CHAPTER 49
Folk Opera? Gershwin and Jazz as “Art”
OVERVIEW
This chapter discusses the tradition of American musical theater since the late nineteenth
century. The influence of jazz and the Tin Pan Alley tradition of songwriting on musical theater
is covered here, noted in Gershwin’s folk opera Porgy and Bess.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the compositions of George Gershwin as efforts to bring jazz into the world of
serious art music
2. To recognize Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess as his most ambitious attempt to bring jazz into
world of serious art music
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. Play for your students a recording of Irving Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band and ask
them to identify the ragtime elements of the song. Ask students to comment on how the
song stylizes elements of the ragtime tradition as explored in pieces such as Scott Joplin’s
Maple Leaf Rag. Based on the lyrics of the song, ask students to consider how the word
ragtime is being defined here and how that definition differs from/relates to that of the
creators of ragtime such as Joplin
2. Play Summertime from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and ask students to indicate the jazz and
blues elements of Gershwin’s art-music treatment of these vernacular traditions. Does
Gershwin seem to rely on certain gestures to indicate a jazz or blues spirit? What are they?
Are they effective as gestures that, in line with Gershwin’s intentions, succeed in delivering
the truly authentic sound of the African American experience?
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. The textbook notes that Gershwin insisted on an all-black cast to ensure a spirit of
authenticity in the staging of Porgy and Bess. Do you think that the authenticity of this
story is compromised when white or other nonblack singers participate in a staging of
this opera? If so, would the same to be true if an African American singer portrayed a
nonblack character in an opera featuring nonblack characters? A larger question is do you
think it is important that singer-actors match the ethnicity or race of the characters they
are portraying in an opera or musical? Why or why not?
2. The previous three chapters have all addressed the idea of authenticity and race or ethnicity
in American music, specifically in the music of African Americans. Is there a consensus on
what constitutes authentic African American music? Is it jazz? Blues? Ragtime? Is it jazz
and blues as played by blacks? Does the musical context define authenticity (popular vs. art
music)? What about performance sites (jazz club, airwaves, or concert hall)? What about
commercial success? What are the yardsticks by which we measure authenticity in African
American music?
TEACHING CHALLENGES
This chapter discusses the serious and popular traditions within the contexts of genre, economics,
authenticity, and race. For example, jazz (African American, authentic) = serious; Tin Pan Alley
(white, inauthentic) = popular; opera (white, authentic/inauthentic?); Gershwin = serious. A
teaching challenge here is addressing the competing worlds of serious and popular music with a
conciliatory yet critical tone. If this discussion takes place in your class, encourage a dialogue
that treats the serious and popular with balance and critical strength.
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Cook: In Dahomey
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Melnick, Jeffrey. A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and American Popular
Song. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. Melnick discusses the issues of race
and ethnicity in the flowering of American popular song during the Tin Pan Alley era.
Wyatt, Robert, and John Andrew Johnson. The George Gershwin Reader. New York and
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. An extensive collection of articles and
correspondence by and about Gershwin. Part VI is entirely dedicated to Porgy and Bess.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Folk Opera? Gershwin and Jazz as “Art” (Chapter 49)
I. Jazz as Expressive Art Form
A. Distinctive and cultivated
1. African American and Euro-American composers
2. booming commercial enterprise
3. musicians accused of “whitewashing” and “selling out”
II. Tin Pan Alley and Popular Music in the Early Twentieth Century
A. Late 19th century: New York City, music publishing center
1. West 28th Street in Manhattan
2. writer and publishers of popular music
a. structural conventions of parlor ballads
b. reference to ragtime or jazz
3. Irving Berlin (1888–1989) most successful Tin Pan Alley composer; over 1,500 songs
B. WWI: patriotic songs, marches, love ballads
1. George M. Cohan: Over There, Congressional Gold Medal of Honor
2. James Reese Europe: brought ragtime and jazz to France
C. Roaring Twenties: radio, film
1. Harlem Renaissance celebrated African American culture
2. “jazz age” furthered ballroom culture
D. Great Depression
1. Tin Pan Alley faded
2. jazz clubs, films, Broadway theaters offer brief escape
III. “Cultivated Jazz”
A. George Gershwin (1898–1937)
1. one of most gifted 20th-century American composers
2. composer, pianist, grew up in Manhattan
3. Tin Pan Alley “song plugger,” 1920s wrote first big hit, Swanee
4. 1920s orchestral-jazz works
a. Rhapsody in Blue, piano and orchestra; international acclaim
b. An American in Paris
5. hit musicals: collaborated with brother, Ira
6. union of popular and classical styles: rhythmic vitality, syncopation, blue notes, jazz-
style accompaniment, sudden shifts in tonality, declamatory to highly lyrical melodies
7. output: orchestral works, piano music, stage works, folk opera, songs for films, other
songs
B. Gershwin’s Broadway/Tin Pan Alley songs
1. incorporated syncopations, harmonic variations
2. resembles improvised jazz
3. commercially, artistically successful
4. opportunities as a white musician
C. Porgy and Bess
1. folk opera: juxtaposed styles
a. opera: continuous music, recurring themes
b. theater: “excerptable” song-and-dance numbers
2. set in South Carolina tenement; topics of love and betrayal
3. transformed jazz into an art tradition
4. reflection of complexity of race relations
5. Summertime: opening aria, Clara sings lullaby to her baby
a. melancholy song, evokes African American spiritual
b. relaxed tempo, gentle syncopations, blue notes
c. song reprised throughout opera
D. Listening Guide 38: Gershwin, Summertime, from Porgy and Bess (1935)
1. strophic aria, soprano and orchestra
2. two verses, with variations, brief introduction, interlude and closing
3. homophonic, instrumental lines alternate with voice
4. minor key, anticipates tragedy
5. languid melody, swaying intervals
6. vocal inflections: dips, slides, blue notes
7. rhythmic subtleties, gentle syncopations