Porgy and Bess Paper

UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

A STUDY BASED ON GEORGE GERSHWIN’S 1935 OPERA “PORGY AND BESS” AND ITS CONNECTIONS TO AFRICAN AMERICAN THEOLOGY AND

SPIRITUALS

A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITED TO DR. ROSE PRUIKSMA IN THE FIELD OF MUSIC HISTORY

DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC

BY KEVIN FISHER

DURHAM, NEW HAMPSHIREMAY 2012

After spending much time researching and learning about the 1935 American

opera entitled Porgy and Bess, we as individuals today are able to decipher the potential

of Gershwin’s musical score to have strong connections with African American spirituals

from times of oppression and slavery. By discovering Gershwin’s background before he

decided to take on the role of composer of Dubose Heyward’s libretto, we are able to

analyze how the storyline, musical style, and original objective of the opera as a ‘folk

opera’ resembles the themes of African American spirituals. As stated in Ephesians 5:19,

"Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making

melody in your heart to the Lord." These spirituals were the thoughts, emotions, and

desires of those individuals suffering during times of slavery. Perhaps Gershwin, before

directing Porgy and Bess, learned about the form, dialect, themes, and overall purpose of

these spirituals and tied them with his songs in an operatic style in efforts to appeal to

large audiences. While this certainly seems like a credible possibility, there are many

observations and discoveries that directly contrast with such a remark; however, it is of

our benefit to plunge into the realms of black theology and spiritualism to better compare

and understand the primary purpose of Porgy and Bess, as intended by the original

composer.

According to Gershwin, before writing Porgy and Bess, he spent a great deal of

time at many black churches in Charlestown, South Carolina to better absorb the idea of

an only-African American culture and microcosm. In regards to support for the opera’s

success as a dramatic work, these entities are irrelevant from the “social and political

implications of Porgy and Bess for the black community” (Allen, Cunningham). 1

1 Allen, Ray, and George Cunningham. "Cultural Uplift and Double-Consciousness: African American Responses to the 1935 Opera Porgy and Bess." Music Quarterly 88, no. 3 (2005): 342-369. http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/content/88/3/342.full.pdf+html (accessed April 27, 2012).

2

Gershwin called the opera a “folk opera”, as trained African American classical singers

were featured with an African American chorus and director. In a New York Times article,

Gershwin declared that he wrote his own spirituals and folksongs for the opera after

spending a great deal of time in Charlestown and Folly Island, South Carolina. He wanted

to hear singing within the black churches before taking on the role of composer

completely. These trips to South Carolina had much influence on Gershwin’s musical

style in regards to Porgy and Bess; however, how prevalent was the style of the spirituals

within the churches when Gershwin went to observe South Carolina? It seems as though

Gershwin is simply calling his work a folk opera based on his observation and not the

actual content of the opera. 2 Of course, the folk aspects of the opera allowed for the

filling of audience chairs.

It would be unreasonable to say that based off church observations, Gershwin is

qualified to write his own spirituals. According to Arthur Jones, “an authenticity of style

necessarily preserved and transmitted the social memory of the spirituals and would be

achieved only when the public has been made to see and like Negro material presented as

its creators understand and feel it.”3 (Arthur) Gershwin needed to provide Negro

materials to satisfy an audience, but the images and experiences relayed from the

spirituals could only be fully experienced by blacks themselves. The Grove Music Online

database states Gershwin’s situation quite clearly in the following passage. “Gershwin

called Porgy and Bess a ‘folk opera’. His belief in the need for a label is understandable.


3 Arthur, Jones. "The Foundational Influence of Spirituals in African-American Culture: A Psychological Perspective." Black Music Research Journal 24, no. 2 (2004): 251-260 . http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=02763605(2004)24%3a2%3c251%3aBlack+music+research+journal%3e2.0.TX%3b2-2&origin=EBSCO& (accessed April 27, 2012).

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Gershwin’s own credentials and prior experience caused some contemporaries to doubt

that he was technically equipped to write a full-fledged opera.” 4 (Crawford) So while

others did not believe Gershwin had enough experience to take on such a project, he did

so with conviction and stood by his opinions with self-assurance.

