BY SAMUEL COTTELL
George Gershwin and Maurice Ravel met in Paris.
As the famed story goes, Gershwin asked Ravel for lessons in composition. Ravel, in turn, asked Gershwin how much a year he made from music to which Gershwin replied, approximately $1 million dollars. Ravel said: “Perhaps I should be taking composition lessons from you”.
By the time Gershwin had composed Porgy and Bess, he was already at his peak as a composer. He had composed the famed Rhapsody in Blue in 1924, which was followed by his Piano Concerto in F in 1925. After this, he composed his most iconic work, the tone poem An American in Paris and was soon making his mark as a ‘serious’ and modern composer (complete with car horns, and all).
When Gershwin set about composing Porgy and Bess, he was still in the post stages of his most successful musical theatre work Of Thee I Sing, which was the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama. Gershwin was now seeking to extend his range beyond Broadway tunes and musicals, and his most serious undertaking was write this opera, which he referred to as an ‘American folk opera’.
During his time of success, Gershwin was also writing a number of musicals with his brother Ira. Their Broadway success garnered them fame and reputation (and Gershwin even appeared on the cover of Time magazine). Gershwin struggled with being accepted as a ‘serious’ composer at times, given his Tin Pan Alley and Broadway associations and strived to make his mark as a serious composer of concert music.
A true American voice, Gershwin was also exploring ways in which to integrate aspects of American musical language into his composing, whilst at the same time drawing on the traditions of European art music. His compositional voice is a unique one that combines aspects of the modern driving rhythms found in the jazz age of the 1920s, the blues notes found in jazz clubs and the soaring, lush, overtones of the classical repertoire.
The work begins with Jasbo Brown (a very informed pianist who knows a number of musical styles). After the short overture, the pianist brings the audience into the world of Catfish Row, a somewhat imagined place and time (all we know is that Porgy lives in the ‘Golden Age’). In this opera, Gershwin is dealing with the idea of the ‘other’. Here, he gives all the singing roles to the black cast, and the whites are ‘other-ed’ by not giving them any singing roles at all. There is much controversy surrounding this issue and much has been written about. Luckily, the Broadway version that was thought up by Al Jolson (who would have performed in black-face) didn’t go ahead.
Perhaps the most serious and iconic work that attests to Gershwin’s greatness and foreshadows what could have been (had he not passed away prematurely) is his opera, Porgy and Bess. While the critics weren’t overly impressed with the original work (one writing: ‘it’s all bits, and nothing but. Or else nothing but the beginnings of the opera George Gershwin hopes to make of it’), over time the opera has become more and more revered and respected and in hindsight has now been referred to as the ‘first great American opera.’
Now, this iconic work is being performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the concert hall, conducted by David Robertson, for the first time in a number of years. Before you go and see Porgy and Bess, here are five interesting facts about the opera.
1. Gershwin got around
In order to get a feel for the language he wanted to use in the opera, Gershwin travelled to Folly Beach so that he could get hear the Gullah language. He wrote part of the opera there and part of it in New York City.
2. It revolutionised casting in ’30s America
Al Jolson attempted to mount a musical version of Porgy starring himself in blackface. But that effort foundered in 1932, leaving the way open for the Gershwin-Heyward collaboration that would feature an all-African-American cast of classically trained singers—revolutionary casting in 1930s America.
Jolson had recorded Gershwin’s first hit tune, Swanee, and helped to popularise Gershwin, who at the time was a Tin Pan Alley song plugger.
3. Sesame Street took it on
Porgy and Bess has made its mark on popular culture and even Sesame Street adapted some of the music for its retake on A Woman is A Sometimes Thing (Sesame Street‘s was aptly called A Cookie is A Sometimes Food).
4. And we all know Summertime…
Summertime is one of the most widely recorded and popular songs from the opera. It has been recorded hundreds of times, by opera, jazz and pop artists alike.
5. Miles Davis made it his own
Miles Davis, with arranger Gil Evans, recorded an entire instrumental version of the suite on the album Porgy and Bess. Ella Fitzgerald also recorded her own take of the songs on her album Porgy and Bess with the acclaimed singer and trumpeter, Louis Armstrong.
See the Sydney Symphony Orchestra perform Porgy and Bess in the Sydney Opera House, tickets available online.
About the author
Samuel Cottell is a dynamic pianist, arranger, composer and music educator. He is currently completing at PhD on the Life and Music of Tommy Tycho at The University of Sydney, Conservatorium of Music. Samuel is an in-demand classical crossover pianist and composer and he has recently completed a new piece for saxophone and piano for Nathan Henshaw. Samuel teaches class in music analysis, arranging and film music within the University of Sydney Music Department. He most recently is a recipient of the NLA Summer Scholarship where he is researching music scores contained in the Geoff Harvey music score collection. www.samuelcottell.com
Image via Flickr/CC2.0.
