Gershwin, George (gŭrsh`wĭn), 1898–1937, American composer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Jacob Gershwin. Gershwin wrote some of the most original and popular musical works produced in the United States. Although he studied harmony with Rubin Goldmark (see under Goldmark, Karl Rubin Goldmark, 1872–1936, a pupil of Dvořák in New York, was a composer and educator. From 1924 to 1936 he was chairman of the composition department at the Juilliard School of Music. His works include A Negro Rhapsody (1923).
..... Click the link for more information. ), he received most of his musical training in Tin Pan Alley, playing the piano for a publisher of popular music. He first achieved wide success with his song "Swanee." In addition to a great number of songs, he wrote the scores for several musicals, including George White's Scandals (1920), Lady, Be Good! (1924), Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Girl Crazy (1930), and George S. Kaufman's Of Thee I Sing (1931; Pulitzer Prize).

In many compositions Gershwin combined traditional musical forms with jazz and folk themes and rhythms. They include Rhapsody in Blue (1924), a symphonic jazz composition for jazz band, piano, and orchestra; the Piano Concerto in F (1925); An American in Paris (1928), a tone poem incorporating elements of jazz as well as realistic sound effects; Porgy and Bess (1935; from the book by Dubose Heyward), a folk opera about African-American life, which includes the famous song "Summertime"; and Three Preludes (1936), for the piano. Gershwin also composed music for Hollywood films.

His brother,

Ira Gershwin, 1896–1983, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., wrote beautifully crafted lyrics for many Gershwin songs. The "rhymed conversation" that he wrote to his brother's music includes the words for "But Not for Me," "Fascinating Rhythm," "I've Got a Crush on You," and "'S Wonderful." After George Gershwin's death, Ira collaborated with such composers as Kurt Weill Weill, Kurt (krt` vīl), 1900–1950, German-American composer, b.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jerome Kern Kern, Jerome (kûrn), 1885–1945, American composer of musicals, b. New York City.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Harold Arlen Arlen, Harold (är`lən), 1905–86, American jazz and popular composer, b. Buffalo, N.Y., as Hyman Arluck.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See biographies by I. Goldberg (new ed. 1958), D. Ewen (rev. ed. 1970), E. Jablonski (1987), W. G. Hyland (2003), and H. Pollack (2006); C. Schwartz, Gershwin: His Life and Music (1973); R. Kimball and A. Simon, The Gershwins (1973); I. Gershwin, Lyrics on Several Occasions (1959, repr. 1997); E. Jablonski and L. D. Steward, The Gershwin Years (rev. ed. 1973); R. Kimball, ed., The Complete Lyrics of Ira Gershwin (1993); P. Furia, Ira Gershwin, The Art of the Lyricist (1995).

Gershwin, George

orig. Jacob Gershvin

George Gershwin, working on the score Porgy and Bess, 1935.

(credit: Pictorial Parade)

(born Sept. 26, 1898, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—died July 11, 1937, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. composer. Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants, he heard jazz performed live from about age six. In his teens he worked as a song plugger (playing piano in Tin Pan Alley to demonstrate sheet music for potential customers), and in 1916 he published his first song. In 1919 his “Swanee” was performed by Al Jolson and achieved extraordinary success. Gershwin's first complete score was for the show La, La Lucille (1919). The bandleader Paul Whiteman commissioned from him the hugely successful orchestral work Rhapsody in Blue (1924). It was revolutionary for its incorporation of the jazz idiom (blue notes, syncopated rhythms, onomatopoeic instrumental effects) into a symphonic context. Gershwin's first major Broadway success, Lady, Be Good! (1924), was a collaboration with his brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin. They soon established themselves as one of the great teams in Broadway history; their shows included Oh, Kay! (1926), Strike Up the Band (1927), Funny Face (1927), Girl Crazy (1930), and the satire Of Thee I Sing (1931), the first musical to win a Pulitzer Prize. He also scored several successful films. His most ambitious work was the “folk opera” Porgy and Bess (1935), a collaboration with Ira and novelist DuBose Heyward. Gershwin's classical compositions include a piano concerto (1925) and the tone poem An American in Paris (1928). His early death was the result of a brain tumour.

Gershwin, George (1898–1937) composer; born in New York City. From a Russian-Jewish immigrant family, he began playing both popular and classical piano in childhood and soon was writing tunes. He left school in 1913 to pursue music, becoming a Tin Pan Alley song plugger and composer. His first hit song, "Swanee," dates from 1919; the same year saw his first Broadway musical, La, La, Lucille. During the next 18 years, he produced an astonishing amount of music including—in collaboration with his lyricist brother, Ira Gershwin—a celebrated series of musicals such as Lady Be Good (1924), Funny Face (1927), Girl Crazy (1929), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Of Thee I Sing (1931). For the stage and otherwise, he composed some of the most sophisticated American popular songs, among them "I Got Rhythm," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," and "Someone to Watch Over Me." Beyond his immense achievements in popular music, however, he also pursued an ambitious goal of uniting commercial and classical genres (at one point even seeking to study under Ravel); the result was his historic jazz-oriented concert works such as Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), as well as the "folk opera" Porgy and Bess (1935). Despite his premature death, he left a body of work whose sheer melody and inventiveness guarantee its appeal to music-lovers of all persuasions.