“Summertime and the Livin’ Is Easy”

That song by George Gershwin is the first one I learned as a member of my high school choir. He wrote it the year I was born for his opera “Porgy and Bess.” A Google search brought me Ella Fitzgerald singing this jazz inspired song, which still sounds good today. He wrote so much music in the few years he lived, making me wonder if he knew he would die young. I love listening to “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Late at night on January 3, George’s brother, Ira, read in the New York Tribune that “George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto.” That was news to George. Bandleader, Paul Whiteman, twisted George’s arm and asked him to compose a piano score, saying Whiteman’s band would arrange the rest. On a train to Boston to oversee rehearsals for his musical, “Sweet Little Devil,” he worked on the melody. Gershwin completed the two-piano score for Rhapsody in Blue and finished last minute changes to his musical by January 24, when the musical opened in New York.

Since summertime gets really hot in Texas where I live, I make things easy to adapt to the hot weather. I walk early in the morning while it’s shady and cooler. I do yard work an hour or less at a time. Bushes need trimming more often than in Michigan where I used to live, but in Texas I enjoy fewer really cold days in winter and many more days with sunshine. Hawaii’s national flower is the medium-sized yellow hibiscus, but these I pass by on my daily walk are bigger than my outstretched hand.

Back to music – I learned one important thing when my writer’s group, DFW Writer’s Workshop, had a chance to put on several cable TV shows. I can mention the name of a song in your novels, but I cannot quote the lyrics without getting permission from the creator. I get around that by writing about the theme of the song and how it makes the character feel.

Since I mostly prefer classical music, I have to ask other writers what music my characters would like to listen to. What songs do you like to hear?