Best george gershwin biography and summertime

&#; Copyright &#; Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

&#;The life of a beloved American composer reflected through his music, writings, and letters.

New York City native and gifted pianist George Gershwin blossomed as an accompanist before his talent as a songwriter opened the way to Broadway, where he fashioned his own brand of American music. He composed a long run of musical comedies, many with his brother Ira as lyricist, but his aspirations reached beyond commercial success.

A lifetime learner, Gershwin was able to appeal to listeners on both sides of the purported popular-classical divide. In &#;when he was just twenty-five&#;he bridged that gap with his first instrumental composition, Rhapsody in Blue, an instant classic premiered by Paul Whiteman&#;s jazz orchestra, as the anchor of a concert entitled &#;An Experiment in Modern Music.&#;

From that time forward his work as a composer, pianist, and citizen of the Jazz Age made him in some circles a leader on America&#;s musical scene. The late s found him extending the range of the shows he scored to include the United Kingdom, and he published several articles to reveal his thinking about a range of musical matters. Moreover, having polished his skills as an orchestrator, he pushed boundaries again in with the groundbreaking folk opera, Porgy and Bess&#;his magnum opus.

Gershwin&#;s talent and warmth made him a presence in New York&#;s musical and social circles (and linked him romantically with pianist-composer Kay Swift). In he and Ira moved west to write songs for Hollywood. Their work was cut short, however, when George developed a brain tumor and died at thirty-eight, a beloved American artist.

Drawing extensively from letters and contemporaneous accounts, acclaimed music historian Richard Crawford traces the arc of Gershwin&#;s remarkable life, seamlessly blending colorful anecdotes with a discussion of Gershwin&#;s unforgettable oeuvre. His days on earth we

American composer and pianist (–)

"Gershwin" redirects here. For his brother, see Ira Gershwin. For other uses, see Gershwin (disambiguation).

George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, &#;– July 11, ) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue () and An American in Paris (), the songs "Swanee" () and "Fascinating Rhythm" (), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" () and "I Got Rhythm" (), and the opera Porgy and Bess (), which included the hit "Summertime".

Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inquired about studying with him. He subsequently composed An American in Paris, returned to New York City and wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, it came to be considered one of the most important American operas of the 20th century and an American cultural classic.

Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores. He died in , only 38 years old, of a brain tumor. His compositions have been adapted for use in film and television, with many becoming jazz standards.

Biography

Ancestors

Gershwin's parents were both Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His paternal grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, was born in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), and had served for 25 years as a mechanic for the Imperial Russian Army to earn the right of free travel and residence as a Jew, finally retiring near S

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Richard Crawford, author of Summertime:  George Gershwin&#;s Life in Music

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&#; the introduction to his book, Summertime: George Gershwin’s Life in Music, the renowned American musicologist Richard Crawford writes that Gershwin began his career as a “fresh voice of the Jazz Age” who “maintained the flavor and conviction of that voice through the better part of two decades.”

&#; two decades, of course, because a brain tumor cut Gershwin’s life short in at the age of   Had he lived longer, imagine what he may have written, and who could have performed his music.  Additional Gershwin compositions would have had to enlarge the breadth of the Great American Songbook, as well as influence the worlds of opera and classical music.

&#; in Summertime, Crawford doesn’t concern himself with speculation, or to look at the post-Gershwin world.    “Thanks to the efforts of [two dozen Gershwin biographers],” he writes, “Gershwin’s achievements are well known today.  Most of all, the verve and panache of his music has won a place for it in the world’s soundscape.”

&#;d, Crawford felt justification for a new Gershwin biography, now eighty-eight years after his death, that is “an academic scholar’s account of Gershwin’s life in music during the composer’s own time.”

&#; resulting work – which the author began in – is a rich, detailed and rewarding musical biography that describes Gershwin&#;s work throughout every stage of his career, including his Tin Pan Alley beginnings; his popular music success as a Broadway songwriter; his composition of Rhapsody in Blue that became a pillar of the Jazz Age, and vaulted Gershwin’s subsequent journey into the world of classical music and Hollywood, culminating in the daring undertaking of Porgy and Bess, a multi-cultural spectacle that is now one of the world’s great operas.

&#; was a great privilege to have discussed many of these topics with the esteemed (and now yea

Aria from the opera Porgy and Bess

"Summertime" is an aria composed in by George Gershwin for the operaPorgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, and Ira Gershwin.

The song soon became a popular and much-recorded jazz standard, described as "without doubt&#; one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote&#; Gershwin's highly evocative writing brilliantly mixes elements of jazz and the song styles of African-Americans in the South-East United States from the early twentieth century". Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim characterized Heyward's lyrics for "Summertime" and "My Man's Gone Now" as "the best lyrics in the musical theater".

Porgy and Bess

Gershwin began composing the song in December , attempting to create his own spiritual in the style of the African American folk music of the period. Gershwin had completed setting DuBose Heyward's poem to music by February , and spent the next 20 months completing and orchestrating the score of the opera.

The song is sung several times throughout Porgy and Bess. Its lyrics are the first words heard in act 1 of the opera, following the communal "wa-do-wa". It is sung by Clara as a lullaby. The song theme is reprised soon after as counterpoint to the crapsgame scene, in act 2 in a reprise by Clara, and in act 3 by Bess, singing to Clara's now-orphaned baby after both parents died in the storm.

The song was recorded for the first time by Abbie Mitchell on July 19, , with George Gershwin playing the piano and conducting the orchestra (on: George Gershwin Conducts Excerpts from Porgy & Bess, Mark 56 ).

The movie version of the musical featured Loulie Jean Norman singing the song. That rendition finished at #52 in AFI's Years Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

Analysis

Lyric