George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 26, 1898.
Though he received serious musical training in piano from Charles
Hambitzer, and in harmony and theory from Edward Kilenyi, he early set
his sights on popular rather than serious music. When he was fifteen he
found a job as song plugger and staff pianist in Tin Pan Alley where he
soon began writing songs. The first to get published was “When You Want
’Em You Can’t Get ’Em” in 1916; in the same year another of his songs,
“The Making of a Girl” appeared for the first time on the Broadway
stage, in _The Passing Show of 1916_. Gershwin’s first complete score
for Broadway was _La, La, Lucille_, and his first smash song hit was
“Swanee,” both in 1919. Between 1920 and 1924 Gershwin wrote the music
for five editions of the George White _Scandals_ where he first
demonstrated his exceptional creative gifts; his most famous songs for
the _Scandals_ were “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” and “Somebody
Loves Me.” For one of the editions of the _Scandals_ he also wrote a
one-act Negro opera to a libretto by Buddy De Sylva—originally called
_Blue Monday_ but later retitled _135th Street_.
Late in 1923, Paul Whiteman, the orchestra leader, commissioned Gershwin
to write a symphonic work in a jazz style for a concert Whiteman was
planning for Aeolian Hall, in New York. That jazz composition—introduced
on February 12, 1924—was the _Rhapsody in Blue_ with which Gershwin
achieved world renown, and which once and for all established the jazz
idiom and jazz techniques as significant material for serious musical
deployment. From then on, until the end of his life, Gershwin continued
to write concert music in a popular style—growing all the time in
technical assurance, in the command of jazz materials, and in the
inventiveness of his melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic writing. In the
eyes of the world he assumed a position of first significance among
American composers. For the symphony orchestra he wrote the Piano
Concerto in F, _An American in Paris_, _Cuban Overture_, _Variations on
I Got Rhythm_, and the _Second Rhapsody_; for solo piano, the three
piano preludes; for the stage his monumental folk opera, _Porgy and
Bess_.
While devoting himself to the concert field, Gershwin did not neglect
the popular Broadway theater. He produced a library of remarkable songs
for such productions as _Lady Be Good_ (1924), _Oh Kay!_ (1926), _Funny
Face_ (1927), and _Girl Crazy_ (1930). The best of these included
“Fascinating Rhythm,” “Lady Be Good,” “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Clap
Yo’ Hands,” “’S Wonderful,” “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” and “But
Not for Me.” The lyrics for these and other Gershwin song classics were
written by his brother, Ira.
In 1930 Gershwin revealed a fresh bent for mockery and satire, together
with a new skill for more spacious musical writing than that required
for a song, in _Strike Up the Band_, a satire on war. These qualities in
Gershwin’s music came to full ripeness in 1931 with the political satire
_Of Thee I Sing!_, the first musical ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for
drama.
In 1931, Gershwin wrote his first original score for motion pictures,
_Delicious_. When he returned to Hollywood in 1936 he settled there
permanently and wrote the music for several delightful screen musicals,
among these being _Damsel in Distress_, _Shall We Dance_, and _The
Goldwyn Follies_. The songs he wrote for the last-named revue (they
included “Love Walked In” and “Love Is Here to Stay”) were the last
pieces of music he was destined to write. He died in Hollywood,
California on July 11, 1937, a victim of a cystic tumor on the right
temporal lobe of the brain. His screen biography, _Rhapsody in Blue_,
was produced in 1945. In 1951, the screen musical, _An American in
Paris_ (whose score included several of Gershwin’s songs as well as the
tone poem that gave this picture its title) received the Academy Award
as the best picture of the year. _Porgy and Bess_ was adapted for motion
pictures, in a Samuel Goldwyn production, in 1959.
