DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195098228.003.0009
This chapter details Gershwin's early contacts with African American music and musicians. His Blue Monday Blues
of 1922, a failed attempt at writing an operatic scene about Negro
characters, is sung by whites in blackface. The chapter also discusses
his thoughts on Jewish artists and African American music. Fifteen years
later, Gershwin's masterpiece, a folk opera, Porgy and Bess, comes to Broadway and receives mixed reviews. The orchestration question is resolved at the end of the chapter.
Keywords:
Blue Monday Blues, Leonard Bernstein, Porgy and Bess, blackface, Jewish artists, African American music, Broadway
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