Essay On The Great George Gershwin

The Life and Music of the Great George Gershwin
Abigail Hill, Chamber Choir
In September of 1898, Morris and Rose Gershowitz (previously Moishe Gershowitz and Roza Bruskina) welcomed their second child, Jacob Gershwine(which would have been pronounced 'Gershvin') into the world. Preceding him was his older brother Ira, in 1896; born later was Arthur in 1900and Frances in1906. Gershwin came from Russian-Jewish heritage; his grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, had served as a mechanic for the Imperial Russian Army for 25 years in order to earn his right to free travel and residence as a Jew, and he retired near Saint Petersburg. His son, Moishe, worked as a leather cutter for shoes, and fell in love with Roza Bruskina. However, she moved with her family to New York because of rising anti-Semitism in Russia and changed her first name to Rose. After serving his obligatory military service in Russia, Moishe followed Rose to America and gave his first name as Morris upon arrival. They married on July 21, 1895, when she was 19 and he was 23. After the birth of Ira, the family moved to 242 Snediker Avenue in Brooklyn.
For the most part, Ira and George grew up near the Yiddish Theater District, where they frequented the local Yiddish theaters and ran errands for members; George even appeared onstage as an extra. Until the age of ten, George wasn’t interested in music; however, when he heard his friend Maxie Rosenzweig's violin recital, he became intrigued. His parents had bought a piano, originally for Ira; to their surprise and Ira's relief, it was George who played it. George had several piano teaches over the following two years, before he was introduced to Charles Hambitzer. Hambitzer acted as George’s mentor until his death in 1918; teac...

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...urope and the United States. He later returned home, seemingly tired of the Parisian atmosphere.
In 1935, Gershwin’s most ambitious work, “Porgy and Bess” opened. He called it a “folk-opera,” and it is now one commonly regarded as one of the most significant American operas of the twentieth century. Through this work, he crossed lines and broke barriers, doing what none before him had. “Porgy and Bess” tells the tale of Porgy, a disabled black beggar living in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina, and his attempts to rescue Bess from her violent and possessive lover; it deals with themes of drug addiction, prostitution, violence, and murder. It was based on the novel “Porgy” by DuBose Heyward. “Porgy and Bess” contains some of Gershwin's most sophisticated music, including a fugue, a passacaglia, the use of atonality, polytonality and polyrhythm, and a tone row.