He married Rose on July 21, 1895, and Gershowitz soon Americanized his name to Gershwine.
Their first child, Ira Gershwin, was born on December 6, 1896, after which the family moved into a second-floor apartment at 242 Snediker Avenue in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. ===Early life=== On September 26, 1898, George was born as second son to Morris and Rose Bruskin Gershwin in the Snediker Avenue apartment.
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Bruskin Gershowitz; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer, pianist and painter whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres.
Their first child, Ira Gershwin, was born on December 6, 1896, after which the family moved into a second-floor apartment at 242 Snediker Avenue in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. ===Early life=== On September 26, 1898, George was born as second son to Morris and Rose Bruskin Gershwin in the Snediker Avenue apartment.
Until 1908, he cared nothing about music.
Al Jolson, a famous Broadway singer of the day, heard Gershwin perform "Swanee" at a party and decided to sing it in one of his shows. In the late 1910s, Gershwin met songwriter and music director William Daly.
Arthur Gershwin followed in the paths of George and Ira, also becoming a composer of songs, musicals, and short piano works. With a degree of frustration, George tried various piano teachers for about two years (circa 1911) before finally being introduced to Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller (circa 1913), the pianist in the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra.
Arthur Gershwin followed in the paths of George and Ira, also becoming a composer of songs, musicals, and short piano works. With a degree of frustration, George tried various piano teachers for about two years (circa 1911) before finally being introduced to Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller (circa 1913), the pianist in the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra.
Until his death in 1918, Hambitzer remained Gershwin's musical mentor, taught him conventional piano technique, introduced him to music of the European classical tradition, and encouraged him to attend orchestral concerts. ===Tin Pan Alley and Broadway, 1913–1923=== {|align=right | |} In 1913, Gershwin left school at the age of 15 and found his first job as a "song plugger".
Remick and Company, a Detroit-based publishing firm with a branch office on New York City's Tin Pan Alley, and he earned $15 a week. His first published song was "When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em" in 1916 when Gershwin was only 17 years old.
It earned him 50 cents. In 1916, Gershwin started working for Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls in New York, recording and arranging.
His 1917 novelty ragtime, "Rialto Ripples", was a commercial success. In 1919 he scored his first big national hit with his song "Swanee," with words by Irving Caesar.
Until his death in 1918, Hambitzer remained Gershwin's musical mentor, taught him conventional piano technique, introduced him to music of the European classical tradition, and encouraged him to attend orchestral concerts. ===Tin Pan Alley and Broadway, 1913–1923=== {|align=right | |} In 1913, Gershwin left school at the age of 15 and found his first job as a "song plugger".
His 1917 novelty ragtime, "Rialto Ripples", was a commercial success. In 1919 he scored his first big national hit with his song "Swanee," with words by Irving Caesar.
His first recording was his own "Swanee" with the Fred Van Eps Trio in 1919.
Gershwin in His Time: A Biographical Scrapbook, 1919–1937 (1998).
It subsequently went on to be his most popular work, and established Gershwin's signature style and genius in blending vastly different musical styles in revolutionary ways. Since the early 1920s Gershwin had frequently worked with the lyricist Buddy DeSylva.
He did record additional rolls throughout the 1920s of his main hits for the Aeolian Company's reproducing piano, including a complete version of his Rhapsody in Blue. Compared to the piano rolls, there are few accessible audio recordings of Gershwin's playing.
The recording took place before "Swanee" became famous as an Al Jolson specialty in early 1920. Gershwin recorded an abridged version of Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman and his orchestra for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1924, soon after the world premiere.
The B-side of the Columbia Masterworks release features Tilson Thomas leading the New York Philharmonic in An American In Paris. In 1976, RCA Records, as part of its "Victrola Americana" line, released a collection of Gershwin recordings taken from 78s recorded in the 1920s and called the LP "Gershwin plays Gershwin, Historic First Recordings" (RCA Victrola AVM1-1740).
The estate supported the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act because its 1923 cutoff date was shortly before Gershwin had begun to create his most popular works.
Daly was a frequent arranger, orchestrator and conductor of Gershwin's music, and Gershwin periodically turned to him for musical advice. ===Musical, Europe and classical music, 1924–1928=== In 1924, Gershwin composed his first major classical work, Rhapsody in Blue, for orchestra and piano.