In regard to what was happening socially and culturally, many African Americans

favored Gershwin’s opera in 1935. There were many critics of the opera, both white and

black, like any public performance or literary work, but “black critics further understood

Porgy and Bess in light of their “struggling to break free” of white misconceptions about

culture and race, and thus they explore the possibility that the opera might serve as a

model for self-conscious African American expression.”5 (Atkinson) Socially, many

African Americans felt inferior to whites during the Civil War, and as the United States

was changing at the start of the 20th century, the mentality and existence of social equality

was becoming customary. While many blacks still felt oppressed and unequal, critics

believed that this opera would encourage African American confidence and self-worth.

“These black reviews found in his music a satisfying fusion of African American folk

spirit and tradition operatic conventions that, when sung by conservatory-trained African

Americans, represented a significant advance in the presence of black artists and culture

on the American stage.” (Atkinson) Blacks were assimilating into society as individuals

of equal prominence and many believed Gershwin’s opera was aiding the situation.

4 Crawford, Richard. "Porgy and Bess." In The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley

Sadie. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O004106 (accessed May 5,

2012).

5 Atkinson, Brooks. "Dramatic Values of Community Legend Gloriously Transposed in New Form With Fine Regards for Its Verities." New York Times, October 11, 1935.

4

Naturally, many opposed the ideals that were evidently exploited in the opera, but many

blacks were in favor of the cause. The opera became part of a “cultural and racial uplift”

(Allen, Cunningham).

There have been many different versions of Porgy and Bess over the past twenty-

or-so years that many critics believe do not represent the initial premises and themes that

Gershwin was able to communicate in his original 1935 version. It seems as though the

chief topics of self-awareness, self-worth, assimilation, spirituality, and other “folk” foci

are losing merit and value in the new versions of the opera. The new versions set the

content by more dramatized means; there is with less original music and more focus on

the aesthetically pleasing aspects such as costumes, lighting, stage arrangements, and

dialogue. Today’s revision of Porgy and Bess has a musical style that is deficient in

originality and “much of the choral work, which demands precision, is hazy and ragged.”6

(Brantley) The new style has characters “spitting out their words rather than signing them

in the opera’s traditional recitative.” 7(Healy) As spectators attempting to tie links

between traditional spirituals of the oppressed African Americans and their expressions

through music, learning that many of the musical aspects are becoming eradicated does

not allow for the easy drawing of parallels between Gershwin’s work and the slave songs.

According to a September 2011 New York Times article, Stephen Sondheim “sent a letter

to the directors and cast for making comments that he found condescending and

6 Brantley, Ben. "Evacations on Catfish Row." New York Times, September 1, 2011, sec. Theater Review. https://blackboard.unh.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3138605-dt-content-rid-3605471_2/courses/musi502-01-201150/Excavations%20on%20Catfish%20Row%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf (accessed April 27, 2012).

7 Healy, Patrick. "It Ain't Necessarily 'Porgy'." New York Times, August 5, 2011. https://blackboard.unh.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3138605-dt-content-rid-3605473_2/courses/musi502-01-201150/%E2%80%98Porgy%20and%20Bess%E2%80%99%20With%20Audra%20McDonald%20-%20NYTimes.com.pdf (accessed April 27, 2012).

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disdainful of the original opera.” 8 (Healy) These opinions of today’s versions of the

opera contrast drastically with the reception of the opera from 1935 when it seemed as

though the opera was a cultural message of unity, while now it is simply a stage drama

intended to produce revenue. Unquestionably, what we see now is a situation where the

African American spirituals are not primarily involved with the revision of Porgy and

Bess. Content in the opera is now spoken instead of sung! Indubitably, there is a

detachment of Gershwin’s original intentions and today’s purpose of the opera.

At this point, it would be apposite and relevant to examine the original intent,

historical position, structure, and content of the spirituals through the analysis of

secondary sources. First and foremost, according to the novel Spiritual, blues, and jazz

people in African American fiction: Living in paradox by Yemisi A. Jimoh, “Africans in

the New World used spirituals as a means of communication as well as a reservoir in

which to collect their life stories and life philosophies. Through song, enslaved black

people convey messages, sound warnings, expression emotions, and ask fundamental

questions about their positions in the universe.” 9(Jimoh 22) The black slaves created

these songs in efforts to create a dynamic system of expression as they were put through

times of torture, torment, and extreme agony. Some of the themes that exist in the

spirituals are “exploitation, suffering, tyranny, mistreatment, oppression, disappointment,

pain, adversity, and other dispiriting experiences” (Jimoh 27). These songs were mostly

written while slaves were in the United States and had religious, (specifically Christian),

8 ———. "'Porgy': No New Scene, Some Hard Feelings." New York Times, September 14, 2011,

sec. (accessed April 27, 2012)

9 Jimoh, A. Yemisi. "Spiritual, blues, and jazz people in African American fiction: Living in paradox." American Literature 75, no. 2 (June 1, 2003): (accessed April 27, 2012).

