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. The
Ukrainian-Canadian composer and singer Alexis Kochan
has suggested that he based the tune 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 in 1929.[6] Gershwin had completed setting
DuBose Heyward's poem to music by February 1934, and
spent the next 20 months complete and orchestrating the
score of the opera. The song was for the first time
recorded by Abbie Mitchell on 19 July 1935, with George
Gershwin playing the piano and conducting the orchestra
(on: George Gershwin Conducts Excerpts form Porgy &
Bess, Mark 56 667). 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. Wikipedia |
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