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George Gershwin: the story on HearLore | HearLore
George Gershwin
Jacob Gershwine, born on the 26th of September 1898 in a second-floor apartment at 242 Snediker Avenue in Brooklyn, would never be known by that name again. He was the son of Morris and Rose Gershwine, Jewish immigrants who had fled the Russian Empire to escape anti-Jewish violence and compulsory military service. His father, originally Moishe Gershovitz, had worked as a leather cutter for women's shoes before changing his name to Morris and moving to America in 1890. His mother, Roza Bruskina, had been born in Saint Petersburg and changed her name to Rose after the family settled in New York. The family lived in a Yiddish-speaking community where the surname was pronounced Gershvin, and the young boy was simply called George. He grew up in a household that moved frequently as his father tried various business ventures, but the defining moment of his childhood arrived when he was ten years old. Until that point, he had cared nothing about music, spending his time roller-skating and misbehaving in the streets of New York. Then, he heard his friend Maxie Rosenzweig play a violin recital. The sound and the way his friend played captivated him, and he immediately began to spend more time at the family piano than his older brother Ira. This sudden obsession would transform a tenement boy into the most influential American composer of the 20th century.
The Tin Pan Alley Plugger
At the age of 15, in 1913, George left school to work as a song plugger for Jerome H. Remick and Company, earning fifteen dollars a week. His job was to play the latest sheet music for potential buyers, a role that required him to be a master of the piano and a quick study of new styles. He earned his first published song, When You Want Em, You Cant Get Em, When Youve Got Em, You Dont Want Em, in 1916, receiving only fifty cents for the effort. By 1916, he was also recording and arranging music for the Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls, producing dozens of rolls under his own name and pseudonyms like Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn. He recorded rolls for Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos, and even made a brief foray into vaudeville, accompanying stars like Nora Bayes and Louise Dresser. His first Broadway song, Making of a Girl, appeared in 1916, but his first national hit came in 1919 with Swanee. Al Jolson, a Broadway star and former minstrel singer, heard Gershwin perform the song at a party and decided to sing it in one of his shows. The song became a massive success, establishing Gershwin as a major force in the music industry. He also began working with lyricist Buddy DeSylva, and together they created the experimental one-act jazz opera Blue Monday in 1922, which is widely regarded as a forerunner to his later masterpiece, Porgy and Bess.
When was George Gershwin born and where did he grow up?
George Gershwin was born on the 26th of September 1898 in a second-floor apartment at 242 Snediker Avenue in Brooklyn. He grew up in a Yiddish-speaking community in New York where his family moved frequently as his father tried various business ventures.
What major musical works did George Gershwin compose in the 1920s?
George Gershwin composed Rhapsody in Blue in 1924 and the tone poem An American in Paris which premiered at Carnegie Hall on the 13th of December 1928. He also created stage musicals including Lady Be Good in 1924, Oh Kay! in 1926, and Funny Face in 1927.
How did George Gershwin die and what was the cause of his death?
George Gershwin died on the 11th of July 1937 at the age of 38 after suffering from a brain tumor believed to be a glioblastoma. He collapsed on the 9th of July 1937 and fell into a coma before doctors removed the tumor during surgery.
Who was George Gershwin's long-term partner and what was their relationship?
George Gershwin had a ten-year affair with composer Kay Swift whom he frequently consulted about his music. The two never married although Swift eventually divorced her husband James Warburg to commit to the relationship.
When did the copyrights on George Gershwin's works expire in the United States?
The copyrights on all of George Gershwin's solo works expired in the United States on the 1st of January 2020 for his pre-1925 work. The George and Ira Gershwin Collection resides at the Library of Congress and a partnership with the University of Michigan was created in September 2013.
In 1924, Gershwin composed his first major work, Rhapsody in Blue, for orchestra and piano. It was orchestrated by Ferde Grofé and premiered by Paul Whiteman's Concert Band in New York. The piece subsequently became his most popular work, establishing his signature style and genius in blending vastly different musical styles, including jazz and classical music, in revolutionary ways. The same year, George and Ira Gershwin collaborated on a stage musical comedy, Lady Be Good, which included future standards like Fascinating Rhythm and Oh, Lady Be Good. They followed this with Oh, Kay! in 1926, Funny Face in 1927, and Strike Up the Band in 1927 and 1930. Gershwin allowed the latter song, with a modified title, to be used as a football fight song for UCLA. In the mid-1920s, Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period, during which he applied to study composition with the noted Nadia Boulanger. She, along with several other prospective tutors such as Maurice Ravel, turned him down, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. While there, Gershwin wrote the tone poem An American in Paris. This work received mixed reviews upon its first performance at Carnegie Hall on the 13th of December 1928, but it quickly became part of the standard repertoire in Europe and the United States. The piece reflected his conscious journey as a composer, with the opening part developed in typical French style, in the manner of Debussy and Les Six, though the tunes were original.
The Opera That Crossed Barriers
In 1929, the Gershwin brothers created Show Girl, and the following year brought Girl Crazy, which introduced the standards Embraceable You, sung by Ginger Rogers, and I Got Rhythm. 1931's Of Thee I Sing became the first musical comedy to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin spent the summer of 1934 on South Carolina's Folly Island after he was invited to visit by DuBose Heyward, author of the novel Porgy. It was there that he was inspired to write the music to his opera Porgy and Bess. Porgy and Bess was considered another American classic by the composer of Rhapsody in Blue, even if critics could not quite figure out how to evaluate it, or decide whether it was opera or simply an ambitious Broadway musical. It crossed the barriers, per theater historian Robert Kimball. It was not a musical work per se, and it was not a drama per se, but it elicited response from both music and drama critics. The work has sort of always been outside category. 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. The opera included the hit Summertime, which has become one of the most recorded songs in history. The collaboration with Ira and DuBose Heyward resulted in a work that blended African-American blues and ragtime with classical forms, creating a unique and enduring piece of American art.
