Composer
George Gershwin
The songwriter who brought jazz into the concert hall.
George Gershwin was a brilliant popular songwriter who crossed into the concert hall and made jazz part of classical music. His Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris are among the most performed American orchestral works, and his opera Porgy and Bess gave the world "Summertime." He did it all in a career cut short at just 38.
Life in brief
Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1898, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. He started piano lessons at twelve, and at fifteen he left school to work as a "song plugger" in Tin Pan Alley, New York's songwriting district, playing new songs for customers in a music publisher's shop. His first big hit, "Swanee," sung by Al Jolson in 1919, made him famous.
With his older brother Ira as lyricist, he wrote a string of Broadway musicals and songs that became standards: "I Got Rhythm," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Embraceable You," "The Man I Love." In 1924 the bandleader Paul Whiteman asked him for a jazz-inspired concert work, and Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue in a matter of weeks; its premiere, at a concert billed as "An Experiment in Modern Music," was a triumph.
Ambitious to be taken seriously as a composer, Gershwin continued to study, and wrote a piano concerto, the tone poem An American in Paris, and the "folk opera" Porgy and Bess (1935), set in an African American community in South Carolina. According to a famous story, he once asked Ravel for lessons, and Ravel replied, "Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?" He was working in Hollywood when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and he died in 1937.
Music and style
Gershwin's music blends the energy, harmony, and "blue notes" of jazz and popular song with the forms and orchestra of classical music. His melodies are unforgettable, his rhythms syncopated and lively, and his writing full of big-city swagger and tenderness alike. Rhapsody in Blue was first orchestrated by Ferde Grofé for Whiteman's band, but Gershwin orchestrated his later works himself.
Key works
- Rhapsody in Blue (1924) - for piano and band, famous for its opening clarinet glissando. See rhapsody.
- Concerto in F (1925) - a full-scale piano concerto.
- An American in Paris (1928) - a tone poem of a tourist's day in Paris, complete with real taxi horns.
- Porgy and Bess (1935) - an opera including "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "I Loves You, Porgy."
- Three Preludes (1926) - short, jazzy piano pieces. See prelude.
- Songs - with Ira Gershwin, many of the greatest songs in the American repertoire.
Legacy
Gershwin showed that the line between "serious" and popular music could be crossed in both directions. Porgy and Bess became one of the most important American operas, his songs are staples of jazz, and his concert works remain some of the best-loved American music. Composers such as Copland and Leonard Bernstein followed his lead.
Where to start listening: Rhapsody in Blue is the obvious first listen - from the moment the clarinet swoops up at the start. Then try "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, and An American in Paris.