Gershwin

Summary

Dominique Pagani mainly refers to George Gershwin as one of the great names of the Broadway musical, the source of the standards that jazz takes up12. He points out that these standards are perfectly tonal, a remark that belongs to his reflection on the difference between modal and tonal music3. He comes back several times to Porgy and Bess, and in particular to Summertime. He recalls that this song is first of all a lullaby, sung by a Black mother by the river. He also stresses Gershwin's origins: in his view, this Russian Jew created contemporary American music4. He also sees him as the author of an opera devoted to African-American culture at the dawn of jazz, and he makes this connection in a session on Tchaikovsky5. Finally, he counts him among the Americans he says he holds in veneration6.

1. 1#2.7 Between crisis and war: philosophising?1 Aug 2017 · 24:45
2. 2#6 The jazz variation… by Beethoven15 Dec 2020 · 1:20:44
3. 3#11 Modal and tonal music24 Jan 2021 · 8:58
4. 4#5 Happiness versus the death drive in music11 Dec 2020 · 11:29
5. 5Tchaikovsky: from the steppes to the Midwest15 Jun 2022 · 8:22
6. 6#11 Ukraine: mathematics unites men, politics divides them (Aristotle)24 Mar 2022 · 7:09

Summary produced automatically from 8 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.