"Summertime" is the name of an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward and Ira Gershwin. The song soon became a popular jazz standard.

Gershwin is said to have based this song on a Ukrainian lullaby, Oi Khodyt Son Kolo Vikon (A Dream Passes By The Windows), which he heard in a New York City performance by Oleksander Koshetz’s Ukrainian National Chorus.

Gershwin began composing the song in December 1933, attempting to create his own spiritual in the style of the African American folk music of the period. It is sung multiple times throughout Porgy and Bess, first by Clara in Act I as a lullaby and soon after as counterpoint to the craps game scene, in Act II in a reprise by Clara, and in Act III by Bess, singing to Clara's baby.

American Idol Season 3 winner Fantasia performed the song twice on the program.

References

• Pierpoint, Claudia Roth. "Jazzbo: Why we still listen to Gershwin." The New Yorker, January 10, 2005.[1]

Rob Kapilow - A Languid look back to Gershwin's "SUMMERTIME" October 23, 2008 on NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95761927 -with Fred Childs

External links

• The site of The Summertime Connection
• A second site of TSC with texts in different languages
• Summertime in MP3 format