AS Music Edexcel 2016 Set Works - Summertime

1. Summertime
George Gershwin

2. Resources
• Solo soprano
• Women’s Chorus
• Symphony orchestra

3. Structure and Form
• Strophic (2 verses and a chorus) linked without interruption

4. Texture
• MDH – Melody Dominated Homophony

5. Tonality
• B minor

6. Harmony
• Extended chords (dominant 11ths and 13ths, chords with
an added 6th
• Modal cadences
• References to whole tone scales
• Augmented (FRENCH) 6th chords

7. Melody
• Diatonic except for one note (pentatonic)
• Some blues inflictions in the countermelodies
• Falling expressive glissando on the final notes of the verse
• Expressive acciaccatura on the final note of the verses

8. Rhythm and Metre
• Some syncopation in the melody
• Some dotted rhythms are reminiscent of swung quavers
• Some cross rhythms (2 against 3 in bar 12 and 4 against
3 in bar 30)
• Simple duple time 2/2

9. Setting of Text
• Nearly entirely syllabic

10. Key Words for Summertime
• Strophic – verse/chorus
• MDH
• Homophonic
• Women's wordless chorus
• Pedal (dominant)
• Pentatonic melody
• Blues notes/false relations
• Augmented (French) 6th
• Dominant 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th/ Diminished 7th
• Circle of 5ths
• Passing notes
• Anacrusis
• Appoggiaturas
• Syncopation/Cross rhythm/Swung quavers
• Syllabic
• Portamento/Glissando
• Negro Spiritual