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{gur'-shwin}
The composer of Rhapsody in Blue and PORGY AND BESS, George
Gershwin, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., Sept. 26, 1898, d. July 11, 1937,
was one of America's most versatile and popular songwriters.
With his brother Ira, b. Dec. 6, 1896, d. Aug. 17, 1983, he
was also the creator of the first musical comedy to win the
Pulitzer Prize for drama, Of Thee I Sing. A talented pianist,
George left school at age 15 to become a "song plugger"
in New York's Tin Pan Alley. His brother Ira fared poorly
at the piano but compensated for this deficiency years later
by writing the words to most of George's songs.
"Swanee" (1919), popularized by Al Jolson, was Gershwin's
first hit song. From 1920 to 1924 he wrote songs for the George
White's Scandals revues and met Paul Whiteman, who commissioned
him to write a jazz piece for a concert at Aeolian Hall in
New York City. The result, Rhapsody in Blue (1924), was orchestrated
by Ferde Grofe and first performed, with Gershwin as piano
soloist, with great success. The conductor of the New York
symphony, Walter Damrosch, asked Gershwin for a symphonic
work, and the composer complied with his Concerto in F (1925).
After further studies in composition, Gershwin wrote other
classical-oriented works such as An American in Paris (1928)
and Second Rhapsody (1931). Meanwhile, with his brother Ira
as lyricist, he had also composed the musical shows Lady Be
Good (1924), Strike up the Band (1927), Girl Crazy (1930),
and Of Thee I Sing (1931).
One of Gershwin's deepest ambitions was the creation of an
American opera, and this ambition he achieved with Porgy and
Bess (1935), based on the book by DuBose Heyward and with
lyrics by Heyward and Ira Gershwin. The opera was Gershwin's
last major work. He died of a brain tumor two years later
in Hollywood, where he and Ira had been writing songs for
films.
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