Remembering the music of george gershwin
Remembering the music of george gershwinRemembering the Music of George Gershwin
Who was George Gershwin? Today, most people would answer that question by saying that he was the composer of the song that’s in the airline commercial. Although that is true, he was much more than that. Gershwin was the most celebrated and wealthiest American composer who expressed the dreams of every American citizen of the 1920's. He achieved this by mixing different styles of music like Jewish, black, jazz, classical, blues and put them into one genre and created absolute music.
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 26, 1898. He had the childhood of any average kid growing up in the early 1900's. His father Morris, a Russian Jewish immigrant, had many different jobs so George was forced to move around a lot and learn how to fight for his survival. Many people say that he was a very wild and robust child who was not interested in any type of school work (Schwartz 11).
In the neighborhood where Gershwin grew up, anyone who was interested in music was known as a sissy. So after passing by a penny arcade and discovering a mechanical piano, George would go to homes of friends who had pianos and secretly tap out the popular tunes of the day (Peyser 21). One day his parents purchased a piano for Ira, the eldest, and as soon as it was moved in George sat down and began to play. The family was flabbergasted! They had no idea he was interested in music or where he learned how to play the piano (Adam 12:08).
George’s parents immediately sought a teacher for him. They found a lady named Ms. Green from the neighborhood who, for fifty cents an hour, taught him all of the scales and modes. He then moved on to Mr. Goldberg who, for one dollar and fifty cents an hour, had him progress to opera overtures and arias. When his skill was matched to his teacher’s, he was introduced to Charles Hambutzer who taught him proper techniques, lyricism, harmony and most importantly opened up the worlds of Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Schoenberg (Ewen 58-60).
Under Hambutzer’s guidance, Gershwin was faithful to
his practicing and musical studies and in May of 1914 he was offered a job at Remick’s Music Publishing House in Tin Pan Alley. Gershwin jumped at the chance to become the youngest pianist ever employed at the popular music capital of the world. So at the age of fifteen, he quit school and became a song plugger (Schwartz 21).
The purpose of a song plugger was to make a song become a hit. Everyday hundreds of singers and actors came to Tin Pan Alley looking for fresh new materials. The song pluggers could...
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