- Biography
- Rhapsody in Blue
- Piano Concerto in F
- Cuban Overture
- Three Preludes for Piano
- An American in Paris
- Porgy and Bess
Biography
George Gershwin was the second son of Moishe Gershovitza, a Russian Jew who had settled in the United States in about 1890 and promptly changed his name to Morris Gershvin.
Moishe was an intensely ambitious man who was striving to better himself and his family’s situation: rumour has it that they moved house some twenty-eight times in less than twenty years and that during that time Moishe had as many jobs! George was given the first name Jacob, whilst his elder brother Ira was originally called Israel (later to be known as Izzy).
Young George showed his first real interest in music when he heard an automatic piano playing Rubinstein’s ‘Melody in F’, and from then on he developed an uncontrollable fascination with the subject.
The family acquired a piano, which was originally intended for Ira’s use, but George was able immediately to sit down and work out some of the popular tunes and ragtime music that he was particularly keen on at the time.
He had lessons with a local lady and then went on to study with Charles Hambitzer, who had a profound effect on his development.
It was already quite obvious that George was destined for great things – either as a concert pianist or as a composer – and it was no secret that he was happiest playing pop and jazz music.
He left school at the age of fifteen and immediately got a job as a staff pianist at the Tin Pan Alley firm of Jerome H. Remick & Co.
He was only required to accompany song-pluggers and was soon dissatisfied with his lot, particularly as his own first attempts at songwriting were turned down by the company.
However, undeterred, George kept writing, and scored his first publishing hit with a song called ‘When you want ‘em you can’t get ‘em: when you’ve got ‘em you don’t want ‘em’, which was published in 1916.
He went on to write a quick succession of hits, including songs that were also incorporated in other people’s shows – a famous example being the song ‘Swanee’, used in Al Jolson’s show Sinbad.
Gershwin really hit the headlines with his ever-popular Rhapsody in Blue – a jazzy concerto for piano with orchestra (or band), first performed in 1924.
There followed a series of commissions, and the Piano Concerto in F was written and performed just one year later and this is now a standard in the concert repertoire.
George’s brother Ira was a very talented lyric writer and the two collaborated on songs and shows throughout George’s tragically short career.
Lady, Be Good! starring the Astaires, was one of their first hits.
One of George’s best-known works is the folk-opera Porgy and Bess, written in 1935, and this contains the ever-popular song ‘Summertime’.
His rhapsodic symphonic work An American in Paris is also a big favourite with audiences, whilst serious concert pianists often include his remarkable Three Preludes in their programmes.
Rhapsody in Blue
1924, Orchestral
It is amazing that George Gershwin ever wrote this, his most famous work, at all, because it seems he didn’t have the nerve to do it. It took all the powers of persuasion of his friend Paul Whiteman to convince the twenty-five-year-old composer to carry on with the ‘jazz concerto’ that he himself had asked Gershwin to write for a concert less than a month away. Gershwin was attracted to the idea through his love of jazz, but his time was fully occupied with work on a musical comedy called ‘Sweet Little Devil’, which was due for its first performance in Boston. It was, in fact, while he was on the way to the premiere of the musical that he got his inspiration for the Rhapsody. In his words:
‘It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattlety-bang that is often so stimulating to a composer . . . I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise. And then I suddenly heard – and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end. . . . I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America – of our vast melting pot . . . of our blues, our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece.’
Gershwin didn’t have time to complete the work before its performance, but he had written enough for the twenty-two-piece jazz orchestra for them to provide a suitable accompaniment for the solo piano, which he would be playing, and improvising (!) on the first night.
‘Rhapsody in Blue’ opens with a now famous clarinet solo that begins with a quite incredible wail as it produces some low trills before shooting skyward into a jazzy theme. A little later a saxophone takes over the theme, before the piano enters with a variation on the original melody. What makes this a most exceptional piece is that, whilst there are so many themes coupled with a definite jazz feel, one could still (if not a musical purist) classify it as piano concerto. What is most incredible is that Gershwin, the soloist for the evening, had to improvise his solo part almost from nothing, and the show was still a roaring success.
Piano Concerto in F
Piano Concerto in F Major: 3rd Movement
1925, Concerti, Orchestral
When George Gershwin first performed his Rhapsody in Blue under rather rushed circumstances in 1924, a certain Dr Walter Damrosch, who was the conductor of the New York Symphony, was so impressed that he instantly asked the young composer to write a piano concerto for his orchestra on the understanding that he, Gershwin, would also be the soloist. Gershwin happily agreed, and there is a story that, directly afterwards, he ran to a music shop and bought a book to find out exactly what a concerto was!
The result was the Concerto in F, which was originally called the New York Concerto. He completed it in November 1925, and later said to a friend:
‘Many persons had thought that the “Rhapsody” was only a happy accident. Well, I went out, for one thing, to show them that there was plenty more where that had come from. I made up my mind to do a piece of “absolute” music. The “Rhapsody”, as its title implied, was a “blues” impression. The Concerto would be unrelated to any program. And that is how I wrote it. I learnt a great deal from that experience. Particularly in the handling of instruments in combination.’
The first movement (Allegro) is quick and pulsating, representing the spirit of American life.
The principal theme is announced by a bassoon with a second theme coming from the piano.
The second section is a slower and more poetic, and is often referred to as an American blues. The finale starts violently and continues in the same way.
Cuban Overture
Overtures
An exciting piece of Caribbean imagery, ‘The Cuban Overture’ deserves to be better known.
Three Preludes for Piano
Three Preludes for Piano: No. 3
Keyboard Works
Typically Gershwin, these Three Preludes for Piano are pacy and energetic, as if one were running down a hectic New York street while soaking up the surroundings. At the same time, the embellished melodies seem to evoke some of the rhapsodic qualities of Liszt.
An American in Paris
1928, Overtures
By the time George Gershwin was asked to write an orchestral work for the New York Symphony Society he had left behind his past of Broadway musical comedies and was beginning to be recognised as a serious composer. There was even a story that he had sent a telegram to Stravinsky in Paris asking whether the Russian would take him on as a pupil and what the fee might be. Stravinsky asked what Gershwin’s annual income was and, when he received an impressive six-figure amount, Stravinsky is said to have replied: ‘How about my taking lessons from you?’
In March 1928 Gershwin, his brother Ira and his wife, and his sister went to Paris and immediately found themselves involved with interviews, parties and meetings with important people such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Alexander Tansman, who helped George hunt down and steal four French taxi horns(!). According to George, the squeaky horns were typically Parisian and represented the happy chaos of the traffic in Paris. He had decided to use them for his latest commission, which he was going to call ‘An American in Paris’, having been so inspired by the city. By November, now back in New York, he completed the work and described it thus:
‘My purpose here is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris, as he strolls about the city, and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere.
The opening . . . section is followed by a rich blues . . . Our American friend perhaps after strolling into a cafe and having a couple of drinks has . . . a spasm of homesickness. . . . the homesick American, having left the cafe and reached the open air, has disowned his spell of the blues and once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life.’
At the conclusion, the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant.
Porgy and Bess
1935, Opera
A modern opera consisting predominantly of a black cast, ‘Porgy and Bess’ is the story of a legless cripple who forms a relationship with Bess, a party-girl who lives for fun.
Under his loving guidance she soon becomes less wayward but ultimately succumbs to temptation and leaves him.
Songs such as ‘Summertime’ and ‘I Got Plenty of Nothing’ have made this opera famous, as well as the interesting device used by Gershwin whereby the white characters only speak and the black characters sing.