Jacob Gershwine
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George Gershwin composed Rhapsody in Blue in three weeks in 1924 when he was 25. He wrote the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize, Of Thee I Sing 1931, and the opera Porgy and Bess 1935. Gershwin died of a brain tumor in 1937 at age 38.
Names, aliases, and relatives of George Gershwin — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
George Gershwin by the numbers — life, work, and family.
George Gershwin — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershwine on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian-Jewish immigrants Rose and Morris Gershwine. His family moved 28 times during his childhood. At age 10, a friend’s violin recital captivated him and he soon took over his brother Ira’s piano. He quit school at 15 in 1913 to work on Tin Pan Alley, earning $15 a week as a song plugger.
In 1919, Gershwin had his first hit Swanee, performed by Al Jolson. In 1924, Rhapsody in Blue premiered with Paul Whiteman’s band, marking his breakthrough. He followed with Concerto in F 1925 and the musical Oh, Kay! 1926 featuring Someone to Watch Over Me. Next came Funny Face 1927, An American in Paris 1928, and Girl Crazy 1929. In 1931, Of Thee I Sing became the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize. Porgy and Bess 1935 became known as the first true American opera. After its commercial failure, he moved to Hollywood to write for films, including Shall We Dance 1936 starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Gershwin had a ten-year affair with composer Kay Swift, whom he frequently consulted about his music. Their relationship ended due to his mother’s disapproval of Swift not being Jewish. In 1937, he fell in love with Paulette Goddard, then married to Charlie Chaplin, but she would not leave her husband. He also had close relationships with his siblings, especially his brother Ira, with whom he collaborated on many works.
Gershwin’s work blended jazz and classical music in a way that revolutionized American music. Rhapsody in Blue remains one of the most performed works in the repertoire, and Porgy and Bess was the first American opera performed at La Scala in Milan. He posthumously received a Grammy Trustees Award, Congressional Gold Medal, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Library of Congress established the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007, first awarded to Paul Simon. His music continues to be celebrated in films like Manhattan 1979 and at the Olympic Games.
Browse the complete filmography of George Gershwin — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by George Gershwin — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
George Gershwin's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from George Gershwin — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Why Should I Limit Myself to Only One Woman When I Can Have as Many Women as I Want?
Life Is a Lot Like Jazz. It’s Best When You Improvise.
True Music Must Repeat the Thoughts and Inspirations of the People and the Time. My People Are Americans and My Time Is Today.
American Popular Music, Since Its Origin, Has Been Steadily Gaining in Originality. Today It May Truly Lay Claim to Being the Most Vital of Contemporary Music. Unfortunately However, Most Songs Die at an Early Age and Are Soon Completely Forgotten by the Selfsame Public That Once Sang Them with Great Gusto. the Reason for This Is That They Are Sung and Played Too Much When They Are Alive, and Cannot Stand the Strain of Their Very Popularity. This Is Especially True Since the Invention of the Phonograph, and Moreso Since the Widespread Conquest of the Radio.
Sheet Music, as Ordinarily Printed for Mass Sales, Is Arranged with an Eye for Simplicity. the Publishers Cannot Be Blamed for Getting Out Simplified Versions of Songs, Since the Majority of the Purchasers of Popular Music Are Little Girls with Little Hands, Who Have Not Progressed Very Far in Their Study of the Piano.
To Play American Popular Music Most Effectively, One Must Guard Against the Natural Tendency to Make Too Frequent Use of the Sustaining Pedal. Our Study of the Great Romantic Composers Has Trained Us in the Method of the Legato, Whereas Our Popular Music Asks for Staccato Effects, for Almost a Stencilled Style. the Rhythms of American Popular Music Are More or Less Brittle; They Should Be Made to Snap, and at Times to Crackle. the More Sharply the Music Is Played, the More Effective It Sounds.
Not Many Composers Have Ideas. Far More of Them Know How to Use Strange Instruments Which Do Not Require Ideas.
Composing at the Piano Is Not a Good Practice, but I Started That Way and It Has Become a Habit..The Actual Composition Must Be Done in the Brain.
