Gershwin's Got A Lot of Rhythm:. His is probably the most recognized name among the major innovators who created the Great American Songbook. In addition to the hundreds of songs he wrote with brother Ira as lyricist, Gershwin wrote extended classical works like Rhapsody in Blue. Concerto in F, An American in Paris and his greatest extended work, the magnificent folk opera Porgy and Bess.
His major acclaim was gained during the depression. His cheerful style of writing helped lift the spirits ofthe American public in much the same way as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers films portrayed a world far removed from the economic woes affecting Americans at that time.
Songs like " I Got Rhythm " Fascinating Rhythm" Clap Y'o Hands" and " Swanee" all reflect his preoccupation with hard driving, upbeat songs and are among his most popular works.
But he also was capable of writing more delicate and reflective songs like " How Long Has This Been Going On?" I,ve Got a Crush on You" "Embraceable You" and " But Not For Me."
This versatility is demonstrated first by " Fascinating Rhythm" showing Gershwin at his most aggressive preocuupation with the beat that makes you tap your feet.
In this version, Fred and Adele Astaire are accompanied by Gershwin himself on piano. Listen to the jazzed up syncopation and rhymic verve of his playing. His insistent and percussive playing reflect Gershwin in full flight throwing any musical caution right out the window.
PERFORMANCE LINK:
http://youtu.be/6BTM07B0U64
The Gentler Side of Gershwin: George and Ira Gershwin also wrote a considerable number of songs that reflected a gentler and wistful mood, ballads that deal with various aspects of the male/female relationship. For example, " But Not For Me" tells of a failed love relationship where " " "They're Writing Songs of Love but NOT for me". Traditionally, this song is often performed in a mournful and melancholy style. However, Rod Stewart, in his exploration of the Great American Songbook has put a fresh and upbeat face on this standard. He confesses the failure of his love affairs but is not totally crushed. One can sense that he will persist and eventually find his desired life partner. Since George Gershwin was a cheery and optimistic man, I think he would applaud Stewart's more positive and light hearted delivery of Ira's lyrics.
The great thing about the Great American Songbook catalogue is that the songs do lend themselves to a wide variety of approaches as Rod Stewart ably demonstrates in " But Not For Me"
PERFORMANCE LINK: http://youtu.be/MMglhENOIVc
Thursday 29 November 2012
Saturday 24 November 2012
EARLY EXCELLENT SONGS
There have always have been excellent American songs.
This blog is devoted to the flowering of a unique musical art form that began with the advent of Jerome Kern and his contemporaries. But people have asked whether great American songs had preceded the innovators who are the main subject of the blog. The answer is a resounding YES! In the Mid nineteenth century, Stephan Foster wrote wonderful formal melodies like Beautiful Dreamer and Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair. He also wrote minstrel type,black oriented numbers like De Camptown Races, Oh Susanna and Old Black Joe.
Ragtime was a unique music form that made syncopation a major factor in subsequent songwriting. Unfortunately, Ragtime was a largely instrumental music form, generally performed without lyrics although Scott Joplin in particular was popular before the turn of the century. The movie The Sting
benefitted greatly from the Scott Joplin rags played throughout the film.
There is one early example of an outstanding song that bears examination and careful listening. Poor Butterfly was written in 1916 by Raymond Hubbell with lyrics by John Golden. Alec Wilder, a demanding musical critic as well as a composer himself thought that the song " Was one of the loveliest ballads I've ever heard. There is not a word of criticism I can conceive of for it." This is from a man who played through more than 17,000 individual sheet music pieces in the course of writing his book which has been identified in the introduction .
Hubbell was inspired by Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly which tells the story of an ill fated romance between a young Japanese girl and an American sailor who ultimately abandons the girl to her everlasting regret and longing. In the version by Tony Bennet, he sings a lengthy introduction or verse that establishes the situation subsequently developed in the main and concluding sections. It is a pognant tale accompanied by a sublime melody that compares well with any ballad writen in the rest of the century. Unfortunately Hubbell never wrote anything of equal merit although he did write many songs for shows that were produced. The combination of the words that tell the sad tale and the melody that echoes those sentiments is a perfect marriage of words and music.
Tony Bennet demonstrates his sensitivity and compassion for the unhappy heroine in the version that is being featured.
