George Gershwin (1898 - 1937)
20th Century musical history is littered with classical composers who wanted to be "popular" and popular composers who’ve tried to write "classical" music. Perhaps the only one who has been an unquestioned success at both is George Gershwin. Born Jacob Gershvin, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants in a poor district of New York, he learnt music in a hit-and-miss way from the age of 12. He learned Chopin, Liszt and Debussy from a local teacher while spending his spare time playing street-games; his musical education was made up in equal parts of Tin-Pan Alley songs and European classics. In 1919 he wrote both his first hit song and his Lullaby for string quartet. Unquestionably, his fantastic gifts as a popular song-writer were the source of his greatest successes; shows like Oh, Kay!, Strike up the Band and Girl Crazy, written in collaboration with his brother Ira were great hits in their time and now seem to epitomize the Jazz Age. But Gershwin was equally comfortable with "classical" forms – Rhapsody in Blue was hailed as the first "jazz concerto" and his full-length Concerto in F and An American in Paris rapidly and permanently entered the concert repertoire. His largest work, the opera Porgy and Bess (1934) initially met a mixed reaction; it seemed to blur the lines between musical genres rather too successfully for the time and has only in recent years been acclaimed as an American masterpiece. But "serious" composers including Rachmaninov and Ravel were never in any doubt about Gershwin’s qualities. He once sought composition lessons with Ravel – the story goes that Ravel asked him first how much he earned each year from his music. When he heard the reply, the French composer said "No – I should be asking for lessons from you!" And American showbiz awarded him its own supreme accolade – he was summoned to Hollywood. He was working there in the summer of 1937 when he took ill and died of a brain tumour, aged only 39. But even this didn’t stop his success; Hollywood studios were producing new Gershwin musicals up to 1964 using his extensive songbook and the most recent "new" Gershwin musical Crazy for You opened on Broadway in 1992 and ran for four years! Meanwhile with such musicians as Simon Rattle and Peter Donohoe bringing passionate advocacy to his concert works, Gershwin’s continued status as the twentieth century’s greatest musical all-rounder seems assured.
R G Bratby 2001
20th Century musical history is littered with classical composers who wanted to be "popular" and popular composers who’ve tried to write "classical" music. Perhaps the only one who has been an unquestioned success at both is George Gershwin. Born Jacob Gershvin, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants in a poor district of New York, he learnt music in a hit-and-miss way from the age of 12. He learned Chopin, Liszt and Debussy from a local teacher while spending his spare time playing street-games; his musical education was made up in equal parts of Tin-Pan Alley songs and European classics. In 1919 he wrote both his first hit song and his Lullaby for string quartet. Unquestionably, his fantastic gifts as a popular song-writer were the source of his greatest successes; shows like Oh, Kay!, Strike up the Band and Girl Crazy, written in collaboration with his brother Ira were great hits in their time and now seem to epitomize the Jazz Age. But Gershwin was equally comfortable with "classical" forms – Rhapsody in Blue was hailed as the first "jazz concerto" and his full-length Concerto in F and An American in Paris rapidly and permanently entered the concert repertoire. His largest work, the opera Porgy and Bess (1934) initially met a mixed reaction; it seemed to blur the lines between musical genres rather too successfully for the time and has only in recent years been acclaimed as an American masterpiece. But "serious" composers including Rachmaninov and Ravel were never in any doubt about Gershwin’s qualities. He once sought composition lessons with Ravel – the story goes that Ravel asked him first how much he earned each year from his music. When he heard the reply, the French composer said "No – I should be asking for lessons from you!" And American showbiz awarded him its own supreme accolade – he was summoned to Hollywood. He was working there in the summer of 1937 when he took ill and died of a brain tumour, aged only 39. But even this didn’t stop his success; Hollywood studios were producing new Gershwin musicals up to 1964 using his extensive songbook and the most recent "new" Gershwin musical Crazy for You opened on Broadway in 1992 and ran for four years! Meanwhile with such musicians as Simon Rattle and Peter Donohoe bringing passionate advocacy to his concert works, Gershwin’s continued status as the twentieth century’s greatest musical all-rounder seems assured.
R G Bratby 2001