George Gershwin, born Jacob Gershowitz (Brooklyn, New York City, september 26, 1898 – July 11, Hollywood, 1937) was an American composer. Gershwin was best known for his work on the border of the existing and the emerging genre Classic jazz.
Content
Life Course[Edit]
Gershwin was born as the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. Gershwin began his career around 1916 as songs composer in the United States in what one Tin Pan Alley calls it. This meant that a songs composer his music played in a shop selling sheet music was sold, with the goal to increase the sales of its sheet music. In much of his work his brother Ira wrote the lyrics.
Gershwin got national fame in America and soon he came into contact with theater producers. He began to write for Broadway musicals who were. He wrote, for example, contribute to some of the Ziegfeld show Follies. He also wrote the music for musicals as Lady, Be Good!, Oh, Kay!, Funny Face (later made into a film starring Fred Astaire andAudrey Hepburn), Showgirl, Strike up the Band, Crazy for You and or tea I Sing.
Are ' Songbooks ' by various singers on plate and put on cd. One of the most famous sets is sung by Ella Fitzgerald.
Despite its large successes not light genre wasn't satisfied with him. He wanted to be seen as a serious ' classical ' composer. His first and most important attempted was writing the Rhapsody in Blue, which can be seen as an attempt to to bring classical music and jazz. The work was created in 1924 and was first performed by the composer on piano and the Paul WhitemanOrchestra (dance). The American composer Ferde Grofé has the piece for piano and Symphony Orchestra later modified. That would be the version that went down in history and which also nowadays always played.
Further attempts to be taken seriously in classical music were his Concerto in F (a piano concerto) and An American in Paris. Also this music was soon in (musical) films used and also now found not the recognition he was looking for Gershwin.
On one of his European voyages in 1928 were looking for contact with the composers Igor Stravinsky, Gershwin, Darius Milhaud , Francis Poulenc, and Maurice Ravel. He asked in particular to Ravel or who wanted to give him composition lessons. Ravel would-according to tradition-then replied: "why be a second-rate Ravel, when you want to you already a first-rate Gershwin are?" With Arnold Schoenberg, who after his flight from the fascist Germany lived in the USA, not only respect him but also Covenant friendship.
Gershwin continued afterwards to compose his masterpiece: the opera Porgy and Bess, which was completed in 1935 and in which all Sung roles were performed by black singers and singers. Only a few very small ' speaking ' roles were played by whites. This opera during his life was far from successful. He was therefore deeply disappointed. Today, the opera is appreciated but not often performed, because it is difficult to find a suitable occupation proves to be.
Meanwhile the phenomena of a brain tumor and he died soon thereafter joined him on 38-year-old age. He died a rich man, but had not gotten the recognition he so wanted. After his death his work has gotten more appreciation (also among the lovers of classical music) and are particularly classical works performed in the concert hall on a regular basis.
Work
See list of compositions by George Gershwin for the main article on this topic.
Some of the best known works are:
- Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
- Concerto in F (1925)
- Preludes: 3 pieces (in b-flat, cis and es) issued by New World Musc Corp., 1927 and 5 pieces composed or edited from manuscripts by Alicia Akash, Warner Bros Edition 1996
- An American in Paris (1928)
- Or Tea I Sing (1931)
- Second Rhapsody (1931)
- Cuban Overture (1932)
- Porgy and Bess (1935) containing the song/aria Summertime
Radio 2 Top 2000[Edit]
| Number (s) with markings
in the Radio 2 Top 2000 |
' 99 | ' 00 | ' 01 | ' 02 | ' 03 | ' 04 | ' 05 | ' 06 | ' 07 | ' 08 | ' 09 | ' 10 | ' 11 | ' 12 | ' 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhapsody in Blue | 599 | 1042 | 1667 | - | - | 1997 | 1868 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |