OSHER 763 - Gershwin Plus Eight, American Songbook Revisited

This course will combine lectures, demonstrations, and performances of songs from the 1920s to the 1950s, emphasizing why select songs have the persistent charm and staying power of a hit, even decades after they were popular. From a vast field of composers, the instructor will limit discussion and performance to nine of the idiom's top talent (Gershwin, Kern, Berlin, Porter, Rodgers, Warren, Mercer, Van Heusen, and H. Carmichael, plus their respective lyricists). Analysis will include the lyrics and highlights from the composers' lives. Some solo and group singing is apt to break out, as participants find themselves in the enlivened Steinway room of the Monson Center, made even more compelling by adding an acoustic bass violin. History makes music, and music makes history.