The bright and short life of George Gershwin: How the son of immigrants from Russia became the author of the world famous hit "Summertime"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

81 years ago, on July 11, 1937, the famous American composer and pianist passed away George Gershwin, author of the opera Porgy and Bess. Probably, there is no person who would not hear the composition Summertime from this opera, but it is unlikely that the general public knows that its creator could have been born in the Russian Empire, and that he would have written dozens of more works if his life had not tragically cut short at the 39th year.

In fact, at birth, he received the name Jacob. He was born on September 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York. And 8 years earlier, his father, Moisha Gershowitz, emigrated from St. Petersburg. Earlier, because of the wave of anti-Semitism in the Russian Empire, Rosa Bruskina, the furrier's daughter, left for the United States. After moving, Moishe got a job as a shoemaker in a factory for the production of women's shoes, changed his name to Morris Gershwin and married Rosa, who bore him four children. Jacob was the second child, and it was he who gave the parents the most trouble. Studying at school did not interest him, he often participated in street fights and even stole.

But from his youth in his life there was one hobby that occupied him much more than any games and fights. When George heard the music, he stopped noticing everything that was happening around him. Once on the sports ground of the school, while playing with a ball, the boy froze when he heard one of the students play the violin "Humorescu" by Dvořák. It turned out that it was Max Rosenzweig, who became a famous violinist in the future. George became friends with Max, began to visit him often, listened to many works. Gershwin did not have a musical education, but he himself picked up the melodies that Max played on the violin on the piano by ear, and constantly listened to the play of other musicians.

George Gershwin never graduated from music school - no matter how much his parents tried to channel his energy in the right direction, nothing worked. In 1915, Gershwin met the musician Charles Hambitzer, who gave him piano lessons and insisted that Gershwin regularly listen to orchestral concerts, and by the age of 17 George was already a good piano player, writing music and working as a pianist in restaurants. … At the age of 20, the composer began writing music for Broadway musicals. At 21 he released his first hit, and at 26 he created his first classic, which is called one of the main ones in his creative heritage, "Rhapsody in Blue". After that, real fame came to him.

At the age of 37, George Gershwin finished work on the work that made him famous all over the world - "Porgy and Bess", which is called the main American opera of the twentieth century. The idea came to the composer as early as 1926, when he came across Dubose Hayward's novel Porgy. He impressed Gershwin so much that he wrote a letter to the author and secured his consent to create an opera based on this work. However, at that time, the composer was working on other compositions and took up a new opera only in 1934. In order not to get in the way, he left New York for a small fishing village in South Carolina and stayed there for 20 months until he completed work. The result was impressive: Porgy and Bess combined symphonic melodies and jazz improvisations, folklore and modern rhythms.

After the premiere of the opera in 1935in Boston, the applause in the hall did not subside for a quarter of an hour. In addition, Porgy and Bess was the first production in the United States to be attended by audiences of different races. After that, Gershwin was expected to succeed on touring America, and in Europe the opera was presented only after 1945. True, the reaction to Porgy and Bess was very ambiguous: fans of classical music stated that it could not be considered an opera in the traditional sense of the word. that it is more of a folk opera, musical or musical show. However, no one denied the composer's talent and innovation.

The composition "Summertime" was performed four times in the opera, but it gained real popularity after it was performed by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald in the 1950s. After that, "Summertime" began to live its own life, becoming one of the most famous and frequently performed hits of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the composer never found out about this.

In the mid-1930s. George Gershwin had everything one could dream of - recognition, popularity, material well-being, inexhaustible inspiration. And suddenly, in an instant, everything was cut off. In 1937 the composer began to suffer from severe headaches and problems with coordination of movements. When he lost consciousness again, during a medical examination he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The operation was carried out too late, and on July 11, 1937, at the age of 39, George Gershwin died. Shortly before his death, the composer confessed: "".

There is a version that the famous aria from the opera Porgy and Bess was born under the influence of Ukrainian folklore: Is “Summertime” inspired by a lullaby?