Tag: George Gershwin

  • Music as an emotional science

    Music sets up a certain vibration which unquestionably results in a physical reaction. Eventually the proper vibration for every person will be found and utilized. I like to think of music as an emotional science. — George Gershwin Daniel Albright. Modern and Music: An Anthology of Sources. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, p. 388.

  • Waiting for inspiration

    The composer does not sit around wait wait for inspiration to walk up and introduce itself … Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel. — George Gershwin Isaac Goldberg. Tin Pan Alley. New…

  • Music in the very heart of noise

    I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise. — George Gerswhin Goldberg, Isaac, and Garson, Edith. George Gershwin: A Study in American Music. United Kingdom, F. Ungar Publishing Company, 1958, p.139.

  • I am not highbrow

    After writing his opera Porgy and Bess, producers in Hollywood started to think that Gerswhin was turning “highbrow”.  George and Ira Gerswhin’s agent told Ira :”They think George is too highbrow.  Can’t he write a few words and explain to them?” George wired: “Rumours about highbrow music ridiculous.  Am out to write hits.” – George…

  • Capturing the pulse of the time

    "I try to put the pulse of my times into my music and do it in a lasting way." – George Gerswhin Cited in: Greenberg, Rodney (2008) George Gerswhin.  New York: Phaidon Press, p.216.   '

  • Loyalty to a lead

    John Sublett (stage name, John Bubbles) was a tap dancer unable to read music.  He was chosen by Gershwin to perform the role of Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess.  However…. Rehearsing as Sporting Life, John Bubbles was a special problem.  He was so laid back as to be often absent when needed.  At one…

  • Gershwin’s playing (and sense of humour)

    The composer Burton Lane describes George Gershwin’s playing: You could feel the electricity going through the room when he played.  He could transpose into any key with the greatest of ease.  He had total command of what he was doing.  Musical surprises, unusual changes of keys.  He was one of the few composers who had…

  • What about me?

    Songwriter Johnny Green recalled Gershwin bragging about his achievements after a concert, eventually to stop and say: “That’s enough about me.  Now what did you think about how I played?” Cited in: Greenberg, Rodney (2008) George Gershwin.  New York: Phaidon Press, p.46.

  • Gershwin’s romantic side

    Rodney Greenberg describes a side of George Gershwin’s “romantic side”: He wrote a little waltz-song, which he would sing and play to his current dating partner.  It was, in effect, what his friend Kitty Carlisle (who later married playwright Moss Hart) described as his “mating call”, because he left a blank space in the lyrics…

  • Gershwin conducting

    Isaac Goldberg described Gershwin’s enthusiasm when conducting: He conducted not just with his baton, but with his cigar, his shoulders, his hips, his eyes and whatnot.  Nothing but a sense of propriety keeps him from leaping over the footlights and getting right into the show himself. Cited in: Greenberg, Rodney (2008) George Gershwin.  New York: Phaidon…

  • Gershwin: the life at the party

    Gershwin was often the life of a party, entertaining on the piano.  He said: “The trouble is, when I don’t play at a party I don’t have a good time.” Cited in: Greenberg, Rodney (2008) George Gershwin.  New York: Phaidon Press, p.47.

  • George Gershwin at the piano

    The theatre director Rouben Mamoulian describes Gershwin’s playing: George at the piano was George happy … like a sorcerer celebrating his Sabbath.  He would draw out a lovely melody like a golden thread, then juggle it, twist it and toss it around mischievously, weave it into unexpected intricate patterns, and hurl it into a cascade…

  • Brian Wilson to complete Gershwin songs

    In a surprise union of two quintessentially American composers from different eras, one the 1960s mastermind of “Good Vibrations,” the other the Jazz Age creator of “Rhapsody in Blue,” former Beach Boy Brian Wilson has been authorized by the estate of George Gershwin to complete unfinished songs Gershwin left behind when he died in 1937.…

  • Gershwin and Ravel

    Ravel, touring America in 1928, was approached by George Gershwin for composition lessons.  Ravel refused, stating “you would only lose your own spontaneity and end up by writing bad Ravel!” Cited in:  James, Burnett (1983) Ravel: His Life and Times.  New York: Midas Books, p.120

  • Tin Pan Alley

    Tin Pan Alley refers to the concentration of music publishers in New York City, West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.  It started around 1885 and lasted till the depression in the 1930s.  It’s title comes from the the sound of all the cheap, tinny pianos playing, being likened to the beating of  tin…