The Hollywood Years And The Final Score
After the commercial failure of Porgy and Bess, Gershwin moved to Hollywood, California. He befriended Arnold Schoenberg, with whom he played tennis. In 1936, he was commissioned by RKO Pictures to write the music for the film Shall We Dance, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Gershwin's score, which married ballet with jazz in a new way, runs over an hour. It took Gershwin several months to compose and orchestrate. George and Ira also wrote the songs for A Damsel in Distress, like Shall We Dance released in 1937, and some of the songs for The Goldwyn Follies. After George's death in 1937, Ira continued working with Vernon Duke on the latter film, and it was released in 1938. George and Ira's songs for those three films included an extraordinary number of popular hits and future jazz standards: They All Laughed, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off, and They Cant Take That Away from Me from Shall We Dance, Nice Work If You Can Get It and A Foggy Day from A Damsel in Distress, and Love Is Here to Stay from The Goldwyn Follies. These songs demonstrated his ability to adapt his style to the demands of the film industry while maintaining his unique voice. The film scores were a testament to his versatility and his ability to create music that resonated with audiences across different mediums.
The Burning Rubber And The Brain Tumor
Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he smelled burning rubber. As early as February 1934, he had said he smelled burning garbage at the Detroit railway station, though those with him did not. On the 11th of February 1937, he performed his Piano Concerto in F in a special concert of his music with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the direction of French maestro Pierre Monteux. Gershwin, normally a superb pianist in his own compositions, suffered coordination problems and blackouts during the performance. He was at the time working on other Hollywood film projects while living with Ira and his wife Leonore in their rented house in Beverly Hills. Leonore Gershwin began to be disturbed by George's mood swings and his seeming inability to eat without spilling food at the dinner table. She suspected mental illness and insisted he be moved out of their house to lyricist Yip Harburg's empty quarters nearby, where he was placed in the care of his valet, Paul Mueller. The headaches and olfactory hallucinations continued. On the night of the 9th of July 1937, Gershwin collapsed in Harburg's house, where he had been working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies. His last words were Fred Astaire. He was rushed to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, and fell into a coma. Only then did his doctors come to believe that he was suffering from a brain tumor. Leonore called George's close friend Emil Mosbacher and explained the dire need to find a neurosurgeon. Mosbacher immediately called pioneering neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing in Boston, who, retired for several years by then, recommended Walter Dandy, who was on a boat fishing in the Chesapeake Bay with Harry Nice, the governor of Maryland. Mosbacher called the White House and had a Coast Guard cutter sent to find the governor's yacht and bring Dandy quickly to shore. Mosbacher then chartered a plane and flew Dandy to Newark Airport, where he was to catch a plane to Los Angeles. By that time, Gershwin's condition was critical and the need for surgery was immediate. Before Dandy could arrive, in the early hours of Sunday, the 11th of July 1937, doctors at Cedars removed a large brain tumor, believed to have been a glioblastoma, but Gershwin died that morning at the age of 38. The fact that he had suddenly collapsed and become comatose after he stood up on the 9th of July has been interpreted as brain herniation with Duret hemorrhages.
The Relationship With Kay Swift
Gershwin had a ten-year affair with composer Kay Swift, whom he frequently consulted about his music. The two never married, although she eventually divorced her husband James Warburg to commit to the relationship. Swift's granddaughter, Katharine Weber, has suggested that the pair were not married because George's mother Rose was unhappy that Kay Swift wasn't Jewish. The Gershwins' 1926 musical Oh, Kay! was named for her. After Gershwin's death, Swift arranged some of his music, transcribed several of his recordings, and collaborated with his brother Ira on several projects. Their relationship was a significant part of his personal life, and her influence on his music was substantial. They shared a deep musical connection, and her support was crucial during his later years. The affair was a source of both joy and tension, as it challenged the social norms of the time and the expectations of his family. Despite the challenges, their bond remained strong, and her contributions to his legacy were significant. She helped preserve his work and ensured that his music continued to be performed and appreciated after his death.
The Legacy Of A Musical Genius
Gershwin died intestate, and his estate passed to his mother. The estate continues to collect royalties in the United States from licensing the copyrights on his post-Rhapsody in Blue work. The estate supported the Sonny Bono Copyright Term extension Act, which extended the U.S. 75-year copyright protection an additional 20 years, because its 1923 cutoff date was shortly before Gershwin had begun to create his most popular works. The copyrights on all Gershwin's solo works expired at the end of 2007 in the European Union, based on its life-plus-70-years rule, and in the U.S. on the 1st of January 2020, on Gershwin's pre-1925 work. In 2005, The Guardian determined using estimates of earnings accrued in a composer's lifetime that George Gershwin was the wealthiest composer of all time. The George and Ira Gershwin Collection, much of which was donated by Ira and the Gershwin family estates, resides at the Library of Congress. In September 2013, a partnership between the estates of Ira and George Gershwin and the University of Michigan was created and will provide the university's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance access to Gershwin's entire body of work, which includes all of Gershwin's papers, compositional drafts, and scores. This direct access to all of his works provides opportunities to musicians, composers, and scholars to analyze and reinterpret his work with the goal of accurately reflecting the composers' vision to preserve his legacy. In 2023, The Gershwin Critical Edition, the first-ever scholarly edition of the music and lyrics of George and Ira Gershwin, was published. His influence continues to be felt in the world of music, with his works being performed and recorded by artists across the globe. The Gershwin Theatre on Broadway is named after George and Ira, and the Library of Congress created the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007 in honor of both George and Ira Gershwin. His legacy is one of innovation, creativity, and enduring musical excellence.