In 1924, George and Ira Gershwin collaborated on a stage musical comedy Lady Be Good, which included such future standards as "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Oh, Lady Be Good!".
The recording took place before "Swanee" became famous as an Al Jolson specialty in early 1920. Gershwin recorded an abridged version of Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman and his orchestra for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1924, soon after the world premiere.
The first fascicles of The Gershwin Critical Edition, edited by Mark Clague, are expected in 2017; they will cover the 1924 jazz band version of Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and Porgy and Bess. ===Awards and honors=== In 1937, Gershwin received his sole Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 1937 Oscars for "They Can't Take That Away from Me", written with his brother Ira for the 1937 film Shall We Dance.
The Gershwins' 1926 musical Oh, Kay was named for her.
Gershwin and the same orchestra made an electrical recording of the abridged version for Victor in 1927.
Included were recordings of "Rhapsody in Blue" with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and Gershwin on piano; "An American in Paris", from 1927 with Gershwin on celesta; and "Three Preludes", "Clap Yo' Hands" and Someone to Watch Over Me", among others.
This work received mixed reviews upon its first performance at Carnegie Hall on December 13, 1928, but it quickly became part of the standard repertoire in Europe and the United States. ===New York, 1929–1935=== In 1929, the Gershwin brothers created Show Girl; The following year brought Girl Crazy, which introduced the standards "Embraceable You", debuted by Ginger Rogers, and "I Got Rhythm".
Schoenberg refused, saying "I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you're such a good Gershwin already." (This quote is similar to one credited to Maurice Ravel during Gershwin's 1928 visit to France – "Why be a second-rate Ravel, when you are a first-rate Gershwin?") Gershwin was particularly impressed by the music of Berg, who gave him a score of the Lyric Suite.
This work received mixed reviews upon its first performance at Carnegie Hall on December 13, 1928, but it quickly became part of the standard repertoire in Europe and the United States. ===New York, 1929–1935=== In 1929, the Gershwin brothers created Show Girl; The following year brought Girl Crazy, which introduced the standards "Embraceable You", debuted by Ginger Rogers, and "I Got Rhythm".
In 1929, Gershwin "supervised" the world premiere recording of An American in Paris with Nathaniel Shilkret and the Victor Symphony Orchestra.
They followed this with Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927) and Strike Up the Band (1927 and 1930).
In addition, there is newsreel footage of Gershwin playing "Mademoiselle from New Rochelle" and "Strike Up the Band" on the piano during a Broadway rehearsal of the 1930 production of Strike Up the Band.
He attended the American premiere of Wozzeck, conducted by Leopold Stokowski in 1931, and was "thrilled and deeply impressed". Russian Joseph Schillinger's influence as Gershwin's teacher of composition (1932–1936) was substantial in providing him with a method of composition.
In 1935 RCA Victor asked him to supervise recordings of highlights from Porgy and Bess; these were his last recordings. A 74-second newsreel film clip of Gershwin playing I Got Rhythm has survived, filmed at the opening of the Manhattan Theater (now The Ed Sullivan Theater) in August 1931.
Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, and Ira Gershwin. Gershwin spent the summer of 1934 on Folly Island in South Carolina after he was invited to visit by the author of the novel Porgy, DuBose Heyward.
Some of these performances were preserved on transcription discs and have been released on LP and CD. In 1934, in an effort to earn money to finance his planned folk opera, Gershwin hosted his own radio program titled Music by Gershwin.
The show was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network from February to May and again in September through the final show on December 23, 1934.
In 1935 RCA Victor asked him to supervise recordings of highlights from Porgy and Bess; these were his last recordings. A 74-second newsreel film clip of Gershwin playing I Got Rhythm has survived, filmed at the opening of the Manhattan Theater (now The Ed Sullivan Theater) in August 1931.
But the work has sort of always been outside category." ===Last years, 1936–37=== After the commercial failure of Porgy and Bess, Gershwin moved to Hollywood, California.
In 1936, he was commissioned by RKO Pictures to write the music for the film Shall We Dance, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Bruskin Gershowitz; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer, pianist and painter whose compositions spanned both popular and classical genres.
