George Gershwin
Jacob Gershvin
Birthday	Monday, September 26, 1898
Birthplace	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	Sunday, July 11, 1937
Occupation	Musical composer, pianist

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.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Gershwin, George

Born Sept. 26, 1898, in New York; died July 11, 1937, in Beverly Hills, Calif. American composer and pianist.

Gershwin was born into a Jewish family (Gershovich) that had emigrated from Russia. He did not receive a systematic music education, but he took music lessons with C. Hambitzer (piano) and R. Goldmark (harmony). He acquired fame as the composer of jazz songs for the variety stage, operettas, and revues. Later he also turned to instrumental genres and opera.

Gershwin is the most prominent representative of so-called symphonic jazz. His style combines the tradition of improvisational jazz, elements of Afro-American musical folklore, including blues and spirituals, and the characteristic features of the light genre (the so-called Broadway variety stage) with the classical forms of European music—operatic, symphonic, and concert music. In spite of diverse influences, Gershwin’s music is distinguished by its striking originality. His creative work is imbued with satirical features, sharp humor, and the grotesque (for example, the musicals on political themes Strike up the Band and Of Thee I Sing and the symphonic suite An American in Paris).

Among Gershwin’s best works are Rhapsody in Blue for piano and jazz orchestra (1924) and the opera Porgy and Bess, which was on a theme from the lives of the Negro poor and was the first American national opera (1935). The work is distinguished by the vividness and contrasts of its musical character and by its intense dynamics. Developing the tradition of the ballad opera, Gershwin combined musical conversational dialogues with arias, ensembles, and choruses. The tragic principle is interwoven in the opera with the comic genre—spirituals and lyrical blues alternate with grotesque ragtimes. Porgy and Bess has been successfully performed in theaters in many cities in the world. It has been staged in the USSR since 1945. (The first production was presented by the Ensemble of Soviet Opera.)

REFERENCES

Grigor’ev, L., and Ia. Platek. Dzhordzh Gershvin. Moscow, 1956.
Konen, F. Puti amerikanskoi myzyki, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1965.

V. IU. DEL’SON

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References in periodicals archive

And George Gershwin's I Got Rhythm was as entertaining as was the conductor's stomping on the stage while directing the orchestra.

QPO enthrals audience with foot-tapping melodies

Sadly, George Gershwin died at the age of 38 from a brain tumor.

Feinstein shows his range at the Hanover

The roots of George Gershwin's music were in the mournful sound of Jewish melodies, the classical literature of the European concert stage, and the timeless rhythms of African slave songs that had begun their conversion from the blues into what we now know as jazz.

George Gershwin's Long Road to Porgy and Bess

As an orchestral composer, George Gershwin was without peer and is perhaps best known for Rhapsody In Blue, his 1924 symphonic jazz composition.

S'Wonderful to see Brian back again; Brian Wilson, the troubled founding member of The Beach Boys, tells ANDY WELCH how the music of George Gershwin has provided the spark to break his creative drought at the age of 69

One subject that does illuminate him, however, is the music of George Gershwin.

Someone to watch over ian Br

This weekend, the focus is on American composers, with the Sofia Quartet set to play the works of Samuel Barber, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Cole Porter.

Under the sky: Sofia quartet

In this illustrated 75th anniversary volume, written with the participation of the Gershwin estate, opera producer and author Robin Thompson recounts the history of Porgy and Bess, from its roots in DuBose Heyward's novel and play Porgy, to its creation as an opera by George Gershwin in collaboration with his brothers Ira and Heyward, its debut on Broadway, its many productions on stage and screen, and is current status as a recognized masterpiece, part of the repertoire of opera companies around the world.

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess: A 75th Anniversary Celebration

The music--and at least some of the life story--of quintessential American composer George Gershwin is brought to the Asolo mainstage by pianist-actor-playwright Hershey Felder, who interprets famous songs including Swanee, I Got Rhythm and, finally, the great Rhapsody in Blue in George Gershwin Alone, May 19 through June 5.

Top tickets

In Larry Starr's George Gershwin and Charlotte Greenspan's Pick Yourself Up: Dorothy Fields and the American Musical, we see how both the composer and the lyricist/librettist gained a professional leg up and made their mark.

Everything old is new again: two biographies remind us that in the world of musicals what's past can be au courant

George Gershwin: An Intimate Portrait, Walter Rimler.

George Gershwin: An Intimate Portrait

The orchestra, under the stewardship of conductor Roger Clarkson, gave renditions of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess; Mars and Jupiter from Gustav Holst's The Planets; the Overture to Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss; and traditional carols O Come, All Ye Faithful and Hark!

Duo show off musical talents

One night in 1926 the composer George Gershwin picked a book called Porgy to read in bed and was so rivetted by it that he could not stop until he had read it all.

The first performance of Porgy and Bess: September 30th, 1935