’’ which became a huge success when added to the show Sinbad a year later. Gershwin was a trailblazer combining genres and styles together. Like his jazz concerto ‘’Rhapsody in Blue’’ that fused serious and popular music. He was also the first one to get a Pulitzer Prize for a musical ‘’Of Thee I sing’’. Also as the writer of the first ever African American opera ‘’Porgy and Bess’’, that had an all-black cast and had its roots in African culture and music, he deserves the recognition as one of the most successful composers of his time. 

‘’Summertime’’ is performed in the opening act of ‘Porgy and Bess’ as a lullaby. The piece has taken a lot of influence from black folk music and is trying to replicate this swingy blues feeling of them. It is a languid and relaxed piece that creates the image of a hot summer’s night. The words to the piece are by Du Bose Heyward, the writer of the novel ‘’Porgy’’ that inspired the opera.

Summertime,

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Oh, Your daddy's rich

And your mamma's good lookin'

So hush little baby

Don't you cry

One of these mornings

You're going to rise up singing

Then you'll spread your wings

And you'll take to the sky

But until that morning

There's a'nothing can harm you

With your daddy and mammy standing by

Summertime,

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich

And your mamma's good lookin'

So hush little baby

Don't you cry

The layout of the lyrics is almost syllabic, having usually a syllable per note.

There piece is in minor and uses a blues scale. The melody is common for a folk piece in that its range is only on octave. No changes in the harmony are made before the coda in bar 41, making the piece strophic. The original written key of the piece is a minor, but the key of the analysed version here is B minor. It’s played in simple time and the instructions are ‘allegro semplice’ meaning that the piece is to be played in a brisk yet simple style.  Bars 1 to 2 are in octave unison and bar 2 ends in F sharp dominant pedal. The intro of the aria starts of strongly putting down the rich and sonorous jazz feel that the piece is known for. Before the start of singing, there are The first verse starts off with an augmented dominant chord in bar 7 which repeats again in bars 23 and 25. Bars 6 and 7 also introduce the arpeggiones of the accompaniment that run through the whole piece. After this the instructions change to ‘much expression’ and the harmonic ostinato lasting from bars 8 to 11 creates a swinging feel, like rocking a baby hence giving the aria the lullaby sound. Bar 8 is also an example of parallel motion in the piece. In bar 12 there is a change in accompaniment to a harmonic expression with a rich rising pattern. This bar also holds a few chromatic embellishments that add to the relaxed blues feeling. From here on the piece says ‘poco rit’ meaning that it will gradually get slower. The bluesy feeling of the song is carried by the blues notes that are in bar 14, which gives the piece a dissonant kick to it. A chromatic descent happens from this bar to bar 15.  As the first verse is coming to its end Gershwin avoids resolution by changing to the relative D major in bars 20 to 22 and finishes the verse with the before mentioned augmented dominant chord. In bar 20 there is also a quick example of heterophony between the melody and bass line.

Melody vice the second verse is the same as the first one but in this time in the accompaniment there is a counter melody all throughout the verse until it modulates into D major again. In bar 39 there is an example of glissando in the melody, which is used quite often in the piece to give it a more soulful feel. From bar 40 there is an inverted tonic pedal that that lasts to the end of the piece. In this bar on the first beat there is an acciaccatura. The coda starts from bar 41 and in the bassline of it there is a chromatic descent of the top note of the chord from this bar to bar 43. The piece comes to an end with a perfect cadence.