Chris Wood

Explore the range of musical influences in the songs of

Gershwin.

Many different things have influenced George Gershwin’s music, and

these influences are evident throughout the pieces that he has
written. He was strongly influenced by French composers of the early
20th Century as well as a number of other things.
Maurice Ravel strongly influenced Gershwin, and upon being asked if
Gershwin could study with him, he found out how much he earned
and said that Gershwin should be teaching him! Gershwin’s Concerto
In F was also criticized for being closely related to the work of
Debussy. Another massive influence of his work was the people living
around him and in America. He said that ‘true music must reflect the
thought and aspirations of the people and time. My people are
Americans. My time is today.’
In his piece ‘I Got Rhythm’, he uses the standard chord sequence
known as ‘rhythm changes which starts on chord I, it then moves to
chord iv, then chord ii, then chord V. This is a very common chord
sequence in jazz music. He uses a lot of 7th chords and other jazz
harmonies, which he would have picked up from when he was
working at Tin Pan Alley in New York. Other jazz harmonies that he
uses in this piece include flattened 3rds and diminished chords. In
this piece, Gershwin also uses jazzy syncopated and repetitive
rhythms, which he also no doubt picked up from his time at Tin Pan
Alley. He took the jazz techniques that he picked up at Tin Pan Alley
and put the rhythms and tonality into the forms of the popular music
of his era. Another aspect of this piece that he learnt at Tin Pan Alley
is the 32 bar AABA structure of the chorus. There are 8 bars in each
section, section A uses the earlier-discussed rhythm changes and
section B uses the circle of 5ths.
More influences show in the piece ‘They Can’t Take That Away From
Me’, at this point in his career, Gershwin was working exclusively for
motion picture in Hollywood rather than on Broadway, so he had to
adapt his writing to suit a bigger and different audience than he’d
previously been reaching out to with his music. With this piece, even
though it wasn’t George that wrote the lyrics, the lyrics could have
possibly been inspired by his affair with Paulette Goddard who had
been married to Hollywood actor Charlie Chaplin. The Tin Pan Alley
inspired 32 bar AABA structure is also present in this piece. In this
piece, the verse has no real structure and is difficult to sing due to
blue notes and its very chromatic nature along with large leaps. The
chorus melody is made up of 2 pentatonic scales;
 Chris Wood

Scale A – Eb, F, G, Bb, C

Scale B – Bb, C, D, F, G
In section A, he uses a simple repetitive idea when the first note is
repeated 5 times in bars 1, 3 and 5. This would have been so that it
was catchy and easy to remember. Section B isn’t syncopated and the
notes are crotchets, this again, is simple but in a different way.
The harmony in the piece shows his jazz influences again as there are
a lot of interesting jazz chords such as D7(b5) and blue notes as well
as odd chromatic chords. Each bar has four chords per bar rather
than one, and the harmony was now much more sophisticated than it
previously had been and this showed that he was developing as a
composer and he was understanding how to develop his style to
appeal to a wider audience whilst still staying loyal to his roots.
Section B also is made simpler with the two undulating chords, which
reflects the commanding lyrics.
Summertime from Gershwin’s jazz opera Porgy and Bess is very
different to the other two pieces, as it shows his transition into the
more operatic side of music. It is still jazzy as it is from a jazz opera,
but is more blues-based as opposed to upbeat lively jazz. One of the
main differences in this piece is in the structure, there are two verses
rather than a verse/chorus structure and there is an ABAC structure
rather than AABA. This piece was heavily influenced by negro
spirituals (religious songs sung by the black community) such as
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child. The piece was also
influenced by the Ukrainian lullaby ‘A Dream Passes By The
Windows’.
I think that Gershwin’s biggest influence was at Tin Pan Alley, but he
realized as he moved into opera that this was no longer appropriate
and rightly moved away from it.