MusiLLection

George Gershwin's musical journey has been unique in every aspect: Tin Pan Alley - Broadway - Hollywood - concert halls - lyrical theatres. Everywhere with a great success. No composer has enjoyed such recognition, in so many different fields and in such a short period of time. As a songwriter, Gershwin appeared in the history of American music at the right time. As a composer he was able to ensure direct acceptance into the folk music of his land, giving it an artistic form. Gershwin had in his mind the rules and technique of Western European music, but at his heart, the harmonys and rhythms of the American South. His imagination was nourished by the idioms of an original folk music. He was one of the first to understand the universality of its character. He borrowed from, bold harmonics and a transparent melancholy, which only counterpart in Schubert's songs detected. His music is full of wondrous mixed melodies and rhythms. Unexpected chords succeed each other with incredib...

In the 1920s Paris exerted great charm on many Americans, particularly writers, artists and musicians. George Gershwin and his fellow songwriter Cole Porter didn't escape its charm. The latter wrote several songs praising the city, while Gershwin composed his most ambitious orchestral work for Paris - An American in Paris . It was first presented at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1928, by the famous Walter Johannes Damrosch's direction. Twenty years later the play inspired a great musical film, starring Gene Kelly. A symphonic poem This work is a "symphonic poem", which recalls images and sounds from Paris, according to Gershwin's personal experiences. A small vivid melody played by violins, with subtle harmonies on the substrate, introduces the American visitor. The piercing sound of the old horns of the Parisian taxis intensifies the sense of the noise of the boulevards. A quiet, thoughtful section, with finer harmonies in wood instruments and strings, invokes...

Orchestral: Rhapsody in Blue Concerto in F for piano and orchestra An American in Paris Second Rhapsody for piano and orchestra Cuban Overture Variations on "I Got Rhythm" Piano works: Three Preludes Musicals Theatre credits: George White's Scandals Primrose Lady, Be Good! Tell me More Tip-Toes Funny Face Girl Crazy Of Thee I Sing The Rainbow Oh, Kay! La La Lucille Musical Films: Shall We Dance? A Damsel in Distress The Goldwyn Follies The Shocking Miss Pilgrim Opera: Porgy and Bess Songs: Swanee The Man I Love Embraceable You The Way You Look Tonight I Got Rhythm Oh, Lady Be Good! It Ain't Necessarily So Summertime

Gershwin 's Three Preludes for Piano form a satisfying set: two fairly short and vivid parts on each side of a more extensive, slow center piece. - Allegro ben ritmato e deciso The first prelude has a playful lyrical rhythm and an appealing melody, which hints at Latin American rhythms such as the rumba and their close relationship with those of jazz. - Andante con moto e poco rubato The second prelude is the best known of the three. It is an other example of Gershwin's special way of editing the blues, with the slow, sluggish melody sounding over a canvas of repetitive chords for the left hand. A central part changes from minor to major and also transfers the melody to the left hand or bass line. - Allegro ben ritmato e deciso The rhythm of the final prelude takes us to the living world of dance, inspired from jazz.

A photo from the first performance of the opera  Porgy and Bess  in New York in 1935. Gershwin's unique attempt at opera, created a dizzying combination of classical drama and atmospheric jazz, which remains unsurpassed in contemporary music. Gershwin loved "black music" as they originally called jazz. Its pulsating rhythms reached the ears of the refined American white society in the early decades of the twentieth century. Gershwin felt that her pure energy lies in the soul of the American people. Many of the songs are deeply influenced by jazz, but his real ambition was to write a great black opera. Gershwin's attempt to introduce jazz to the opera combined two antidiametric musical genres. Already famous as a songwriter, in 1926, he realized that the material for this challenge was in the popular novel Porgy , which referred to the tragic love of a black beggar from Charleston, South Carolina. But it took eight years before he started composing, in collaboration w...