6

implications, topics, and connotations. Form, structure, and other musical elements relate

to the influence of Africanism from earlier centuries.

One intriguing element of the spirituals that relates directly with text and diction

is the idea of community versus individual. The slaves that were tormented in large

groups found bliss in writing these spirituals together. A sense of community was

developed even during the times of despair and woe. “A piquant point of interest

concerning a sense of individual and community as it is expressed in some of the music

and literature of black people is that the singers of the spirituals and later the blues often

use the first-person singular pronoun “I” as a collective pronoun.” (Jimoh 27) In our

everyday speaking, the use of the pronoun “I” typically refers to the individual speaking;

moreover, the collective use of the pronoun exists in the United States Pledge of

Allegiance in: “I, pledge allegiance, to the flag, etc.”. The use of a single pronoun

signifying a collective and communal notion epitomizes the sense of unity that the

African American people developed in their distinctive bonds and connections during

their slave days.

These spirituals from the times of slavery were written in efforts to tie together

the people and create an environment of hope and courage. While on slave ships or

during the long hours of working on plantations in the scorching sunlight, these African

Americans were able to “develop emotional attachments to one another”, as it is “easy to

understand how the bonds of unity would have been strengthened even further” through

the collective singing of these hymn-like songs. 10 (Arthur 254) Unlike the function of

music to entertain, like we see in the modern-day versions of Porgy and Bess, “music

10 Arthur, Jones. "The Foundational Influence of Spirituals in African-American Culture: A Psychological Perspective." Black Music Research Journal 24, no. 2 (2004): 251-260 . http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0276-

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among Africans was tied to multiple events in the life of the community.” (Arthur 256)

Here, an emphasis on the primary research question – was the music of Gershwin’s 1935

opera primary intended to entertain the audience, provide an example to African roots via

the music, or a combination of the two? This inquiry will be assessed in later sections as

the culmination of all research comes together to draw conclusions.

It is essential to analyze the form and structure of the spirituals, as we are

attempting to discover connections between these African melodies and Gershwin’s

musical style. One spiritual in particular, entitled Go Down, Moses, was performed by the

Fisk Jubilee Singers in the 1880’s. This college ensemble sang spirituals in churches that

were not typically in “four-part standard (diatonic) arrangements” 11 (Graziano 265). This

music was “sung using bizarre Negro harmonies, with close-harmony chromatic chords

similar to those used by barbershop quartets.” (Graziano 265) What contradicts this

statement though is the existence of simple chord progressions in the piece Go Down,

Moses. This traditional spiritual that the Fisk Jubilee Singers performed “begins with a

unison melody that is answered by a simple tonic-dominant four-part harmony.”

(Graziano 267) As researchers investigating this music, the specific form of the spirituals

is unclear --thus, it would be appropriate to realize these aspects as an assimilation of

styles and a combination of African American elements with the New World that the

slaves now habituated. Furthermore, “the overall consensus of culturally minded African

Americans and progressive whites was that the performance of formally arranged folk

spirituals on the concert stage was a marker of racial progress and cultural uplift” (Allen,

11 Graziano, John. "The Use of Dialect in African-American Spirituals, Popular Songs, and Folk

Songs." Black Music Research Journal 24, no. 2 (2004): 261-286.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/4145494 (accessed April 27, 2012).

8

Cunningham). Disregarding form as a means of connecting Gershwin’s music with the

traditional spirituals, Allen and Cunningham believe that it is the social outcome that

matters most. While the connections may be relevant to scholarly research and academia,

the intentions of Gershwin via his original “folk” spirituals are clear.

In addition to the structure and formulation of the spirituals, the text and lyrics are

of equal or greater vitality to our argument. Since the African American language and

“dialect was associated in the public mind primarily with coon songs, blacks at the turn of

the twentieth century regarded it as a negative reflection of the race.” (Graziano 263)

Many of the spiritual songs contained words in “which final sounds were dropped

(“hangin’, for example) and contractions were used (“ne’er”). (Graziano 263) In popular

spirituals such as Go Down, Moses and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, dialect with

contractions or dropped syllables did not exist. The lyrics represent educated and well-

formulated though processes – African Americans hoped to cultivate these skills to

speak, write, and read properly based on their abhorrence of the “black” dialect. So was

the use of “Afro-dialect” only a concert practice used to imitate black ethnicity?

