MEET THE COMPOSER:
GEORGE GERSHWIN
by Marilyn Copeland Davidson

George Gershwin was born in 1898. He grew up listening to the music around him in Brooklyn and Manhattan—in the Lower East Side, in the midtown theater district, in the Harlem clubs. He was influenced early on by all the music that he heard, including the early jazz of African Americans and the Eastern European sounds of his Jewish heritage.

At a very young age, George Gershwin decided to learn as much about music as he could. He went to free classical music concerts whenever possible. He secretly practiced on the pianos of his friends. When he was 12, his family finally bought a piano— really for his older brother, Ira. The piano was hoisted up the outside of the building and brought into the apartment through the window. No sooner had this happened than, to the astonishment of everyone in his family, George sat down and started playing a popular tune of the day!

He began taking lessons, and by the age of 15 was good enough to get a job playing piano at the Remick Publishing Company, which was a sheet music establishment in the part of Manhattan then known as "Tin Pan Alley." (Remember, there were no radios or record players then!)

Gershwin became what was known as a "song plugger." People would come in to buy sheet music, and Gershwin would play the newest tunes for them—improvising and elaborating on the tunes to show them to their best advantage. People in show business would come by to look for songs they might use in their acts. Soon Gershwin started writing songs himself. He even began working on Broadway shows, although none was a huge hit. His first really successful song was "Swanee."

Gershwin loved to show off his terrific piano-playing skills at parties. He started getting invitations to social gatherings given by rich and famous people. One of the people who heard him, and was impressed, was Paul Whiteman, known in 1923 as the "King of Jazz." He had a very popular jazz band at that time.

Surprisingly, Whiteman decided to put on an unusual, serious concert called "An Experiment in Modern Music." "Whiteman's Folly" was what some of his friends called it! He did wind up losing thousands of dollars on it, so they were right on that aspect of it. However, in the context of music history, the concert was an unforgettable event because of the premiere performance of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."

Whiteman had received concert training and had a conscious need for jazz to be accepted by his more "highbrow" colleagues. Jazz was already being touted by musicologists as the great American musical invention. He wanted to celebrate this—to justify jazz in the eyes of the highbrows. This gave him the idea of asking George Gershwin to write a symphonic piece for his concert—and the invitation was given.

Gershwin Composes the "Rhapsody in Blue"

At first, Gershwin refused the invitation to write a new composition for Paul Whiteman's concert. He was busy working on a new Broadway show that was about to open in previews in Boston. Several weeks went by, and he actually almost forgot about Whiteman's invitation. Then, early in January, he read in a column in the New York Herald Tribune that he (Gershwin) was at work on a symphony!

This was news—especially to George himself! He decided that he would have to compose something for the concert, for the sake of his own reputation. At first, he thought about writing a simple, short number. Then, he completely changed his mind and decided to write a rhapsody for piano and orchestra—not a concerto or a symphony, but a rhapsody.

A rhapsody is a composition in very free form. It suggests a more emotional kind of music than a concerto. This made it easier for Gershwin, a mostly self-taught musician, to feel more comfortable with composing his work. Like a concerto, "Rhapsody in Blue" does have slow and fast sections and it has at least two solo sections that would qualify as virtuoso solo cadenzas, but it has no formal structure that fits any pre-set formula, as do most concerti.

Up to then, America didn't really have a serious classical music style of its own. Most American composers borrowed ideas from European composers like Beethoven, Bach, and Chopin. This was Gershwin's chance to show how important American music could be. He wanted the piece to have the sounds of the "modern" America of the 1920s. Nostalgia, sentiment, and romance were the key elements in the music Gershwin already knew, and he brought those elements to his assignment. The music is full of the big city sounds of traffic and machines.

Another famous American composer, Victor Herbert, was also to be featured on the concert. He was a fan of Gershwin's, and wanted to be the one who would conduct "Rhapsody in Blue." However, at the last minute, Whiteman decided to conduct it after all. Herbert made an interesting contribution to the piece nonetheless. Originally, the three measures preceding the grand middle melody were each exactly the same, the pitches simply repeating an octave higher. Victor Herbert made the suggestion that it be made into the melodic sequence which leads into the slow section that is so familiar to music lovers today—with the second measure beginning just an augmented fourth higher. (See piano score, page 28, last four measures.)

The Importance of Gershwin as a Composer

Like no other composer, Gershwin expressed his times through his music. Perhaps this is because he came to composition from the viewpoint of a popular music artist of his era. His compositional style was somewhat like his jazz piano improvisations in that he "varied" melodies more than he "developed" them, as did more classically oriented composers. However, his ability to write melody was probably unmatched by any other American composer. On a recent television program featuring some of his songs, Larry Adler, the artist harmonica player, said that Gershwin was "on another planet" compared to other composers of popular songs.

It has been said that one special beauty of his writing is that, as a performer, one can still "do one's own thing" with it. There is some space for personal expression. It seems almost as if he wrote the music with that in mind. As a result, every performance of "Rhapsody in Blue" by various pianists is different.

Paul Whiteman and Gershwin always had a friendly argument about who made whom famous. In reality, if it had not been for Whiteman, there would never have been a "Rhapsody in Blue." If it had not been for Gershwin, that Aeolian Hall concert at which it was introduced would probably have been a total failure—a mere blip on the music history "sands of time."

George Gershwin went on to write the music for many Broadway shows, the "Concerto in F," "American in Paris," and the folk-opera Porgy and Bess. He died of a brain tumor in 1937, at age 39.

Think It Over

Questions to Discuss in Class or at Home

1. Listen to the middle theme of "Rhapsody in Blue" (Piano Score, page 29: Andantino moderato con espressione. Where the melody begins: G Ab Bb Bb,--C D Eb F --- F# --- ). Think of reasons why it seems to be a favorite melody of so many.

2. How can different pianists play "Rhapsody in Blue" in different ways? What can be varied without changing the actual notes? Do modern-day performers change songs in these ways?

3. How do you think this composition would have sounded differently if it were called "Rhapsody in Yellow?" Or "Rhapsody in Red?" Or "Rhapsody in . . . ?"

4. How might you, or you and your cooperative group, create your own rhapsody in a color of your choice, other than blue? What instruments would you use? How many sections would you have? What tempo would it be? What dynamics would there be? Describe the character of the melody or melodies. Write down your ideas. Consider creating a composition that meets the description you just developed and share a performance of it with the class. Gershwin would love it!

More Suggestions

• Sing or listen to one or more selections by George Gershwin in Share the Music

Supplemental Material

• Bulletin Boards
• Celebrating George Gershwin's Birthday
• Involving Families