George Gershwin was one of the most prolific composers in America for the twenty century, excelling in the field of popular song compositions and classical compositions. He wrote a lot of music but the pieces that made him famous and also remained in the history of music as representative for his own style were two orchestral compositions like Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris and also the opera Porgy and Bess.
George Gershwin was born in 26 September 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. Gershwin came from a Russian and Lithuanian Jewish heritage and he was the second child from four. His father named Jacob Gershwin run a great variety of small businesses and his mother called Roza Bruskina was the daughter of a furrier. Although none of them had a musical past, George at the age of ten started to play at the piano that his parents bought it for his older brother Ira. After his parents discovered his natural talent they took George to have piano lessons with Charles Hambitzer who introduced him to the music of Ravel and Debussy and also early works of Arnold Schoenberg and to the piano classic literature.
George Gershwin left school when he was fifteen to join music publisher Jerome K. Remick and became one of the youngest song- pluggers from Tin Pan Alley and at the same time he was playing in several nightclubs in New York. After three years he developed highly skills and dexterity as a composer. In 1916, “When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em; When You Have 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em.” His first song was published but it didn’t catch on. So in 1917 went into a circuit as a pianist and he was discovered by Max Dreyfus, head of the publishing house T.B. Harms.
With this diverse experience, Gershwin’s knowledge of jazz and popular music developed. In 1919 he has achieved success with the song “”Swanee” which sold in a million sheets of music and two million recordings. This big commercial success drove Gershwin thru the way of fame and fortune, becoming a celebrity overnight. The piece “Swanee” had influenced of ragtime and stride piano music and it was recorded by the leading vocalist of that time, Al Jolson. At the same year, he found success also with his first Broadway Show called “La, La, Lucille” that ran for one hundred performances in 1919. In parallel, Gershwin was working on his most serious work, a string quartet called “Lullaby.”
In 1924, Gershwin and his brother Ira become one of the great creative teams in the history of music, beginning of a partnership that continued for the rest of the composer’s life. The collaboration started with the musical comedy “Lady Be Good” where George made the music and Ira was the lyricist. The continued with successful musical as “Oh Kay” and “Funny Faces” Although he succeeded into the popular music, Gershwin struggled to make a mark as a serious composer also.
In the same year, Gershwin has written the work that was considered his most popular one called “Rhapsody in Blue.” It was premiered by Paul Whiteman’s concert band in “New York’s Aeolian Hall” and it was orchestrated by Ferde Grofe having jazz influences. He composed the piece mainly on an old upright piano in a back room but the idea was already in his head. The “Rhapsody in Blue” had tis origin when Gershwin was traveling with the train to Boston. He was inspired by the steely rhythms of the train and he suddenly imagined how the entire symphony constructed in his head. “I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America – of our vast melting pot, of our incomparable national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness” (George Gershwin: His life, times and music, p, 4). It were Gershwin’s words regarding the conception of the piece. In the piece, you can hear the folk tunes familiar to the Russian ancestors and the strains of the blues. The clarinet glissando from the beginning of the symphony was initially a joke form the musicians but Gershwin like it and incorporated.
The big success for which the piece was received made Gershwin to write more pieces for piano and orchestra. He travelled to Paris where he studied with famous instructor Nadia Boulanger but he was rejected because the classical style would destroy his personal jazz influenced style. Here he wrote “Concert in F” followed by one of the most favorite song of the audience since their first performance called “An American in Paris.” The both pieces were premiered in the Carnegie Hall and soon after that, tired from the life and musical scene of Paris, Gershwin returned to the United States.
The serious music critics had difficulties on placing Gershwin’s music into a category from the classical music standard repertoire. Some considered his music as banal and tiresome but he was always gained more and more audience after the performances. So in the 1930’s he came up with other major orchestral contributions and created one of the most experimental works that received a lot of appreciation; the piece has called “Second Rhapsody.”
The association with his brother brought them great success while writing for performers like Gertrude Lawrence, Fred and Adele Astaire, Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope, Ruby Keeler, Jeanette MacDonald and many other notable figures from the American musical stage. The musical were characterized by inane plots that work as a vehicle for spectacular dancing and singing and after 1930’s Gershwin brothers became more interested in using satire in their musicals.
Gershwin was experimented this ideas in his new Broadway musicals and the most important were “Strike Up The Band”, “Let ‘Em Eat Cake.” In the same year, in 1839, Gershwin also wrote “Girl Crazy” which contained some of the most infectious from his musical career including the well-known single “I Got Rhythm.” It was catchy and strikingly complex hit number. After this hit followed another major hit and the first comedy that won the Pulitzer Price was “Of Thee I Sing” the story of a brilliant political satire. By this time, Gershwin interest for serious music increased and he has started to write several serious compositions before 1935. He was contemplating for years to write a full-length opera and now came the moment.
So in 1935, Gershwin has debuted with his first opera “Porgy and Bess.” It was the grandest composition of Gershwin and was based on the novel “Porgy” by Dubose Heyward setting the action in south and dealt with the people from the ghetto and their daily lives. The composition had both classical and popular influences and it was considered the most complex and well known work among the most important American musical composition of the 20th century. Gershwin called it his “folk opera” and included memorable songs like “I Loves You, Porgy,” “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”
After 1935, Gershwin turned his attention to film music. He moved to California and started to write for Fred Astaire for the filmed called “A Damsel in Distress” and for “Shall We Dance” also for Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He had also plans to return to New York and write a ballet, another opera and a string quartet but these pieces were never written.
In early 1937 he deal with dizzy spells, headaches and blackouts but the examinations didn’t revealed the cause although the headaches didn’t stopped even worse that were intensified until Gershwin collapse into a coma and the doctors discovered a brain tumor. The White House send as one of the best specialist that they had but the situation was hopeless. George Gershwin died in 11 July 1937 just before turning 39, a star that faded prematurely, leaving in silence one of America’s freshets and creative musical voices.
Gershwin personal style of composing was characterized by catchy and beautiful influenced by the European music, jazz and black style, accentuated by wonderfully complex rhythmic patterns. “Music must reflect the thoughts and aspirations of the people and the time. My people are American. My time is today.” (George Gershwin: His life, times and music, p, 1). This is a quote were Gershwin talked about his music and what he wanted to transmit thru it.
In conclusion, George Gershwin was a live and productive classical composer who had a strong resemblance between his popular and concert idioms and after all his studies around classical music he didn’t had a problem with the large-scale form which was one of the most definitive quest regarding a classical music form. He used to composing technique sequences of great melodies in his concert pieces and the public from the entire world loved his concert works. The pieces were widely performed in Europe and shaped the music style thru jazz inflection especially heard in the music of Maurice Ravel. Gershwin was the first person that delivered new music that was neither classical nor popular and contained many techniques from a lot of sources and different forms of musical knowledge. You couldn’t ask for more.
Works cited:
“George Gershwin: About the Composer.” American Masters. 7 June 2006. Web. 4 December 2014. Available at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/george-gershwin/about-the-composer/65/
"George Gershwin." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 04 December 2014. Available at http://www.biography.com/people/george-gershwin-9309643#successes
“George Gershwin: His life, times and music” Arts Alive. Web. 4 December 2014. Available at http://www.artsalive.ca/pdf/mus/gershwin_all_e.pdf
Staff, R. “George Gershwin” All Music. Web. 4 December 2014. Available at http://www.allmusic.com/artist/george-gershwin-mn0000197918/biography
