George Gershwin was born in New York in 1898 to Rose and Morris Gershvin, Jewish immigrants from Russia fleeing the pogroms and the persecution. His life was short – he was 38 when he died – but in that brief time he accomplished so much, writing songs that are now standards and concert pieces that narrowed the gap, once thought unbridgeable, between classical and jazz. Gershwin wrote that American music ‘must express the feverish tempo of American life… In our music we must be able to catch a glimpse of our skyscrapers, to feel that overwhelming burst of energy which is bottled in our life, to hear that chaos of noises which suffuses the air of our modern American city.’
His songs andĬoncert works conjure up Art Deco Hollywood and bustling New York, call to mind the Roaring Twenties and the in-need-of-cheer Thirties, and incorporate the music of African-Americans and of European immigrants to the great American cities. Main image: © Carl Van Vechten Photographs collection at the Library of Congressįrom Rhapsody in Blue to Porgy and Bess, from ‘Swanee’ to ‘Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off ’, George Gershwin’s music uniquely evokes the energy and optimism of the United States in the first decades of the 20th century.
0 kommentar(er)