Performance : Tony Bennet Poor Butterfly
LINK http://youtu.be/mQh1_ZGzudQ
This blog is devoted to the flowering of a unique musical art form that began with the advent of Jerome Kern and his contemporaries. But people have asked whether great American songs had preceded the innovators who are the main subject of the blog. The answer is a resounding YES! In the Mid nineteenth century, Stephan Foster wrote wonderful formal melodies like Beautiful Dreamer and Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair. He also wrote minstrel type,black oriented numbers like De Camptown Races, Oh Susanna and Old Black Joe.
Ragtime was a unique music form that made syncopation a major factor in subsequent songwriting. Unfortunately, Ragtime was a largely instrumental music form, generally performed without lyrics although Scott Joplin in particular was popular before the turn of the century. The movie The Sting
benefitted greatly from the Scott Joplin rags played throughout the film.
There is one early example of an outstanding song that bears examination and careful listening. Poor Butterfly was written in 1916 by Raymond Hubbell with lyrics by John Golden. Alec Wilder, a demanding musical critic as well as a composer himself thought that the song " Was one of the loveliest ballads I've ever heard. There is not a word of criticism I can conceive of for it." This is from a man who played through more than 17,000 individual sheet music pieces in the course of writing his book which has been identified in the introduction .
Hubbell was inspired by Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly which tells the story of an ill fated romance between a young Japanese girl and an American sailor who ultimately abandons the girl to her everlasting regret and longing. In the version by Tony Bennet, he sings a lengthy introduction or verse that establishes the situation subsequently developed in the main and concluding sections. It is a pognant tale accompanied by a sublime melody that compares well with any ballad writen in the rest of the century. Unfortunately Hubbell never wrote anything of equal merit although he did write many songs for shows that were produced. The combination of the words that tell the sad tale and the melody that echoes those sentiments is a perfect marriage of words and music.
Tony Bennet demonstrates his sensitivity and compassion for the unhappy heroine in the version that is being featured.
Performance : Tony Bennet Poor Butterfly
LINK http://youtu.be/mQh1_ZGzudQ
Thursday 22 November 2012
Irving Berlin- A True American
Irving Berlin- America's Music Master
Irving Berlin embodies the essential spirit of America-its optimism and its belief that America is a land of opportunity for those willing to try regardless of the odds. Coming from Russia as a young immigrant, he became a self-educated composer writing both music and lyrics for an untold number of songs. He made it a habit to write a complete song with both music and lyrics every single day and he lived for more than a hundred years. His versatility was unmatched writing for the musical theatre, Hollywood films and a great many individual songs not associated with any stage or film production.
Two songs in particular reflect his ability to capture such diametrically opposed moods. The first is " Shaking The Blues Away" . It is an infectious toe tapping number that suggests you can get rid of the blues by just shaking or dancing them away. Only an America, steeped in the every day life of its people, could have written a song with such energy, verve and clever colloquial language.
It is performed by Doris Day from the movie " Love Me or Leave Me" a performer who herself is the embodiment of wholesome Midwestern virtues and a much underrated singer as Andre Previn has remarked.
Performance Link: YouTube.com---Shaking The Blues Away Doris Day
http://youtu.be/W5lWaGqz8s4
Suppertime
In stark contrast to the unrestrained exuberence of " Shaking The Blues Away" " Suppertime" is the tragic lament of a mother whose husband has been the victimof a lynch mob. In the original stage production of " As Thousands Cheer" the mother sits mournfully in her kitchen while behind her is a mounted silhouette figure of a body dangling from a tree. Performed, as it was in the original production by Ethel Waters , the great singer and actress, it is a heart rending portrayal of a women who must tell her children at suppertime why " Her man ain't coming home no more." Ethel Waters performance is spell binding in its ability to depict the agony and despair of a family victimized by such an unprovoked act that is another aspect of American life so opposite from the optimistic spirit of " Shaking The Blues Away" It is further evidence of Berlin's ability to capture so many facets of the American experience and to do often in just 32 bars of words and music.
Performance Link: YouTube.com--- Suppertime Ethel Waters
http://youtu.be/Y5Zvjjbc-Hk
Irving Berlin embodies the essential spirit of America-its optimism and its belief that America is a land of opportunity for those willing to try regardless of the odds. Coming from Russia as a young immigrant, he became a self-educated composer writing both music and lyrics for an untold number of songs. He made it a habit to write a complete song with both music and lyrics every single day and he lived for more than a hundred years. His versatility was unmatched writing for the musical theatre, Hollywood films and a great many individual songs not associated with any stage or film production.
Two songs in particular reflect his ability to capture such diametrically opposed moods. The first is " Shaking The Blues Away" . It is an infectious toe tapping number that suggests you can get rid of the blues by just shaking or dancing them away. Only an America, steeped in the every day life of its people, could have written a song with such energy, verve and clever colloquial language.