In Composing, We Combine What We Know of Music with What We Feel. I See a Piece of Music in the Form of a Design. with a Melody, One Can Take in the Whole Design in One Look. with a Larger Composition, Like a Concerto, It Is Necessary to Take It Piece by Piece and Then Construct It so Much Longer.
Because ‘Porgy and Bess’ Deals with Negro Life in America, It Brings to the Operatic Form Elements That Have Never Before Appeared in Opera, and I Have Adapted My Method to Utilize the Drama, the Humor, the Superstition, the Religious Fervor, the Dancing and the Irrepressible High Spirits of the Race. If, in Doing This, I Have Created a New Form Which Combines Opera with Theater, This New Form Has Come Quite Naturally Out of the Material.
‘Porgy and Bess’ Is a Folk Tale. Its People Naturally Would Sing Folk Music. When I First Began Work on the Music I Decided Against the Use of Original Folk Material Because I Wanted the Music to Be All of One Piece. Therefore I Wrote My Own Spirituals and Folk Songs. but They Are Still Folk Music and Therefore, Being in Operatic Form, ‘Porgy and Bess’ Becomes an Opera.
The European Boys Have Small Ideas but They Sure Know How to Dress ‘Em Up.
Most Pianists with a Classical Training Fail Lamentably in the Playing of Our Ragtime or Jazz Because They Use the Pedaling of Chopin When Interpreting the Blues of Handy.
Little-known facts about George Gershwin — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Gershwin had an allergy to champagne.
Some consider Gershwin the greatest American composer of the twentieth century.
His Porgy and Bess was the first American opera ever performed at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy.
Porgy and Bess was the first nearly all-black opera to be performed in the Soviet Union.
Gershwin was 25 years old when he composed Rhapsody in Blue in 1924.
As of 2003, Porgy and Bess remains the most beloved and famous American opera ever written.
The Hollywood house Gershwin lived in was later owned by Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney.
His last words were Fred Astaire.
He was the younger brother of lyricist Ira Gershwin.
Gershwin appears on an 8-cent US commemorative postage stamp in the American Arts series issued February 28, 1973.
He was portrayed by Robert Alda in the somewhat fictionalized biopic Rhapsody in Blue 1945.
Rhapsody in Blue was hugely successful at its premiere, coming at the end of a reportedly extremely dull concert.
Gershwin was the first composer to successfully use jazz elements in works written for the concert hall.
He won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical Of Thee I Sing, collaborating with George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, and Ira Gershwin.
Some of his stage musicals, such as Oh, Kay! and Tip-Toes, were made into silent pictures but never re-made in the sound era.
His satirical musical Of Thee I Sing was never filmed by Hollywood because it was considered too political.
The first two complete recordings of Porgy and Bess won back-to-back Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording in 1976 and 1977.
Although Gershwin completed only four songs for The Goldwyn Follies 1938 before his death, three are considered among his best: Love Walked In, Love Is Here to Stay, and I Was Doing Alright.
He and Ira have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7083 Hollywood Boulevard.
Gershwin was brother-in-law of Leonore Gershwin.
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
A man named Alan Gershwin who long claimed to be his son was actually born Albert Schneider.
His sister Frances Gershwin Godowsky was born December 26, 1906, and died January 18, 1999.
Ira Gershwin’s musical Porgy and Bess at the Court Theatre in Chicago was nominated for a 2011 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award.
Ira Gershwin’s musical Crazy for You at Drury Lane Productions Theatre in Chicago was nominated for a 2017 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award.
After Gershwin’s birth, his family moved 28 times in New York.
Gershwin was of Ukrainian-Jewish ancestry; his grandfather Jakov Gershowitz was from Odesa.
His birth certificate identifies him as Jacob Gershwine, pronounced Gersh-vin in Russian and Yiddish.
Gershwin’s first published song was When You Want Em, You Cant Get Em, When Youve Got Em, You Dont Want Em in 1916.
He worked for Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls, recording and arranging piano rolls under pseudonyms like Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn.
Gershwin met songwriter William Daly in the late 1910s; they collaborated on several Broadway musicals.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about George Gershwin.
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