George Gershwin

My favourite composer is George Gershwin. His masterpiece “Porgy and Bess” was premiered for the first time in Europe in March 1943, in the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen.

George Gershwin (1898-1937) is one of the most popular composers of modern music and maybe the only one in whose works spontaneously, and naturally disappear the frontiers between so-called classical intuitively created his own individual music and the symphonic elements.

This symbiosis of diverse style-forming elements was a subject of theoretical controversies as well as cause of the lack of understanding. But vitality, ever-lasting, and inimitable musicality of Gershwin's pieces at last acknowledged their real value.

George Gershwin's music gushes out of the milieu the composer had spent his boyhood, adolescence, and the years of his artistic crystallization in. Mario Pasi describes him as "a son of New York who shares a fate of the average American, being familiar with his feelings, principles, and desires". He calls Gershwin "a singer and interpreter of the dynamic life of an American city who voices emotions of the common citizen of his native country and discovers the musicality of the plain American people".

It must be said that Gershwin had not wanted to compose music for the upper layers but for the wide musical audiences. This fact predestined also is artistic orientation. While the majority of American composers employed jazz and Negro music, Gershwin followed its spirit and inner principles and processed them by his individual talent. He was familiar with life of poor Harlem residents as well as with singing of street singers and sound of orchestrations in cafes and various Negro bands of their. 

Gershwin was fascinated by the story from simple Negro environs. He was taken by many realistic facts he had known himself from Harlem streets. But he noticed also certain poetic charm and symbolic of true love.

Liviu Buftea
"D. Zamfirescu" School, Focsani, Romania
Teacher Petru Dumitru <petrudumitru@netscape.net

George Gershwin is maybe the only composer in whose works the frontiers between the so-called classical and light music spontaneously and naturally disappear. His own individual musical expression is based on the synthesis of American jazz music and elements of symphonic conventions. Gershwin had not wanted to compose music for the upper layers but for wide musical audiences to whom he disclosed the musicality of the American people. He was a singer of the dynamic life of the American city and voiced the emotions of the common citizen. One of his most famous compositions is Rhapsody in Blue(1924), a fantasy for piano and symphonic jazz. In only ten days it became an enormous success which it still enjoys today. But perhaps the most convincing demonstration of his unique, original talent is his opera Porgy and Bess(1935) presenting the atmosphere of plain Negro life, their behavior in various situations and their music. An American in Paris, Girl Crazy, Lady be good are proof of the vitality, and of the everlasting musicality of George Gershwin's work. 

Ionita Sebastian <sionita@lcjdap.soroscj.ro>
"Al. Papiu Ilarian" Highschool, Dej, Romania
Teacher Cornelia Platon <nelly@lcjdap.soroscj.ro>