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Meredith McLaurin
Gershwinfan.com.
George and Ira Gershwin
The Gershwin Brothers: George and Ira
Music has served as a storyteller for the ages. As it matures, it is a reflection for
those who lived during the era, and it is also a glimpse into the past for those who are
listening to the tunes second-hand. Few composers can so poignantly describe the
feelings and styles that were happening around them at the time of their compositions.
The Gershwin brothers can be considered as one of those few composers. George
Gershwin, working solitarily as well as in collaboration with his brother Ira, was
responsible for composing many of America’s finest popular songs as well as orchestral
compositions. While they each individually established their own strong solo careers,
together they will be eternally remembered as the songwriting team whose music helped
to define the Jazz Age. Tunes like Rhapsody in Blue, I Got Rhythm, Someone to Watch
Over Me, Of Thee I Sing, along with a long list of others—can be instantly recognized.
With George’s rhythmic chords and toe-tapping songs combined with Ira’s humorous and
poignant lyrics, it seems as though the Jazz Age is as present as it was when the tunes
were first composed.
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1898 to Russian-Jewish Immigrants, Jacob
Gershowitz would get an early start at becoming the famous composer George Gershwin.
At age thirteen, he began his musical training and at age fifteen, dropped out of high
school to work as a “song plugger”. Within three years, his first song was published.
Although that first achievement, a tune titled “When You Want ‘Em You Can’t Get ‘Em,
When You’ve Got ‘Em You Don’t Want ‘Em”, stirred little buzz, George had little to
worry about. His next tune written in 1919 that he’d call “Swanee”, was the song that
kick-started his career.
Born just two years before his brother George in 1896, Israel Gershowitz would
one day mark his place in the word as Ira, one-half of the famous Gershwin brothers.
Unlike George, Ira graduated high school and went on to attend the College of the City of
New York. It was there that Ira began showing what seemed to be a lifetime interest in
witty verses and made contributions to newspaper columnists that consisted of humorous
quatrains. In 1918 he hesitantly began to collaborate with his famous brother, but gave
himself the pseudonym Arthur Francis, a combination of the first names from his brother
and sister. After penning plays and songs under this name for a few years, Ira felt ready
to fully collaborate with George while using keeping the Gershwin name.
When the brothers first teamed up in 1924, the results were nothing less than
magical. They produced two dozen scores for both Broadway and Hollywood. Perhaps
their greatest achievement was turning musical comedy into an American art form. They
won the Pulitzer Prize for their political satire Of Thee I Sing. They also helped to raise
popular music theater to a new level of classiness. Their opera, Porgy and Bess is
revived and shown in opera houses and theaters worldwide. Simultaneous with the
brother’s music theater and film success, George gained great recognition and acclaim as
a piano expert, conductor, and composer.
Ira’s lyrics may have been icing on the cake for the Gershwin brother tunes, but it
was George’s genius composing skills that set the foundation for the brother’s success.
When examining the popular tune I’ve Got Rhythm, it can be observed that George used
variations of the same tune introduced within the first four measures throughout the entire
piece. The beginning of the song involves the simple melody paired with a difficult
rhythm pattern that is heard throughout. As the song progresses, the same pattern and
chords are arranged to be played with other simultaneous melodies that give the tune new
variations while concurrently letting the melody be heard as the main voice. To best
understand his methods, listen to the recordings of George Gershwin Performing
Gershwin in rare Recordings from 1931-1935. These recordings are only of George
playing his compositions and do not include Ira’s lyrics.
George died an untimely death from a brain tumor in 1937. Today his
compositions are performed more than they were during his short-lived 39 years of life.
Ira died peacefully in 1983, and even after his brother George’s stunning death he
continued to wok on the Gershwin legacy of songs, shows, concert works, and film
scores. He added footnotes to all of the resources that concerned the careers of his
brother and himself before giving them to the Library of Congress so the works could
become a piece of our national heritage. In 1985 the United States Congress
acknowledged this legacy by presenting the Congressional Gold Medal to George and Ira
Gershwin, the third time in our nation’s history that songwriters had received such
honors.
Bibliography:
Pinwheel Productions. “The Official George and Ira Gershwin Web site”. 07 May 2005.
http://www.gershwin.com/
Recordings: “Gershwin Performs Gershwin: Rare Recordings 1931-1935”.