According to Graziano, “dialect songs for the concert stage came into vogue around

1910.” (Graziano 285) Gershwin’s finished product premiered in 1935, which was

merely twenty-five years later; this method of adding imitative dialect to music in efforts

to win over the crowd was not a innovative entity for the stage. Dubose Heyward, the

librettist, was influenced by those before him, including Marc Connelly, the playwright

of the religious folk play entitled The Green Pastures, which contained a great deal of

dialect in the script. The play had a sacred emphasis and it also highlighted African

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American spirituals. 12 It seems as though Gershwin was similarly influenced by those

before him, feasibly the composer of the spirituals from The Green Pastures. One might

say that the perception of blacks in the social atmosphere of the 1930’s was

misinterpreted.

One primary source document that provides musical examples of Gershwin’s

work in Porgy and Bess is the actual composition – the score. The first piece of principal

musical focus is entitled Summertime, which is Clara’s lullaby before the game of craps

in Act I. It is performed again by Bess as she sings to Clara’s baby.

Summertime an’ the livin’ is easy,

Fish are jumpin’, an’ the cotton is high.

Oh yo’ daddy’s rich, an’ yo’ ma is good lookin’,

So hush, little baby, don’ yo’ cry. 13

Clearly evident in this particular verse are dialect modifications. For example, the word

“and” is written as “an’” and “living” as “livin’” in the opening phrase. The piece sounds

like a folk song through its use of the pentatonic scale with slow-moving minor

harmonies. The provided score using piano accompaniment, as we are able to see the

numerous minor 7th chords, 7th chords with a flat fifth scale degree, half diminished, and

augmented chords. As we discovered in our preliminary research, many spirituals

contained tight, barbershop-like harmonies – thus, this element of musical style coincides

with the idea that Gershwin uses African American spirituals in his own composition.


13 Gershwin, George, and DuBose Heyward. Porgy and Bess. New York: Gershwin Publishing

Corp., 1935.

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This sighting would also reinstate the fact that Gershwin emphasized his writing of a

“folk” opera. But, it is difficult to confirm Gershwin’s use of spirituals as a composition

model when focusing on the text and lyrics.

The through-composed, (or through-scripted in this case), lyrics contradict the

point that the spirituals did not contain elements of dialect. Instead, the pronunciation of

lyrics may have varied from person to person due to individual differing of accent,

articulation, and enunciation. The bluesy feel to the composition juxtaposed to the textual

content seems to be related spirituals, such as Go Down, Moses and Swing Low, Sweet

Chariot. A stanza from Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is as follows: 14

Sometimes I'm up, and sometimes I'm down,

(Coming for to carry me home)

But still my soul feels heavenly bound.

(Coming for to carry me home)

The lyrics express times of happiness and the contrasting times of despair. The singer

then proclaims that he/she remains optimistic and hopes for the day when he/she can feel

at home again. While the baby is crying in Summertime, the singer is expressing that in

the summer season everything is flourishing and that the baby’s mother and father are

both thriving and prosperous. Such lyrics “aim at promoting social mobility for blacks,

through assimilation and the adaptation of middle-class values, including “self-help,

racial solidarity, temperance, thrift, chastity, social purity, patriarchal authority, and the

14 Matthews, Donald Henry. Honoring the ancestors an African cultural interpretation of Black

religion and literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

11

accumulation of wealth”, as many of these themes are present in both of these songs.

(Allen, Cunningham)

Scholar Jones Arthur states that he is not surprised that Gershwin’s famous

lullaby entitled Summertime was the central focus of his opera as it is “built on the

musical structure of the old spiritual. A group exercises of singing the melody over and

over, with participants reporting their internal experience, confirms this notion.” (Arthur

257) The repetition of the words “summertime”, “morning”, “daddy”, and “mammy”

help reinforce the connection to the African American spirituals as these words are

placed in multiple settings. The lullaby is even featured at many points during the opera

with different characters. While Summertime is merely one musical example from Porgy

and Bess that emphasizes Gershwin’s use of the African American spiritual as a model

for his music, other compositions including It Ain’t Necessarily So and I Got Plenty o’

Nothin’ contain similar styles. What is still puzzling, though, is the contradiction between

the dialect of the traditional spirituals and Gershwin’s pieces. If the African Americans

from the 1930’s were interested in drifting away from uneducated, urban, less-white

means of life, and the original spirituals did not have written text with dropped syllables

and contractions, then perhaps Gershwin wished to overemphasize and exaggerate the

rhythmic and sonic elements to satisfy his audience.

