Gershwin was born
Jacob Gershowitz in
Brooklyn,
New York to
Russian
Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Morris (Moishe) Gershowitz, changed the family name to Gershwin sometime after emigrating from
St. Petersburg,
Russia. Gershwin's mother, Rosa Bruskin, also emigrated from Russia; she married Gershowitz four years later.
George Gershwin was the second of four children. He first displayed interest in music at the age of ten, when he was intrigued by what he heard at a friend's violin recital. The sound and the way his friend played captured him. His parents had bought a piano for his older brother
Ira Gershwin, but to his parents' surprise and Ira's relief, it was George who played it. Although his younger sister
Frances Gershwin was the first in the family to make money from her musical talents, she married young and became a housewife and mother, giving up her own singing and dance career—settling into painting, a hobby of George's.
Gershwin tried various piano teachers for two years, and then was introduced to Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller, the pianist in the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra. Hambitzer acted as George's mentor until his death, in
1918. Hambitzer taught George conventional piano technique, introduced him to music of the European classical tradition, and encouraged him to attend orchestral concerts. (At home following such concerts, young George would attempt to reproduce at the piano the music he had heard.) He later studied with classical composer
Rubin Goldmark and avant-garde composer-theorist
Henry Cowell.
His first job as a performer was as a "song plugger" for Remick's, a publishing company on New York City's
Tin Pan Alley. His
1917 novelty
rag "Rialto Ripples" was a commercial success, and in
1919 he scored his first big national hit with his song "
Swanee." In 1916, he started working for Aeolian Company and Standard Music Rolls in New York, recording and arranging
piano rolls. He produced dozens, if not hundreds, of rolls under his own and assumed names. (Pseudonyms attributed to Gershwin include Fred Murtha and Bert Wynn.) He also recorded rolls of his own compositions for the Duo-Art and
Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos. As well as recording piano rolls, Gershwin made a brief foray into
vaudeville, accompanying both
Nora Bayes and
Louise Dresser on the piano.
In 1924, George and Ira collaborated on a musical comedy,
Lady Be Good which included such future
standards as "
Fascinating Rhythm" and "Lady Be Good."
This was followed by
Oh, Kay! (1926);
Funny Face in (1927);
Strike Up the Band (1927 and 1930);
Show Girl (1929),
Girl Crazy (1930), which introduced the standard "
I Got Rhythm," and
Of Thee I Sing (1931), the first musical comedy to win a
Pulitzer Prize.
In 1924, Gershwin composed his first major classical work,
Rhapsody in Blue for orchestra and piano, which was arranged by
Ferde Grofé and premiered with
Paul Whiteman's concert band in New York. It proved to be his most popular work.
Gershwin stayed in
Paris for a short period, where he applied to study composition with
Nadia Boulanger. While there, he wrote
An American in Paris. This work received mixed reviews. There are orchestral nods towards
Ravel's piano concerto of the same period. Eventually he found the music scene in Paris supercilious, and returned to America.
His most ambitious composition was
Porgy and Bess (1935). Called by Gershwin himself a "folk opera," the piece premiered in a Broadway theater and is now widely regarded as the most important American opera of the twentieth century. Based on the novel
Porgy by
DuBose Heyward, the action takes place in a black neighborhood in
Charleston, South Carolina, and with the exception of several minor speaking roles, all of the characters are black. The music combines elements of popular music of the day, which was strongly influenced by black music, with techniques found in opera, such as recitative and
leitmotifs.
Early in 1937, Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he was smelling burned rubber. He had developed a brain tumor. In June, he performed in a special concert of his music with the
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra with French maestro
Pierre Monteux. It was in
Hollywood, while working on the score of
The Goldwyn Follies, that he collapsed and, on
July 11,
1937, died at the age of 38 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital following surgery for the tumor. Coincidentally, just a few months later in 1937, Gershwin's idol
Ravel also died following brain surgery.
Gershwin had a 10-year affair with composer
Kay Swift and frequently consulted her about his music.
Oh, Kay was named for her. After George died, Swift arranged some of his music, transcribed some of his recordings, and collaborated with Ira on several projects. Gershwin also had an affair with actress
Paulette Goddard.
Gershwin died
intestate, and all his property passed to his mother. He is buried in the
Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The Gershwin estate continues to bring in significant royalties from licensing the
copyrights on Gershwin's work. 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. The copyrights on those works expire at the end of 2007 in the
European Union and will expire between 2019 and 2027 in the
United States of America.
According to
Fred Astaire's letters to
Adele Astaire, George whispered Fred's name before passing away.
In
2005,
The Guardian determined using "estimates of earnings accrued in a composer's lifetime" that George Gershwin was the richest composer of all time.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1558446,00.html
George Gershwin was inducted into the
Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006. The
George Gershwin Theatre on Broadway is named after him.
