npr on porgy

more sample program notes...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4951238

70 Years of Gerswhin's Porgy and Bess
from Day to Day, October 10 2005
by Karen Grigsby Bates

On this day in 1935, Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin's opera about black life in the South Carolina town of Charleston at the turn of the century, made its Broadway debut.
Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, based on DuBose Hayward's successful novel of the same title, tells the story of poor, crippled Porgy and beautiful Bess, who runs away from the fast life to find sanctuary with Porgy and the residents of Catfish Row.

From the very beginning, it was considered another American classic by the composer of "Rhapsody in Blue" — even if critics couldn't quite figure out how to evaluate it. Was it opera, or was it simply an ambitious Broadway musical?

"It crossed the barriers," says theater historian Robert Kimball. "It wasn't a musical work per se, and it wasn't a drama per se — it elicited response from both music and drama critics. But the work has sort of always been outside category."

Borrowing minor chords from his Jewish heritage, call-and-response from black churches he'd visited and dashes of jazz, Gershwin's new music was completely original and very American. It was a commercial failure in its first run on Broadway — but despite that rocky start, Porgy and Bess went on to become one of the most-performed works in theater history.

musical notes

Please post comments with "musical terms" that you find of interest (include definitions, if you've gone that far and note which source you've taken the term from). These are the sources we have in our "common" library so far:

• Blog comments to Porgy and Bess posting on listening to Gershwin
• "Exotic Richness of Negro Music and Color of Charleston, S.C., Admirably Conveyed in Score of Catfish Row Tragedy" by Olin Downes (New York Times October 11, 1935)
• "Dramatic Values of Community Legend Gloriouosly Transposed in New Form with Fine Regard for Its Verities" by Brooks Atkinson (New York Times October 11, 1935)
• "Rhapsody in Catfish Row" by George Gershwin (New York Times October 20, 1935)
• "Porgy and Bess--A Folk Opera (a review)" by Hall Johnson (link on blog)
• "The Complicated Life of Porgy and Bess" by James Standifer (link on blog)
• Grove Music Online entry on George Gershwin
• Encyclopedia Britannica Article on George Gershwin
• your JSTOR/MLA/American History secondary source article (and further research perusals)
• List of Musical terms (link on blog, Alice Crawford-Berghof)
• Opera Terms (link on blog)
• Lecture Notes (2/27--see info on gospels/shouts, in particular)