IB Higher Level Music Investigation

Number of pages: 11
Word Count: 1810

Title:
A comparison between Gershwin and Negro Spiritual through “Harmony and Melody”
A Comparison between Gershwin and Negro Spiritual through “Harmony
and Melody”
Introduction
The Gershwin and Negro spiritual are both Jazz music Gershwin’s compositions are mostly used
in films and television, and several of his compositions became a jazz standards recorded and
covered in many variations. Negro Spiritual is Christian songs that were created by African-
Americans. They were oral traditions that imparted Christian values describing about the
slavery. Thereby, they were the first continent to create jazz music. The musical links in this
investigation are organized into melody and harmony mostly. The two pieces that will be used
are “summertime from Porgy and Bess” and “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child” by H. T
Burleigh Four. Before we analysis the music and link between them, let’s describe about the
background of the given pieces.

“Summertime” is an aria composed in 1934 by George Gershwin for the opera Porgy and Bess in
1935. The time when Gershwin wrote the song “summertime” for his folk opera Porgy and Bess,
he faced it to give classical music a flavor to Americans.

“Sometimes I feel like a motherless child” is a traditional Negro Spiritual dating back to the era
of the United States slavery. Most of the songs in Negro Spiritual have a very strong meaning of
the lyrics when listening and understanding.

How is Gershwin and Negro Spiritual related to each other at first place?

Gershwin made a decision to draw upon Negro Spiritual (African-American) art forms which
was inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. This cultural movement was internally in Harlem, New
York City which was embodied at one attempt by the African-American artists (Langston
Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston) in order to assemble genuine Black culture. White artists like
Gershwin were often drawn to these artistic expressions because they believed that an innocence
and freshness that most of the established genres were lacked.
Analysis

In Gershwin’s 28
bars melody
consists of a
musical theatre
based. The song is
strophic with 2
verses. The verse
of the song has
four phrases in the
pattern ABAC
played in a key of
A minor.

In African-
American
Spiritual’s 12 bars
structure and
theme consists of
very expressive jazz-regional music which
highlights the pain and despair conveying the
hopelessness of a child torn apart from their
parents or enslaved person. The main melody
(vocals) is constructed to repetition in a strophic
form played in a key of G minor.

In both melodies, a clear harmonic line1 (which

includes the piano accompaniment) is more
evident that there is a use of chord
accompaniment and rhythm on the other hand, is
very flexible and smooth. We have furthermore
exploring in depth of the structure and detailing
of the links between these two works.

Example Link
1 Melodic line
description and the
uses of chord
accompaniment
Gershwin Negro Spiritual
Strophic in 2 verses Strophic throughout

For the analysis, the full resolution score: “Porgy and Bess - Summertime.” Scribd, Scribd,
1

www.scribd.com/document/97728811/Porgy-and-Bess-Summertime.
Harmony
In the Gershwin’s score, the octave
Example Link
unison texture of the introduction is
2 Harmonic Structure triadic.
In bar 1, it highlights a diminished
Gershwin Negro Spiritual tonic. Diminished chord (the key of
Mixture of tonal chords, More usage of minor the actual music is A minor). The
Diminished chords etc. chords, Diminished 7th, flattened 5th of the tonic chord taken
augmented chords etc. it as a blues note and instantaneously
signals a strong stylistic trait of these
blues infused music. In bar 2 the
E natural and A minor tonic is
established. The pedaling of an
E natural is established.

In bars 3 and 4 the descending

quaver pattern falls in thirds,
which also implies the harmony.
For the extended harmony, a
minor extends to 13th
which is the extended
chord or a triad with
additional thirds
which adds above the
7th is an indicative of
the jazz style of the
harmony. The chord
is thus rich and it
contributes to the
suggestive feel of the
overture.

In Negro Spiritual score, the chords in bar 1 and bar 2 outlines a minor 7th chord and minor chord
respectively same with the bar 2 but the C Minor is changed to the second inversion of C Minor
in sixths. The distance between them are in perfect fourth. Furthermore, the chords that are
accompanied with the melody acts as a borrowed chord.
What was the originality of Negro Spiritual?
 Spirituals were originally
unaccompanied monophonic (or unison)
songs
 Now, they are best known today in
harmonized choral arrangements
 During the twentieth century, the blues
were evolved with the borrowed
elements.
In Gershwin’s second harmonic feature, Gershwin uses other musical features like
(embellishments/ornamentations, parallel motion and harmonic ostinato) to make the music more
of not only like a jazz music but in bringing out the expression in a musical theatre. In verse 1,
the harmonic language is characterized by the chords with added notes. For example, in bar 8-11,
there is an establishment of harmonic ostinato, which acts as a lullaby tuning. The two minims
chords in
the bass
clef are A
minor
with an
added 6th
and E major with an added 7th. Who first discovered parallel motion?
These chords are written in a parallel motion.  Parallel motion was a stylistic
Furthermore, bars 12 – 13 have a change in harmonic trait of the French composers
expression, with an ascending pattern of rich that is blues Debussy and Ravel.
 Gershwin was highly
well-versed chords. The embellishments of chromatic help influenced by the European
in adding the somnolent feel to the music. modern music and did try to
take lessons from Ravel.

