@frogman:
Sorry for not having doing a very good job of expressing myself.
In retrospect, I suppose what I was trying to express was my uneasiness about Gerswin's motivation for utilizing the Blues/Jazz as source material for composition and then placing the result within a European Classical frame. Did he do this (consciously or unconsciously) in order to "legitimize" it, on some level? To make it more commercially viable for white audiences? I haven't read his bio, so I don't know.
To my ears, it's a very jarring transition.
I realize not everyone has the same tastes and that I wouldn't be asking this question if I felt the song was somehow inadequate unless performed operatically.
The Mahalia Jackson version is lovely, BTW...
Sorry for not having doing a very good job of expressing myself.
In retrospect, I suppose what I was trying to express was my uneasiness about Gerswin's motivation for utilizing the Blues/Jazz as source material for composition and then placing the result within a European Classical frame. Did he do this (consciously or unconsciously) in order to "legitimize" it, on some level? To make it more commercially viable for white audiences? I haven't read his bio, so I don't know.
To my ears, it's a very jarring transition.
I realize not everyone has the same tastes and that I wouldn't be asking this question if I felt the song was somehow inadequate unless performed operatically.
The Mahalia Jackson version is lovely, BTW...