George Gershwin

20th-Century Composers

by Rodney Greenberg

George Gershwin (1898–1937), during his short but prolific career, produced a varied body of work that combined symphonic composition with the musical styles popular in his era, including jazz and Negro spirituals. Known primarily for his jazz-tinged orchestral work Rhapsody in Blue , his folk opera Porgy and Bess , and his many wonderful songs featured in the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Gershwin and his lyricist brother Ira were key figures in the songwriting circles of pre-war America. Rodney Greenberg’s lively biography paints a vivid picture of this exciting era in the development of American music, and places Gershwin’s life and career within the social and cultural contexts in which he flourished.

Genres: Music, Biography

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 1998

Reviews

[Jess Monnier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview of Gershwin's life and works. Greenberg doesn't get into a lot of details (it's not a long book), but it's fairly comprehensive. A good introduction to Gershwin and easy to read.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was another of the straightforward Phaidon composer biographies and thus provided a good overview of Gershwin's life and work. Even though Gershwin is not a primary interest of mine, I appreciated getting good information on him. I especially liked the way his life story shed a lot of light on the heyday of Tin Pan Alley and the Broadway musical. Plus, it's kind of refreshing to read about a composer who was financially and socially successful as a result of his work. However, I was not happy with the way Greenberg seemed to feel the need to constantly defend Gershwin's viability and quality as a composer of serious concert music. It got a irritating, particularly since Greenberg's primary method was to denigrate some of Gershwin's contemporaries (e.g., Virgil Thomson, Dohnyanyi) and emphasize how much more commercially successful and popular Gershwin's concert pieces are compared with these contemporaries.
Tags: books, music