Several weeks ago I examined the artistry of the Gershwin
brother’s Love is Here to Stay, one of the numbers in Master Chorus
Eastside’s upcoming Simply Gershwin concert. Here is another number MCE will perform in a
choral arrangement, a lesser known one but just as beautiful and artful, Love
Walked In. The melody was
written in 1930 but no lyrics were added until 1937, when the Gershwins were
preparing the score for the film The Goldwyn Follies, shortly before
George’s death from a brain tumor. Seven
years between tune and text, and yet they work together very, very well indeed.
The tune is simply constructed. It’s actually the chorus with the verse left
out, as so often happened with parlor and Tin Pan Alley songs and even many
Broadway numbers. It’s in two parts: the
first part consists of two 4-bar phrases and an 8-bar phrase, and the second consists
of two 4-bar phrases and a 10-bar phrase, all of which are exact or near exact
repeats of one another. But the genius
lies in the interlacing of the lyrics, especially “love” and “one,” and the way
the melody underscores their relationship.
Here is a rendition by the unforgettable Ella Fitzgerald.
Notice how the tune lingers caressingly on the first
word, “Love,” and then moves upward in quarter notes on “walked right in,” as
if striding into the room alongside love.
I’ll call it the striding motive.
Those quarter-note strides feel even more solid because they outline the
tonic chord, or key, of the piece, a very stable chord. Think of it as the home key, or chord; love
walked into home.
The opening phrase repeats, complete with striding
motive, but this time ascends even higher on “sunniest day”—how appropriate!—before
arriving at the highest note so far on the word “One,” a mini-climax, followed
by the striding motive once again, this time on that “magic moment” when Love
walked in. From that first “One” it gradually
descends and relaxes over eight bars as the heart recognizes love’s wordless “hello.”
The opening phrase returns in part two, this time with “One
look and I” as the signature word and striding motive. This repeats insistently as the second phrase
rises through the striding motive to the very same high note on “One” as at the
mini-climax. Is this the ultimate climax
then? Not quite, for it abruptly drops
and then moves through the striding motive one last time to the highest note of
all, a whole-step higher than the mini-climax, on the word “found.” In a string of alliteration the first phrase “forgot”
the past, the second phrase “found” its “future,” and now the third phrase “found”
a whole new world. These alliterative
words tie the second half together, while the word “one” unites the entire
piece, as does the striding motive that both “walked” and “looked.” And of course the word “love” as well, for it
repeats three times at the end in a kind of reverse striding motive as it “walks
in” and settles down, once again at home.
Did Ira sense any of this, consciously or unconsciously,
as he penned the lyrics? Did George
alter the tune in any way to fit Ira’s words?
I suspect they had worked together as a team for so long that they knew
one another down to their toes, knew what would work with one another’s gifts. All we really need do is sit back, listen, and
savor that ineffable something called artistry.
Dr. Linda Gingrich
Artistic Director and Conductor
Master Chorus Eastside
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