George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 –
July 11, 1937) was an American composer. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in
collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira
Gershwin. George Gershwin composed both for Broadway and for the
classical concert hall. He also wrote popular
songs with success.
Many of his compositions have been used on television and in numerous films, and many became jazz standards. The jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald recorded many of the
Gershwins' songs on her 1959 Gershwin Songbook (arranged by Nelson Riddle). Countless singers and musicians have recorded Gershwin songs, including Bing Crosby, John Coltrane, Frank
Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke,
Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Barbra Streisand, Marni Nixon, Natalie Cole, Nina Simone, John Fahey, and Sting.
Biography
Gershwin was born Jacob Gershowitz in Brooklyn, New York
to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Morris (Moishe)
Gershowitz, changed the family name to Gershwin sometime after emigrating from St.
Petersburg, Russia. Gershwin's mother, Rosa Bruskin, also emigrated from Russia; she
married Gershowitz four years later.
George Gershwin was the second of four children. He first displayed interest in music at the age of ten, when he was intrigued
by what he heard at a friend's violin recital. The sound and the way his friend played captured him. His parents had bought a
piano for his older brother Ira, but to his parents' surprise and Ira's relief, it was George who played it. Although his younger
sister Frances was the first in the family to make money from her musical talents, she
married young and became a housewife and mother, giving up her own singing and dance career—settling into painting, a hobby of
George's.
Gershwin tried various piano teachers for two years, and then was introduced to Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller, the pianist
in the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra. Hambitzer acted as George's mentor until Hambitzer's death in 1918. Hambitzer taught George conventional piano technique, introduced him to music of the European classical
tradition, and encouraged him to attend orchestral concerts. (At home following such concerts, young George would attempt to
reproduce at the piano the music he had heard.) He later studied with classical composer Rubin
Goldmark and avant-garde composer-theorist Henry Cowell.
His first job as a performer was as a "song plugger" for Remick's, a publishing company on New York City's Tin Pan Alley. His 1917 novelty rag "Rialto
Ripples" was a commercial success, and in 1919 he scored his first big national hit with his
song "Swanee." In 1916, he started working for Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls in
New York, recording and arranging piano rolls. He produced dozens, if not hundreds, of rolls
under his own and assumed names. (Pseudonyms attributed to Gershwin include Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn.) He also recorded rolls of
his own compositions for the Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos. As well as recording piano rolls, Gershwin made a brief foray into vaudeville, accompanying both Nora Bayes and Louise Dresser on the piano.[1]
In 1924, George and Ira collaborated on a musical comedy, Lady Be Good
which included such future standards as "Fascinating
Rhythm" and "The Man I Love."
This was followed by Oh, Kay! (1926); Funny
Face in (1927); Strike Up the Band (1927 and 1930);
Show Girl (1929), Girl Crazy (1930), which
introduced the standard "I Got Rhythm," and Of Thee I
Sing (1931), the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize.
In 1924, Gershwin composed his first major classical work, Rhapsody in Blue
for orchestra and piano, which was arranged by Ferde Grofé and premiered with
Paul Whiteman's concert band in New York. It proved to be his most popular work.
Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period, where he applied to study
composition with Nadia Boulanger. While there, he wrote An American in Paris. This work received mixed reviews. There are orchestral nods towards
Ravel's piano concerto of the same period. Eventually he found the music scene in Paris
supercilious, and returned to America. Though he hugely admired the French style of music—and did until the day he died—Gershwin
remained thoroughly American.
His most ambitious composition was Porgy and Bess (1935). Called by Gershwin
himself a "folk opera," the piece premiered in a Broadway theater and is now widely regarded as the most important American opera
of the twentieth century. Based on the novel Porgy by DuBose
Heyward, the action takes place in a black neighborhood in Charleston, South
Carolina, and with the exception of several minor speaking roles, all of the characters are black. The music combines
elements of popular music of the day, which was strongly influenced by black music, with techniques found in opera, such as
recitative and leit motifs.
Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he was smelling burned rubber.
He had developed a brain tumor. In June, he performed in a special concert of his music with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra with French maestro Pierre
Monteux. It was in Hollywood, while working on the score of
The Goldwyn Follies, that he collapsed and, on July
11, 1937, died at the age of 38 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital following surgery for the
tumor. Coincidentally, just a few months later in 1937, Gershwin's idol Ravel also died
following brain surgery.
Gershwin had a 10-year affair with composer Kay Swift and frequently consulted her about
his music. Oh, Kay was named for her. Posthumously, Swift arranged some of his music, transcribed some of his recordings,
and collaborated with Ira on several projects. Gershwin also had an affair with actress Paulette Goddard.