It is performed by Doris Day from the movie " Love Me or Leave Me" a performer who herself is the embodiment of wholesome Midwestern virtues and a much underrated singer as Andre Previn has remarked.
Performance Link: YouTube.com---Shaking The Blues Away Doris Day
http://youtu.be/W5lWaGqz8s4
Suppertime
In stark contrast to the unrestrained exuberence of " Shaking The Blues Away" " Suppertime" is the tragic lament of a mother whose husband has been the victimof a lynch mob. In the original stage production of " As Thousands Cheer" the mother sits mournfully in her kitchen while behind her is a mounted silhouette figure of a body dangling from a tree. Performed, as it was in the original production by Ethel Waters , the great singer and actress, it is a heart rending portrayal of a women who must tell her children at suppertime why " Her man ain't coming home no more." Ethel Waters performance is spell binding in its ability to depict the agony and despair of a family victimized by such an unprovoked act that is another aspect of American life so opposite from the optimistic spirit of " Shaking The Blues Away" It is further evidence of Berlin's ability to capture so many facets of the American experience and to do often in just 32 bars of words and music.
Performance Link: YouTube.com--- Suppertime Ethel Waters
http://youtu.be/Y5Zvjjbc-Hk
Wednesday 21 November 2012
Introduction to Blog
Introduction & Purpose-Classic American Popular Song blog
Beginning in the 1920's, a unique art form burst on the American music scene. America always had a flourishing musical tradition featuring ragtime, spirituals and work songs, blues and Appalachian folk traditions. However, European music forms played a dominant influence on earlier American song traditions with operetta and clasical art songs guided by a more formal and restrained stylistic output. But America was changing-it had helped win World War 1, it was emerging as an industrial giant and mass immigration and increased urbanism all pointed to the need for songs tha treflected the unique character and restlessmess now pervading the country.
With the arrival of Jerome Kern, the Godfather of a unquely American song tradition, a new era had arrived on the musical scene. Alec Wilder, author of the authoritative book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950, wrote that Kern's music was " The first that was truly American. He was the first to find a new form of melodic writing unlike that of his predecessors or contemporaries."
NOTE: Wilder examined more than seventeen thousand songs in the course of his exhaustive analysis of what constituted original and innovative song writing and the more than seven hundred songs he felt were of the highest quality. His explanations of why these were singled out were based on a thorough musical foundation as well as his life long admiration for what has been called Classic American Popular Song or The Great American Songbook.
Performance
The first example of Kern's musical output is " All The Things You Are " with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein Jr.
http://youtu.be/dnkS7oMP2Xk
It was written for a 1929 musical " Very Warm for May." It has a magestic melodic sweep that is the equal of any Twentieth century opera aria or classical art song.
It is sung by Tony Martin who sings with a passionate restraint and elegant phrasing that does justice to bothe the remarkable melody and the heartfelt words of Hammerstein.
Beginning in the 1920's, a unique art form burst on the American music scene. America always had a flourishing musical tradition featuring ragtime, spirituals and work songs, blues and Appalachian folk traditions. However, European music forms played a dominant influence on earlier American song traditions with operetta and clasical art songs guided by a more formal and restrained stylistic output. But America was changing-it had helped win World War 1, it was emerging as an industrial giant and mass immigration and increased urbanism all pointed to the need for songs tha treflected the unique character and restlessmess now pervading the country.
With the arrival of Jerome Kern, the Godfather of a unquely American song tradition, a new era had arrived on the musical scene. Alec Wilder, author of the authoritative book American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950, wrote that Kern's music was " The first that was truly American. He was the first to find a new form of melodic writing unlike that of his predecessors or contemporaries."
NOTE: Wilder examined more than seventeen thousand songs in the course of his exhaustive analysis of what constituted original and innovative song writing and the more than seven hundred songs he felt were of the highest quality. His explanations of why these were singled out were based on a thorough musical foundation as well as his life long admiration for what has been called Classic American Popular Song or The Great American Songbook.
Performance
The first example of Kern's musical output is " All The Things You Are " with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein Jr.
http://youtu.be/dnkS7oMP2Xk
It was written for a 1929 musical " Very Warm for May." It has a magestic melodic sweep that is the equal of any Twentieth century opera aria or classical art song.
It is sung by Tony Martin who sings with a passionate restraint and elegant phrasing that does justice to bothe the remarkable melody and the heartfelt words of Hammerstein.
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