Summertime is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess.
The song soon became a popular and much recorded jazz standard, described as one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote. Gershwin’s highly evocative writing brilliantly mixes elements of jazz and the song styles of African-Americans in the southeast United States from the early twentieth century.
Gershwin began composing the song in December 1933, attempting to create his own spiritual in the style of the African-American folk music of the period. Gershwin had completed setting DuBose Heyward’s poem to music by February 1934, and spent the next 20 months completing and orchestrating the score of the opera.
For those of you who have an interest in the details, Musicologist K. J. McElrath wrote of the song:
“Gershwin was remarkably successful in his intent to have this sound like a folk song. This is reinforced by his extensive use of the pentatonic scale (C-D-E-G-A) in the context of the A minor tonality and a slow-moving harmonic progression that suggests a “blues.” Because of these factors, this tune has been a favorite of jazz performers for decades and can be done in a variety of tempos and styles.”
There are some 24,400 different recorded versions of the song. In September 1936, a recording by Billie Holiday was the first to hit the national pop charts, reaching # 12. Other notable recordings include those by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald in 1957, Gene Vincent in 1958, Sam Cooke and The Marcels in 1961, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company on the 1968 album Cheap Thrills as well as The Zombies.
So that’s the story behind one man’s quest to create his own spiritual song. A song of such depth and meaning that people can immediately identify with it, create experiences with the words and music, and recall those experiences each time they hear the song again. This is indeed a spiritual experience.
So that was Gershwin’s spiritual story. If you were to write about your spiritual summer how would it begin and end? Here’s mine:
Summertime
Summertime
Is your living that easy?
Summertime
Is your living that free?
Summertime
Is God your companion?
Summertime
Has he set your soul free?
Summertime
I can bask in his glory
Summertime
His embers burn in my heart
Summertime
It will last all my winters
Summertime
This season sets my heart free
Finally, here’s my favourite version of Gershwin’s tune, sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Lose yourself for a few minutes in the words and find yourself in the tune.
Background information in this post was sourced from Wikipedia
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