Another angle in which to focus our research has to do with the religious nature of

the spirituals as they were originally intended to express the state of Africans through

faith. 15 As we are already aware of the many themes of the spirituals, such as hope,

15 The Harvard Dictionary of Music, s.v. "Spiritual," accessed April 27, 2012,

http://www.credoreference.com/entry/harvdictmusic/spiritual

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longing for a better life, devotion to community, and individual self-improvement, “the

writers of spirituals clung to a historical precedent that gave them hope in the present and

for the future: the model of the Old Testament slaves and the belief that God would act in

the world once again to free them too.” 16(Ramey 352) These songs contain such strong

emotions and references to occurrences outside of the text, similar to the lyrics we

observe in Gershwin’s opera. For example, the piece entitled Oh, Doctor Jesus tells about

the praying for Bess’ good health. The following lyrics are preceded by Gershwin’s

performance instructions: “with religious fervor, freely” 17

Serena: Oh, doctor Jesus, who done trouble de water in de Sea of Gallerie.Porgy: Amen!

Serena: An' likewise who done cas' de devil out of de afflicted time an' time again.Porgy: Time an' time again.

Peter: Oh, my Jesus!Serena: Oh, doctor Jesus, what make you ain' lay yo' han' on dis po'sister head?

Lily: Oh, my father!Serena: An' chase de devil out of her down a steep place into de sea like you used to do

time an' time again.Porgy: Time an' time again. Oh, my Jesus!

Serena:: Lif' dis po' cripple up out of de dus'!Porgy: Allelujah!

Serena:: An' lif' up his woman an' make her well time an' time again, an' save us all for Jesus sake, Amen.

Porgy and Peter: Amen.Serena: All right. Now, Porgy, Doctor Jesus done take de case. By five o'clock dat

woman goin' be well.This recitative-like song imitates the style of the spiritual in regards to the

religious emphasis of the text. The song itself is a prayer and many prayer-like passages

contain allusions to Jesus and the Sea of Gallerie. This song itself seems like it came right

16 Ramey, Lauri . "The theology of the lyric tradition in African American spirituals." Journal of the

American Academy of Religion 70, no. 2 (2002): 347-363.

http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/content/70/2/347.full.pdf+html (accessed April 27, 2012).

17 Gershwin, George, and DuBose Heyward. Porgy and Bess. New York: Gershwin Publishing Corp., 1935.

13

out of a Charlestown, South Carolina church. It is of more extended research to discover

the history of DuBose Heyward, but in regards to the musical style, the jazz-like chords

and textual references to scriptural and holy figures represent Gershwin’s influence of the

spiritual. “If we look toward the recurring themes of the spirituals, we see that their

essential nature is predicated on the sufferings of the adult Jesus and the offered

redemption – indeed, imagery of the power to overcome tribulation on earth.” (Ramey

351) This statement made by Ramey may in fact summarize the thematic premises set to

music in the majority of Gershwin’s pieces of music: the idea of a God-like figure

empowering those suffering to overcome times of despair. So many of these biblical

examples reinstate the existence of black theology in the opera through musical style, as

it “is the interplay between the pain and oppression and the promise of liberation found in

the Bible, on one hand, and a similar existence experienced by African Americans and

poor people” 18(Hopkins 7). The presence of religion, especially in spirituals, is

undeniably masked by the musical structure of Gershwin’s pieces to better suit more

diverse audiences.

One further entity that argues towards the prevalent connection between

Gershwin’s music and African American spirituals is intricately weaved in the emotional

connections of the audience. Gershwin’s primary intention, through the use of pathos,

was for people to enjoy his opera; thus, “despite differences in approach, the goal was the

same: the composers intended their spirituals to be heard in the concert hall” and “the

differences between arrangements discussed above highlight the alternative approaches to

18 Hopkins, Dwight N. Heart and head: black theology--past, present, and future. New York:

Palgrave, 2002.

