Who is gershwin

The composer died of a brain tumor in Beverly Hills, Calif. To commemorate the th year of his birth, the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded Gershwin with a posthumous citation on April 14, His fondness for African-American music is responsible in part for the rhythmic vitality and blues-tinged lyricism of all his works. Reprinted by permission of The Gale Group. Rhapsody in Blue, with Gershwin as soloist, was a triumph and today it is hailed as a landmark in American music.

One year on from Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin extended his innovative jazz-influenced classical style even further with his piano concerto. In the mids, Gershwin stayed in Paris for a short period, during which he applied to study composition with the noted Nadia Boulanger - pictured - who, along with several other prospective tutors such as Maurice Ravel, rejected him.

She was afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. Gershwin was intrigued by the modernist works of Berg, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Milhaud, and Schoenberg. He asked Schoenberg - who he also painted - for composition lessons. Of the modern European masters, Berg fascinated Gershwin most. Gershwin even hung an autographed photo of Berg in his apartment, alongside a picture of the boxer Jack Dempsey and a punch bag.

Gershwin enjoyed playing tennis with Schoenberg once a week. Despite George's success with concert works, the Gershwins continued to write hit musicals — Oh, Kay! The action takes place in the fictional neighbourhood of Catfish Row, South Carolina. When it was first performed in , it was a box office flop. It is now widely regarded as one of the most important American operas of the 20th century.

After the disappointing reception for Porgy and Bess, Gershwin moved to Hollywood and worked on many film scores. His music for Shall We Dance, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, married ballet with jazz in a new way, and ran for more than an hour in length. It took Gershwin several months to write and orchestrate it. Early in , Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and there were signs he was suffering coordination problems.

He was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Al Jolson — Russian-born American singer, film actor, and comedian. See all related overviews in Oxford Reference ». US composer and pianist, known for his popular songs, musicals, and his folk opera Porgy and Bess. By the age of ten he had managed to arrange for piano lessons and at sixteen began his professional career as a song plugger for a music publisher. In the same year his first musical, La, La Lucille, appeared.

In the s, as well as keeping up a flow of songs and shows, Gershwin spent a considerable amount of time studying composition with avant-garde composers, such as Henry Cowell — In he expanded into the world of orchestral music with Rhapsody in Blue , a blend of jazz and Lisztian romantic pianism. This work was introduced to the public with fantastic success by Paul Whiteman at a Town Hall concert with the composer at the piano.

A subsequent piano concerto was not so well received and the orchestral An American in Paris , although popular, shows the limitations of Gershwin's symphonic technique.

The negro folk opera Porgy and Bess , with Ira Gershwin as librettist, has had more success posthumously than in the composer's lifetime. At the peak of his career a brain tumour was discovered and Gershwin did not survive the operation.