It would be difficult to overestimate Gershwin’s importance in American
music. To the popular song he brought the technical skill of a
consummate musician, endowing it with a rhythmic, melodic and harmonic
language it had rarely before known. By that process he often lifted it
to the status of true art. To serious music he contributed the vitality
and the spirit—as well as the techniques and idioms—of American popular
music; serious musicians throughout the world were inspired by his
example to create a serious musical art out of the materials of American
popular music. Since his untimely death, his artistic stature has grown
in all parts of the civilized world. There will be few today to deny him
a place of honor among America’s foremost composers.
_An American in Paris_ is a tone poem for symphony orchestra inspired by
a European vacation in 1928. It received its world première in New York
on December 13, 1928, Walter Damrosch conducting the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra. In this music the composer describes the
nostalgia of an American tourist for home, and his experiences as he
strolls along the boulevards of Paris. It opens with a “walking theme,”
a sprightly little tune for strings and oboe; our American is beginning
his stroll. As he walks he hears the piercing warnings of taxi horns:
Gershwin’s score calls for the use of actual Parisian taxi horns. The
American passes a café, and stops for a moment to listen to the sounds
of a music-hall melody, presented by the trombones. Then he resumes his
stroll, as a second walking subject is heard in the clarinet. A solo
violin (which Deems Taylor interpreted as a young lady accosting our
tourist!) provides a transition to two main melodies in both of which
the American’s growing feeling of homesickness finds apt expression. The
first is a blues melody for muted trumpets; the second a Charleston
melody for two trumpets. The blues melody receives climactic treatment
in full orchestra. After a hasty recollection of the second walking
theme, the composition comes to a vigorous conclusion. As Mr. Taylor
goes on to explain, the tourist now decides “to make a night of it. It
will be great to get home, but meanwhile, this is Paris!”
The Concerto in F, for piano and orchestra, was the immediate
consequence of Gershwin’s phenomenal success with the _Rhapsody in
Blue_. The Concerto was commissioned in 1925 by the New York Symphony
Society and its conductor, Walter Damrosch. They introduced it in
Carnegie Hall, on December 3, 1925, with the composer as soloist. This
work, like its eminent predecessor, is in a jazz style; but unlike the
first version of the _Rhapsody in Blue_ it boasts Gershwin’s own
orchestration. (From this time on Gershwin would always prepare his own
orchestrations for his serious concert music.) There are three
movements. The first (_Allegro_) begins with a Charleston theme shared
by the woodwind and timpani. The main body of this movement is given
over to a spicy jazz tune first heard in the bassoon and after that in
full orchestra; to a tender melody for solo piano; and to a lilting
waltz for strings with decorative treatment by the piano. The second
movement (_Andante con moto_) is lyrical throughout, and at times subtly
atmospheric and poetic. Muted trumpet, against harmonies provided by
three clarinets, set the romantic stage for the felicitous lyrical
thoughts that ensue: a brisk, jazzy, strikingly rhythmic idea for the
piano; and a broad, sensual melody for strings. This movement ends in
the same sensitive atmospheric mood with which it began. In the finale
(_Allegro con brio_) dynamic forces are released. Main themes from the
first two movements are recalled with a particularly effective
recapitulation of the second theme of the first movement in the strings.
The _Cuban Overture_ was written in 1932 after a brief visit to Havana
and was introduced at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York, Albert Coates
conducting, on August 16, 1932. This is a concert overture for orchestra
utilizing native percussion Cuban instruments. The work has three
sections played without interruption. The first consists of two
melodies, a Cuban theme in strings followed by a second lyrical subject
which is placed against the contrapuntal background of fragments from
the first Cuban theme. A solo clarinet cadenza leads to the middle
section which is a two-voice canon. The ensuing finale makes
considerable use of earlier thematic material and ends with an
electrifying presentation of a fully projected rumba melody in which
prominent use is made of Cuban percussion instruments (cuban stick,
bongo, gourd, and maracas).
