- Title Pages
- Show Tunes
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- How to Use this Book
- Part I Composers of the Early Years
- Jerome Kern
- Irving Berlin
- George Gershwin
- Vincent Youmans
- Richard Rodgers
- Cole Porter
- Arthur Schwartz
- Harold Arlen
- Vernon Duke
- Burton Lane
- Kurt Weill
- Marc Blitzstein
- Harold Rome
- Part II New Composers of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s
- PART III New Composers of the 1970s and Beyond
- PART IV Notable Scores by Other Composers
- Appendix 1 Chronological Listing of Productions
- Appendix 2 Collaborator Reference Listing
- Appendix 3 Bibliography
- Song Title Index
- Show Index
- People Index
George Gershwin
George Gershwin
Born: September 26, 1898, Brooklyn, New York
Died: July 11, 1937, Beverly Hills, California
- Chapter:
- (p.54) George Gershwin
- Source:
- Show Tunes
- Author(s):
Steven Suskin
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter examines the work of George Gershwin. Gershwin grew up in Manhattan, where his Russian immigrant father ran through a succession of unsuccessful businesses. Gershwin displayed a sudden musical aptitude at the age of eleven, quitting school four years later to work as a song plugger for Tin Pan Alley publisher Jerome H. Remick. A highly distinctive pianist, Gershwin began supplementing his income by making player-piano rolls. He also began writing music, his first published song being the 1916 When You Want ’Em, You Can’t Get ’Em (When You’ve Got ’Em, You Don’t Want ’Em) (lyrics by Murray Roth).
Keywords: George Gershwin, composers, Broadway musicals, player-piano rolls, show tunes, pianist
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- Title Pages
- Show Tunes
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- How to Use this Book
- Part I Composers of the Early Years
- Jerome Kern
- Irving Berlin
- George Gershwin
- Vincent Youmans
- Richard Rodgers
- Cole Porter
- Arthur Schwartz
- Harold Arlen
- Vernon Duke
- Burton Lane
- Kurt Weill
- Marc Blitzstein
- Harold Rome
- Part II New Composers of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s
- PART III New Composers of the 1970s and Beyond
- PART IV Notable Scores by Other Composers
- Appendix 1 Chronological Listing of Productions
- Appendix 2 Collaborator Reference Listing
- Appendix 3 Bibliography
- Song Title Index
- Show Index
- People Index