He died in 1937 of a malignant brain tumor.
After Gershwin's death, Swift arranged some of his music, transcribed several of his recordings, and collaborated with his brother Ira on several projects. ===Illness and death=== Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he smelled burning rubber.
On February 11, 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.
The headaches and olfactory hallucinations continued. On the night of July 9, 1937 Gershwin collapsed in Harburg's house, where he had been working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies.
In the early hours of July 11, doctors at Cedars removed a large brain tumor, believed to have been a glioblastoma, but Gershwin died on the morning of Sunday, July 11, 1937, at the age of 38.
John O'Hara remarked: "George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to." He was interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
A memorial concert was held at the Hollywood Bowl on September 8, 1937, at which Otto Klemperer conducted his own orchestration of the second of Gershwin's Three Preludes. ==Musical style and influence== Gershwin was influenced by French composers of the early twentieth century.
The first fascicles of The Gershwin Critical Edition, edited by Mark Clague, are expected in 2017; they will cover the 1924 jazz band version of Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and Porgy and Bess. ===Awards and honors=== In 1937, Gershwin received his sole Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 1937 Oscars for "They Can't Take That Away from Me", written with his brother Ira for the 1937 film Shall We Dance.
The comedy team of Clark and McCullough are seen conversing with Gershwin, then singing as he plays. In 1945, the film biography Rhapsody in Blue was made, starring Robert Alda as George Gershwin.
A third account of Gershwin's musical relationship with his teacher was written by Gershwin's close friend Vernon Duke, also a Schillinger student, in an article for the Musical Quarterly in 1947. What set Gershwin apart was his ability to manipulate forms of music into his own unique voice.
The film contains many factual errors about Gershwin's life, but also features many examples of his music, including an almost complete performance of Rhapsody in Blue. In 1965, Movietone Records released an album MTM 1009 featuring Gershwin's piano rolls of the titled George Gershwin plays RHAPSODY IN BLUE and his other favorite compositions.
The B-side of the LP featured nine other recordings. In 1975, Columbia Records released an album featuring Gershwin's piano rolls of Rhapsody In Blue, accompanied by the Columbia Jazz Band playing the original jazz band accompaniment, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
The B-side of the Columbia Masterworks release features Tilson Thomas leading the New York Philharmonic in An American In Paris. In 1976, RCA Records, as part of its "Victrola Americana" line, released a collection of Gershwin recordings taken from 78s recorded in the 1920s and called the LP "Gershwin plays Gershwin, Historic First Recordings" (RCA Victrola AVM1-1740).
At the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, "Rhapsody in Blue" was performed in spectacular fashion by many pianists. The soundtrack to Woody Allen's 1979 film Manhattan is composed entirely of Gershwin's compositions, including Rhapsody in Blue, "Love is Sweeping the Country", and "But Not for Me", performed by both the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and the Buffalo Philharmonic under Michael Tilson Thomas.
At the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, "Rhapsody in Blue" was performed in spectacular fashion by many pianists. The soundtrack to Woody Allen's 1979 film Manhattan is composed entirely of Gershwin's compositions, including Rhapsody in Blue, "Love is Sweeping the Country", and "But Not for Me", performed by both the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta and the Buffalo Philharmonic under Michael Tilson Thomas.
The nomination was posthumous; Gershwin died two months after the film's release. In 1985, the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to George and Ira Gershwin.
"What Caused George Gershwin's Untimely Death?" Journal of Medical Biography 9 (February 2001): 28–30 ==Further reading== Alpert, Hollis.
My time is today." In 2007, the Library of Congress named its Prize for Popular Song after George and Ira Gershwin.
On March 1, 2007, the first Gershwin Prize was awarded to Paul Simon. ==Recordings and film== Early in his career, under both his own name and pseudonyms, Gershwin recorded more than one hundred and forty player piano rolls which were a main source of his income.
The first fascicles of The Gershwin Critical Edition, edited by Mark Clague, are expected in 2017; they will cover the 1924 jazz band version of Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and Porgy and Bess. ===Awards and honors=== In 1937, Gershwin received his sole Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 1937 Oscars for "They Can't Take That Away from Me", written with his brother Ira for the 1937 film Shall We Dance.
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