The folk opera, _Porgy and Bess_, was Gershwin’s last work in the field
of serious music—and his greatest. It took Gershwin over two years to
write his opera, a period during which he spent some time in the opera’s
setting of Charleston, South Carolina, absorbing not only local color
but also native Negro music whose style he skilfully assimilated into
his own writing. He completed his opera in the summer of 1935; on
September 30 its world première took place in Boston; and on October 10,
it began its New York run. It cannot be said that either critics or
audiences were fully aware at the time that they were hearing a
masterwork. Some of the Boston and New York scribes found things to
admire in the opera, but most of them were highly critical. Olin Downes
said “it does not utilize all the resources of the operatic composer or
pierce very often to the depths of the pathetic drama.” Lawrence Gilman
found Gershwin’s emphasis on the popular element a disturbing blemish
while Virgil Thomson did not hesitate at the time to refer to it as “a
fake.” The run of 124 performances in New York (followed by a
three-month tour) represented a box-office failure.
Gershwin himself remained convinced he had written a work of first
importance, but regrettably he did not live to see his faith in his
opera justified beyond his wildest hopes or aspirations. Revived in New
York in 1941 it had an eight-month run, the longest of any revival in
Broadway history. More important still, many critics revised earlier
estimates. Virgil Thomson now spoke of it as “a beautiful piece of music
and a deeply moving play for the lyric theater.” Olin Downes said that
Gershwin had here “taken a substantial step, and advanced the cause of
native opera.” The New York Music Critics Circle singled it out as the
most important musical revival of that season.
But still greater triumphs awaited the opera. In 1952, a Negro cast
toured Europe under the auspices of the State Department. Before that
tour was over, several years later, the opera had been heard throughout
Europe, the Near East, in countries behind the Iron Curtain, the Soviet
Union and Latin America. Everywhere it enjoyed acclaim realized by few
contemporary operas anywhere. There were not many dissenting voices in
the universal judgment that _Porgy and Bess_ was one of the most
significant operas of the twentieth century, and certainly one of the
most popular. And its popularity was further enhanced by the stunning
production given it by Samuel Goldwyn in motion pictures in 1959.
The text of the opera was based on the play _Porgy_, by Dorothy and Du
Bose Heyward, produced by the Theater Guild in New York in 1927, which
in turn had been adapted from Du Bose Heyward’s novel of the same name.
The opera text and lyrics were written by Du Bose and Dorothy Heyward
with several additional lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The tragic love affair
of the cripple, Porgy, and Bess, a lady of easy virtue, is set in the
Negro tenement, Catfish Row, in Charleston, South Carolina. Porgy has
found true happiness with Bess for the first time in his life. When
Crown, Bess’ old sweetheart returns to claim her, Porgy kills him but
manages to elude the law after having been detained a while. Upon
returning to Catfish Row he discovers that his Bess had succumbed to the
lure of dope, and the gay life in New York offered her by Sportin’ Life.
Heartbroken, Porgy jumps in his goat cart to follow Bess to New York and
try to bring her back.
The main melodic sections of the opera have provided the material for
several delightful suites. The most famous is _A Symphonic Picture_ by
Robert Russell Bennett, commissioned by Fritz Reiner, the conductor of
the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1942. Bennett created out of the score an
integrated tone poem faithful to Gershwin’s own harmonic and orchestral
intentions. The tone poem (or suite) is made up of the following
sequences in the order of their appearance: Scene of Catfish Row with
the peddler’s calls; Opening Act II; “Summertime” and Opening of Act I;
“I Got Plenty of Nuttin’”; Storm Music; “Bess, You Is My Woman Now”; “It
Ain’t Necessarily So” and the finale, “Oh Lawd I’m On My Way.”
George Gershwin himself prepared an orchestral suite from his opera
score in 1936, and conducted it in performances with several major
American orchestras in 1936-1937. This manuscript, long forgotten, was
found in the library of Ira Gershwin, and was revived in 1959 by Maurice
Abravanel and the Utah Symphony. Now named _Catfish Row_, to distinguish
it from other suites prepared by other musicians, it had five sections:
“Catfish Row,” “Porgy Sings,” “Fugue,” “Hurricane,” and “Good Morning,
Brother.”