14

bringing spirituals to a larger audience.” (Graziano 276-277) Gershwin was able to

construct, with poise and sangfroid, one of the most successful American operas ever.

Unfortunately, what is still slightly unclear and may require additional research is

whether or not Gershwin was personally influenced by the spirituals directly. Possibly,

Gershwin was influenced by those who came before him that modeled a “new synthesis

that both challenged and extended the possibilities of rendering African American culture

onstage” through spirituals within their work. (Allen, Cunningham) Perhaps, in a greater

sense, Martin Luther King Jr. was accurate when he aforesaid, “If we are to go forward,

we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral

foundations”,19 but even then, we are inevitably destined to greater research and enquiry.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, Ray, and George Cunningham. "Cultural Uplift and Double-Consciousness:

African American Responses to the 1935 Opera Porgy and Bess." Music

Quarterly 88, no. 3 (2005): 342-369.

19 "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes." Welcome to MLKDay.gov. http://mlkday.gov/plan/library/communications/quotes.php (accessed May 9, 2012).

15

http://mq.oxfordjournals.org/content/88/3/342.full.pdf+html (accessed April 27,

2012).

Alpert, Hollis. The life and times of Porgy and Bess: the story of an American classic.

New York: Knopf, 1990.

Arthur, Jones. "The Foundational Influence of Spirituals in African-American Culture: A

Psychological Perspective." Black Music Research Journal 24, no. 2 (2004): 251-

260 . http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0276-

3605(2004)24%3a2%3c251%3aBlack+music+research+journal%3e2.0.TX%3b2-

2&origin=EBSCO& (accessed April 27, 2012).

Atkinson, Brooks. "Dramatic Values of Community Legend Gloriously Transposed in

New Form With Fine Regards for Its Verities." New York Times, October 11,

1935.

Brantley, Ben. "Evacations on Catfish Row." New York Times, September 1, 2011, sec.

Theater Review. https://blackboard.unh.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3138605-dt-content-

rid-3605471_2/courses/musi502-01-201150/Excavations%20on%20Catfish

%20Row%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf (accessed April 27,

2012).

Crawford, Richard. "Porgy and Bess." In The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by

Stanley Sadie. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O004106

(accessed May 5, 2012).

Gershwin, George, and DuBose Heyward. Porgy and Bess. New York: Gershwin

Publishing Corp., 1935.

Graziano, John. "The Use of Dialect in African-American Spirituals, Popular Songs, and

Folk Songs." Black Music Research Journal 24, no. 2 (2004): 261-286.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/4145494 (accessed April 27, 2012).

Healy, Patrick. "It Ain't Necessarily 'Porgy'." New York Times, August 5, 2011.

https://blackboard.unh.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3138605-dt-content-rid-3605473_2/

courses/musi502-01-201150/%E2%80%98Porgy%20and%20Bess

16

%E2%80%99%20With%20Audra%20McDonald%20-%20NYTimes.com.pdf

(accessed April 27, 2012).

———. "'Porgy': No New Scene, Some Hard Feelings." New York Times, September 14,

2011, sec. Theater. https://blackboard.unh.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3138605-dt-

content-rid-3605472_2/courses/musi502-01-201150/%E2%80%98The

%20Gershwins%E2%80%99%20Porgy%20and%20Bess%E2%80%99%20Is

%20Less%20Changed%20for%20Broadway%20-%20NYTimes.com.pdf


The Harvard Dictionary of Music, s.v. "Spiritual," accessed April 27, 2012,


Hopkins, Dwight N. Heart and head: black theology--past, present, and future. New

York: Palgrave, 2002.

Jimoh, A. Yemisi. "Spiritual, blues, and jazz people in African American fiction: Living

in paradox." American Literature 75, no. 2 (June 1, 2003): (accessed April 27,

2012).

Matthews, Donald Henry. Honoring the ancestors an African cultural interpretation of

Black religion and literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Ramey, Lauri . "The theology of the lyric tradition in African American spirituals."

Journal of the American Academy of Religion 70, no. 2 (2002): 347-363.

http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/content/70/2/347.full.pdf+html (accessed April 27,

2012).

———. et al. "Gershwin, George." In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online,

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/47026


"Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Quotes." Welcome to MLKDay.gov.

http://mlkday.gov/plan/library/communications/quotes.php (accessed May 9,

2012).

17



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