Gershwin died intestate, and all his property passed to his mother. He is buried in the
Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The Gershwin
estate continues to bring in significant royalties from licensing the copyrights on Gershwin's
work. The estate supported the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
because its 1923 cutoff date was shortly before Gershwin had begun to create his most popular
works. The copyrights on those works expire at the end of 2007 in the European Union and
will expire between 2019 and 2027 in the United States of America.
According to Fred Astaire's letters to Adele
Astaire, George whispered Fred's name before passing away.[2]
In 2005, The Guardian determined using "estimates of
earnings accrued in a composer's lifetime" that George Gershwin was the richest composer of all time.[1]
George Gershwin was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame
in 2006. The George Gershwin Theatre on Broadway is named after him.
Musical style and influence
Gershwin was influenced very much by French composers of the early twentieth century.
Maurice Ravel was quite impressed with the Gershwins' abilities, commenting, "Personally I
find jazz most interesting: the rhythms, the way the melodies are handled, the melodies themselves. I have heard of George
Gershwin's works and I find them intriguing."[3] The
orchestrations in Gershwin's symphonic works often seem similar to those of Ravel;
likewise, Ravel's two piano concertos evince an influence of Gershwin. He also asked Ravel for lessons; when Ravel heard how much
Gershwin earned, he replied "How about you give me some lessons?" (some versions of this story feature Igor Stravinsky rather than Ravel as the composer; however Stravinsky himself confirmed that he
originally heard the story from Ravel).[4]
Gershwin's own Concerto in F was criticized as being strongly rooted
in the work of Claude Debussy, more so than in the jazz style which was expected. The
comparison didn't deter Gershwin from continuing to explore French styles. The title of An American in Paris reflects the very journey that he had consciously taken as a composer:
"The opening part will be developed in typical French style, in the manner of Debussy and the
Six, though the tunes are original." (Hyland 126)
Aside from the French influence, Gershwin was intrigued by the works of Alban Berg,
Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky,
Darius Milhaud, and Arnold Schoenberg. He also
asked Schoenberg for composition lessons. Schoenberg refused, saying "I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you're such a
good Gershwin already".[5] (This quote may actually belong
to Maurice Ravel, who is credited with essentially the same quote in the Wikipedia article
for Maurice Ravel.)
Russian Joseph Schillinger's influence as his teacher of composition (1932-1936)
was substantial in providing him with a method to his composition. There has been some disagreement about the nature of
Schillinger's influence on Gershwin. After the posthumous success of Porgy and
Bess, Schillinger claimed he had a large and direct influence in overseeing the creation of the opera; Ira completely
denied that his brother had any such assistance for this work. A third account of Gershwin's musical relationship with his
teacher was written by Gershwin's close friend and another Schillinger student, Vernon Duke,
in an article for the Musical Quarterly in 1947.[6]
What set Gershwin apart was his ability to manipulate forms of music into his own unique voice. He took the jazz he discovered
on Tin Pan Alley into the mainstream by splicing its rhythms and tonality with that of the
popular songs of his era.
George Gershwin's first published song was "When You Want 'Em You Can't Get 'Em, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em." It
was published in 1916 when Gershwin was only 17 years old and earned him a sum total of $5, although he was promised much
more.
In 2007, the Library of Congress named their
Prize for Popular Song after George and Ira Gershwin. Recognizing the profound and
positive effect of popular music on culture, the prize is given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions
exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins. On March 1st,
2007, the first Gershwin Prize was awarded to Paul
Simon.
Recordings
Early in his career Gershwin made dozens of player piano piano roll recordings and these
were a main source of income for him. Many of these are of popular music of the period and many other are of his own works. Once
his theatre-writing career took precedence his regular roll recording sessions dwindled as he was otherwise occupied. He did
however record further rolls throughout the 1920s including a complete version of his Rhapsody in Blue.
Many fans of George Gershwin have found it strange that, in comparison to the piano rolls,
there are very few accessible audio recordings of his live playing. His very first recording was his own Swanee with the
Fred Van Eps Trio in 1919. The record is heavy on the banjo playing of Van Eps, and the piano is overshadowed. The recording took
place before Swanee became famous as an Al Jolson specialty in early 1920.
Gershwin did record an abridged version of Rhapsody in Blue with
Paul Whiteman and his orchestra for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1924, soon after the world premiere. The same orchestra
made an electrical recording of the same abridged version for Victor in 1927. However, a dispute in the studio over
interpretation angered Paul Whiteman and he left. The conductor's baton was taken over by Victor's staff conductor
Nathaniel Shilkret. Gershwin made a number of solo piano recordings of tunes from his
musicals, some including the vocals of Fred and Adele Astaire, as well as his Three
Preludes for piano.
In 1929, Gershwin "supervised" the world premiere recording of An American in Paris with Nathaniel Shilkret and the
Victor Symphony Orchestra. Gershwin's role in the recording was rather limited, particularly because Shilkret was conducting and
had his own ideas about the music. Then someone realized they had not hired anyone to play the brief