Structure
Gershwin – Summertime Negro Spiritual – Sometimes I feel like a
Introduction Bar 1 – 7 vocals motherless child
part begin with an Introduction Bar 1 – 2.
anacrusis
Verse 1 Vocals begin in
Verse 1 Bar 7 in beat 3-24
first beat Bar 3 –
Verse 2 Bar 25 – 46 (Coda 12)
bars 41 – 46)
In Gershwin’s third harmonic feature, the ostinato on F# and G# in bar 4, third beat to bar 4 is in
crotchets and augmented to the minims section in bars 6 -7 followed by the echoes in the bells
section which are then sharpened in 6th & 7th degrees of A minor, making E the leading note.
This ostinato thus has the effect of preparing the statement of the tonic minor at bar 8.
(Left to right: Bar 4-6 and bar 7)
In Negro Spiritual’s third harmonic feature, the chromatic scale in octaves in the bass clef in bar
3-4 and scalic movement in bar 5-6 till beats 2 are in crotchets. On top of the melody, clearly we
can see the
chord changes.

Melody
Example Link
3 Melodic structure
Gershwin Negro Spiritual
The melody line is supported with 6 note scale The melody line is mostly in subdominant nut
uses a lot of borrow chords

Apart from strophic form, what all other forms

In Gershwin’s first melodic structure, the melody is
not pentatonic but it is clearly supported on a 6 note
scale with the semitone between the 2nd and 3rd
degrees.
Negro Spirituals use?
 They are the keystone of contemporary
popular American musical styles
 The latest movement influenced by the
spirituals is rap music
 They further developed gospel, blues,
jazz, swing, bebop, soul and hip-hop
 SEMITONE

1 2 3 4 5 6 1

The leading note (G) is a tone or major second from the tonic (A) which is typical of the blues
mode. The use of a portamento at bar 21 is a stylistic allusion.

In Negro Spiritual’s melodic structure, the melody is not pentatonic because it is in a strophic
form where every melody line is repeating but with the change of harmonic accompaniment in
the second time. Also, they are often upbeat and their repetitive melodic line and the use of
pentatonic melodies make the music easy learn and more beneficial for teaching musical
techniques.
In the melodic section from bar 3-18, there is a use of syncopation.

Example Link
4 Modifications of triplets, quavers and rhythmic
pattern
Gershwin Negro Spiritual
Bar 7-24 and Bar 12 Bar 7-8, 13-14 and 23-24.

In the Gershwin second melodic structure, there is a use of swung time defining that a method of
rhythmic interpretation which modifies the brace of quavers or dotted quaver + semiquaver into a
triplet crotchet + quaver. There are two examples from where they use swung time.
(Bar 7-24)

It is used in verse one and that is the example where it is used in swung time as it is sung by the
Soprano part.

Here, at bar 12 the triplets are notated.

In Negro Spiritual song, unlike Gershwin’s second melodic

structure, there are three places where there is a use of
triplets where it helps in showing the swung not only with
the melodic line but it is presented in the accompaniment
part. There are three examples where it uses triplets.

Fact File: George Gershwin

 Born in Brooklyn, New York, United States
of America
 Was of Russian and Lithuanian Jewish
ancestry
 Dropped out of school at the age of 15 and
began playing piano professionally.
 He composed Jazz, opera and popular songs
for stage and screen
 many of his works are now standards
 Porgy and Bess’s opening aria,
“Summertime” is the most covered song in
the world
 General Inclination through “Harmony and Melody” Feature
Gershwin

“Summertime” is written as a mixture of Jazz, aria and musical theatre with harmonic and
melodic features from bars 1-24. The piece is continuous but the uses of chord progression
sections are more recognizable. The 6 notes and blues scale helps in showing the dark music
effect. Use of triplets, quavers and dotted crotchets are in a thick of creating a swing melody in
use of strong expression. Going through more generalized fact, jazz rhythm, and the strength of
mind towards improvisation drove Gershwin’s music get influenced to the melodic contours and
orchestral colors of his work. In this aria, the soprano sings a melody that is characterized like
there are slides between notes and flattened pitches that give a bluesy sound.

Negro Spiritual

There are many chord changes when the melody starts along with the accompaniment. Thus, the
chord changes when the melody is a borrow chords. The reason of the uses of borrow chord is
that it indicates the starting off the jazz and blues music. The piece is continuous without breaks.
In addition, in the second time, the accompaniment structure is modified and it’s changed to
basic chords but without the borrowing chords and addition to sixths, sevenths and diminished
chords.

A short brief of the comparison

In this investigation of comparison, we have seen many of the links between Gershwin and
Negro Spiritual. Despite the vast distance that separates two continents and bringing them to one
continent later on where both of them are jazz music, significant musical links can be found that
is the harmonic and melodic structure, syncopations and swung notes. There are very significant
similarities in both harmony and melody.
 References
Shmoop Editorial Team. “Summertime.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008,
www.shmoop.com/george-gershwin-summertime/.

“As Music Gershwin Study Guide - Summertime.” Scribd, Scribd, www.scribd.com/doc/52138392/As-

Music-Gershwin-Study-Guide-Summertime.

En, Pb. Google,

webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8EJOECaXuEwJ:https://is.muni.cz/th/a7toa/The_Influ
ence_of_19th_Century_Negro_spirituals_on_Conteporary_American_Music.docx
&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in.

“African American Spirituals.” Beth's Notes, 11 Oct. 2018,

www.bethsnotesplus.com/2012/07/spirituals.html.

Reich, Howard. “Remembering the Genius of the Gershwin Brothers.” Chicagotribune.com, 8 Aug. 2017,
www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/reich/ct-ent-jazz-gershwins-0809-story.html.

MASTERPIECES OF WESTERN MUSIC, edblogs.columbia.edu/humaw1123-030-2014-3/2014/11/10/summertime-by-george-

gershwin/.

Interactive Listening Guide, wwnorton.com/college/music/ilg/ENJ_12/GershwinSummertime.html.