Gershwin's "Oh, I Can't Sit Down" from Porgy and Bess: instrumentation and vocal analysis

Songs from completely different eras, historical contexts, and musical genres can often share point of comparison and remarkable musical similarities. Gershwin’s “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down,” is from the colloquial English-language opera Porgy and Bess with lyrics/libretto by DuBose Heyward. Conductor John DeMain reworked the original Gershwin compositions with Houston Grand Opera, staging Porgy and Bess to win both a Tony and a Grammy Award, thereby anchoring the production firmly within the realm of pop culture. Being from an opera, the song “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” is lyrically driven, and the vocals remain the cornerstone of the piece. “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” occurs about halfway through the opera, and is a light, whimsical piece sung by a chorus as opposed to any musical lead. The DeMain arrangement includes a range of instruments including tubas serving as bass lines and a full horn section as accompaniment. Although Porgy and Bess is an opera, it is a folk opera, one that distances itself from the high-brow connotations that classical European opera conveys. Therefore, “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” is as akin to pop music as it is to opera. Porgy and Bess has been performed in its entirety on stage and in film productions. The song “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” is unlikely to appear independently or taken out of context.

Robin Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines” is not part of an opera, a stage musical, or a film. It has an accompanying music video, but is not part of any significant overarching narrative, and does not need to be understood within the context of a film, play, television production, or even an album. However, the song is accompanied by a polished music video depicting the artists and a team of models and dancers wearing all white. Like “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down,” the song “Blurred Lines” represents popular culture, albeit from a totally different era and genre. While Robin Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines shares nothing in common with any type of opera, it is certainly exemplary of modern pop music. The original Gershwin production of Porgy and Bess was on Broadway in the 1930s, and the DeMain production took place in the 1970s. Robin Thicke released “Blurred Lines” in 2013. The different eras in which these two songs were composed and performed accounts for many of their differences in terms of musicality and production. For example, the hip-hop interludes by T.I. and Pharell do distinguish the Thicke song from that of the Porgy and Bess musical. Likewise, Thicke’s production takes place solely within a studio, whereas the DeMain production is recorded live.
Like “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down,” the Thicke song is sung entirely in English. The song, which features T.I. and Pharell, combines elements of hip-hop and electronic music with a catchy bass line. Like “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down,” “Blurred Lines” is lighthearted and lacking in musical challenge or complexity, in keeping with the conventions of popular music. “Blurred Lines” may not be as lyrically driven as the operatic “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down,” but Thicke’s falsetto is one of the most remarkable features of the song and in some small way does link itself with the conventions of the folk opera Porgy and Bess, which also employs a falsetto. Interestingly, the opening line of “Blurred Lines” is “Everybody get up,” which has a thematic similarity with the theme of “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down.” Both songs have lyrics that are almost purposely simple, with “Blurred Lines” about flirtation and “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” an expression of pure simple joy of being alive. “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” refers in part to the romance central to the Porgy and Bess story, whereas “Blurred Lines” is about more impersonal sexual encounters.

Whereas “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” is one song from a cohesive musical story, and cannot be rightfully taken out of its context, the Thicke song can stand on its own and does not play a role in any larger narrative. Also, the song from Porgy and Bess is choral in nature, with no solo singer. “Blurred Lines” has a few instances of vocal layering but in general has Thicke and his guest artists singing their parts solo. Whereas “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” is fully acoustic, relying only on acoustic instruments from a classical orchestra, “Blurred Lines” is the opposite with all electronic instruments. “Blurred Lines” is bass-driven but has potent electronic drumbeats. The song “Blurred Lines” has a faster tempo than “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down.” The song from Porgy and Bess does not lack percussive elements, but the drums are not featured as they are in “Blurred Lines.” One exception is the similar way both “Blurred Lines” and “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” use the occasional percussive accents like shakers for punctuation.

In its 4/4 time signature, Robin Thicke uses some syncopation and the percussion characterizes the song. Whereas its rhythmic syncopation, up-tempo beat, and percussion define the Robin Thicke song, the Porgy and Bess song seems almost exclusively melodic. Yet both of these songs have a fairly stable meter and tight dynamic range. “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” has a 2/2 time signature, its meter similar to a polka with the tuba enhancing that similarity. The John DeMain version of the Porgy and Bess opera does provide a degree of layering and dynamism that is similar in nature to the Robin Thicke song. The layering that takes place in “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” takes place both through the choral vocals but also the instruments, given the orchestral arrangement. The Thicke song intersperses the elements sung by the lead and his guest artists, as well as the howl that serves as part of the rhythmic landscape. At the end of each phrase, background vocals add thickness. Yet whereas there are only three vocalists in the Thicke song, there are dozens of them featured in the Porgy and Bess song.

Neither the Porgy and Bess song nor the Robin Thicke song can be considered art in the classical sense, but both can be classified as popular culture entertainment. The two songs therefore have similar functions, entertaining large numbers of people without lending themselves to serious academic analysis. However, Porgy and Bess is designed to be an operatic stage production and is a work a musical theater, making it definitely more complex than the Thicke song. The Thicke song is catchy like most pop music, but lacks any particular distinction; in fact, it samples from other music and borrows phrasing like the funky bass line. While it is not dance music per se, the steady and lively tempo does make “Blurred Lines” conducive to a dance mix. The song “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” is not a dance number, even if the film and stage productions would have been choreographed for the performers.

On the surface, a song taken from the 1935 Gershwin pop opera Porgy and Bess would seem to have little or nothing in common with a Robin Thicke song produced in 2013. Indeed, the differences between these two songs outweigh their similarities. The Porgy and Bess song “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” has an orchestral arrangement with a number of acoustic instruments including a full horn section and strings. Vocals are provided by a large chorus. On the contrary, the Robin Thicke song “Blurred Lines” uses only electronic instruments, and relatively few of them: mainly drum, bass, and secondary percussion. Instead of a chorus of vocalists, Thicke, T.I., and Pharrell do sing a few phrases together but mainly complete their respective solo parts separately. The Thicke song is produced as a stand-alone single, whereas the Porgy and Bess song is not supposed to be taken out of its operatic context. The audience would hear “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down” as part of the musical and not as a single song. They have different time signatures, different tempos, and different dynamic ranges. These two songs do share some subtle musical features in common, though, including the strategic implementation of percussive punctuation, a few meaningful changes within a verse-chorus structure, and a simple and straightforward musical and lyrical composition that anchors both compositions firmly within the realm of American pop music.




References

DeMain and the Houston Grand Opera, 1976, Porgy and Bess. https://masterworksbroadway.com/music/porgy-and-bess-houston-grand-opera-1976/
Thicke, Robin, feat. T.I. & Pharrell. “Blurred Lines.” https://www.vevo.com/watch/robin-thicke/blurred-lines/USUV71300454