Beryl Rubinstein transcribed five of the principal melodies from the
opera for piano, and Jascha Heifetz for violin and piano.
The three piano _Preludes_ are famous not only in their original version
but also in transcriptions for symphony orchestra. The first prelude, in
B-flat major, is rhythmically exciting, highlighting the basic elements
of the tango and the Charleston. The second, in C-sharp minor, is the
most famous of the set. This is an eloquent three-part blues melody. The
concluding prelude, in E-flat major, once again like the first one has
greater rhythmic than melodic interest, a lively expression of
uninhibited good feelings. Besides transcriptions for orchestra by Roy
Bargy, Gregory Stone and several others, these preludes have been
adapted for violin and piano by Heifetz, for trumpet and piano by
Gregory Stone, and for saxophone and piano by Sigurd Rascher.
The _Rhapsody in Blue_ was Gershwin’s first work for symphony orchestra
and it is the composition with which he first won fame, fortune, and
artistic significance. It was commissioned by Paul Whiteman for an
all-American music concert planned by that bandleader for Aeolian Hall,
New York, on February 12, 1924. With the composer at the piano, the
_Rhapsody_ appeared as the tenth and penultimate number of a long
program, but it was the work that gave Whiteman’s concert its main
interest and significance. The critics the following day were divided in
their opinion. On the one hand, Henry T. Finck considered it superior to
the music of Schoenberg and Milhaud; equally high words of praise came
from Gilbert W. Gabriel, William J. Henderson, Olin Downes, Deems
Taylor, and Carl van Vechten. In the opposite camp stood Pitts Sanborn
and Lawrence Gilman who described the work as “meaningless repetition”
and “trite, feeble, and conventional.”
But the opposing opinions notwithstanding, the _Rhapsody in Blue_
immediately became one of the most famous pieces of serious music by an
American. It was transcribed for every possible instrument or groups of
instruments; it was adapted several times for ballet; it was used in a
motion picture. Royalties from the sale of sheet music and records
brought in a fortune. Through the years it has never lost its
popularity; it is still one of the most frequently performed American
symphonic works.
Its prime significance rests in the fact that it decisively proved that
it was possible to produce good music within ambitious structures
utilizing idioms and techniques of American jazz. The _Rhapsody in Blue_
was by no means the first composition to do so; it was preceded by works
by Erik Satie, Stravinsky, and Milhaud among others. But due to its
enormous popular appeal it was the most influential composition of all
in convincing the world’s foremost composers that jazz could be used
with serious intent. Undoubtedly it was largely as a result of the
triumph of the _Rhapsody in Blue_ that world-famous composers like
William Walton, Constant Lambert, Maurice Ravel, Kurt Weill and Paul
Hindemith among many others produced serious jazz music.
Much has been said about its diffuseness of structure, and the inept way
its material is developed. But for all its faults, the _Rhapsody in
Blue_ remains a vital, dynamic and at times an inspired piece of music.
It is filled with wonderful lyricism; its rhythmic cogency is
irresistible; its identity is completely American.
The work opened with an ascending seventeen-note slide by the clarinet
which culminates in the saucy, first theme. A transition in the wind
instrument leads to another brisk, jaunty idea for piano. After some
development, and several ascending chords in the piano we get to the
heart of the rhapsody and to one of the most famous melodies in all
contemporary symphonic music: a spacious, rhapsodic song for the
strings. The full orchestra repeats it. Two earlier themes are now
briefly recalled, the first theme by the full orchestra, the second by
the piano. A brief, dramatic coda brings the rhapsody to an exciting
conclusion.
For the Paul Whiteman concert of 1924, Ferde Grofé provided the
orchestration from a two-piano version handed him by the composer.
Gershwin later prepared his own orchestration, and it is this version
that is now given by all the major symphonic organizations.
