George and Ira Gershwin were the products of Jewish Immigrants who settled in this country in the latter part of the 19th century. Staking up home in New York, the Gershwin family mved to 37 different redidencies and although they were immigrants and fairly new to the free world, they were able to live comfortably.

Young George was a piano virtuoso from the day that he was exposed to it. His father had bought his brother, Ira a piano. When Ira didn't show much interest in it, George took the piano and with the instruction of renouned piano teachers, he became a prodigy. Meanwhile, his brother Ira was also proving himself as a master lyricist.

By 1920, both brothers were well entrenched in Tin Pan Alley, the birth place of many American songs. The place was notorious for the many pianos which played as people tried to sell sheet music. George was working as one of these people and was also an amateur song writer. One of these songs reached Broadway sensation Al Jolson, who took that song and made it one of Gershwin's most popular hits.


During this time period between the 1920 succes of "Swanne" and the premire of "Rhapsody in Blue", George was writing songs for some Broadway productions and for many musical revews. None of these were particularly great songs and of course, these aren't remebered as much as the ingenius work he would achive with his brother Ira during the 1920's & '30's. In fact, Ira was oftenly working with George as a collaborator and lyricist on his works, not receving credit for his work.

Immersed not only in Tin Pan Alley but in the Harlem Rennaisance, George was developing radical musical pricipals giving classical music an American touch to it by adding hints of jazz, syncopation and of course his masterful "blue notes" which would culminate in one of the turning points of American Music.

Orchestra leader Paul Whiteman was in the midst of planing a concert which would be an experiment in music. As one of the main attractions was George who was suposed to be writing a Concerto dedicated to New York, mainly the image that we have of Jazz Age New York: The Swanky Parties, the High Skyscrapers, the romantacisim behind the Concrete Jungle.

Too bad George didn't know about this. Just weeks before the concert date was set, Paul happened to call him on account of this Concerto. Naturally, George scrambled to work on this project which he did have set for the premire date in Frebruary of 1924 in the Aeolian Hall Theater in New York. He was unable to write a concerto. That required too much time, something he couldn't even afford so what he gave the audience that night was a Rhapsody.

George was on Piano while the Whiteman band backed him up in what is usually rembered as a one of themost dynamic sixteen minutes in music history.

The critical reception to "Rhapsody in Blue" was mixed. Some praised him, some dis-liked it, but most fell into the cateogory that it was an interesting experiment in classical music. Of course, time has proved that it is one of the most ingenious musical pieces in American music history.

Now, I've just given you a brief looks that the Gershwin Brothers, the two men who probably progressed American Musical Theater the most besides perhaps Rogers and Hammerstein. Their music was not only the work of pop ditties but of concert hall peies and they can usually be attributed as the pioners of the American Musical along with fellow Songwriters like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and others.

However, their history is a long one and spans well into the 1950's. So, I'll be forced to break this colum into three parts, as I see fit. So far, I've dicused the orgins of the Gershwins and George's first big hits. Of course, later one we'll move further into George's Concert Pieces and his work with Ira on stage and in film.

I know that not many of you will bother to stick with this colum and I can't blame you. It's not really that well-written. It's written on my whim. I don't even really bother to check from spelling errors... however, I urge that you take the time to follow this portion on the Gershwins because they might very well be the Godfathers of American Music.

Why didn't anyone else post a reply to this great thread?

Great column Mike.....when will we see the sequel?