The _Second Rhapsody_ for orchestra succeeded the more popular _Rhapsody
in Blue_ by eight years; it was first performed by the Boston Symphony
under Koussevitzky on January 29, 1932. Gershwin originally called this
work _Rhapsody in Rivets_ because the opening measures present a
strongly rhythmic subject in solo piano suggesting riveting. This “rivet
theme” is then taken over by the full orchestra, after which we hear a
rumba melody. These ideas are then developed. A piano cadenza brings on
a spacious melody, first in strings, and then in brass. All this
material is amplified before the rhapsody is swept to an exciting end.
This rhapsody was the outgrowth of a six-minute sequence written by the
composer for the motion picture, _Delicious_. The sequence was intended
to describe the sights and sounds of a city. In the picture only one of
the six minutes of this music was retained, but Gershwin liked the rest
of it well enough to expand it into a major symphonic work.
The _Variations on I Got Rhythm_, for piano and orchestra, was written
for a tour of one-night stands made by Gershwin throughout the United
States in all-Gershwin programs. Its first performance took place in
Boston on January 14, 1934. The main subject is a famous Gershwin song,
“I Got Rhythm” which Ethel Merman made famous in the musical comedy
_Girl Crazy_. The symphonic work begins with a four-note ascending
phrase from the first measure of the song’s chorus, presented by solo
clarinet. The theme is then taken over by solo piano and after that by
full orchestra, after which the entire chorus is presented by the piano.
In the ensuing variations the composer changes not only the basic
structure of the song, melodically and rhythmically, but also its mood
and feeling, traversing the gamut of emotion from melancholy to spirited
gaiety.
Still another remarkably effective symphonic adaptation of “I Got
Rhythm” was made by Morton Gould, and introduced by him with his
orchestra over the CBS radio network in 1944.
Gershwin wrote two marches, both with satirical overtones, which are
often given at “pop concerts.” Each was meant for a musical comedy.
“Strike Up the Band” comes from the musical comedy of the same name,
produced on January 14, 1930 starring Clark and McCullough. This was a
stinging satire on war and international diplomacy, with America
embroiled in a conflict with Switzerland over the issue of chocolates.
The march, “Strike Up the Band,” helps deflate some of the pomp and
ceremony of all martial music.
“Wintergreen for President” comes from _Of Thee I Sing_, the
epoch-making satire on politics in Washington, D.C., first produced on
December 26, 1931. “Wintergreen for President” is the music accompanying
a political torchlight parade whose illuminated signs read “Even Your
Dog Loves Wintergreen” and “A Vote for Wintergreen Is a Vote for
Wintergreen” and so on. The march music carries over the satirical
implications of this procession by quoting such tunes as “Hail, Hail the
Gang’s All Here,” “Tammany,” “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” and
“Stars and Stripes Forever.” This music even carries a hasty
recollection of Irish and Jewish music to suggest that Wintergreen is a
friend of both these people.
Gershwin’s greatest songs are often performed in orchestral
transcriptions at all-Gershwin concerts and other “pop performances,”
sometimes singly, and sometimes in various potpourris. Besides songs
already mentioned in the first part of this section, Gershwin’s greatest
ones include the following: “Bidin’ My Time” from _Girl Crazy_; “I’ve
Got a Crush On You” from _Strike Up the Band_; “Let’s Call the Whole
Thing Off” from _Shall We Dance_; “Liza” from _Show Girl_; “The Man I
Love,” originally meant for _Lady Be Good_ but never used there; “Mine”
from _Let ’Em Eat Cake_; the title song from _Of Thee I Sing_; “Soon”
from _Strike Up the Band_; “That Certain Feeling” from _Tip Toes_; and
“They Can’t Take That Away From Me” from _Shall We Dance_. Among those
who have written orchestral medleys of Gershwin’s songs are Nathan van
Cleve, Fred von Epps, Claude Thornhill, David Broekman, Irving Brodsky,
George B. Leeman, and Nathaniel Finston.