George Gershwin Research Paper

George Gershwin George Gershwin was one of the most notable musicians of the 20th Century who composed many jazz and classical pieces during his time that have become popular throughout the world. Gershwin contributed much-composed jazz and classical pieces that have become very influential in future generations, including the 20th Century. The various noteworthy classical pieces that were composed by Gershwin include “Rhapsody in Blue”, “Porgy and Bess”, “Summertime”, and many more popular compositions. George Gershwin wrote many popular piano compositions in which he blended the various techniques of classical music with the various techniques of notable music and jazz during the 20th Century(The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, "George Gershwin”). Today, George Gershwin has become a major influence on music and a very significant American composer and pianist had the world. George Gershwin was born on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York and raised by two Russian-Jewish Immigrants. As a very young boy at the age of eleven, Gershwin began to have a strong penchant towards music when his family purchased a second-hand piano for George’s brother, Ira. Once Gershwin began playing the

These trips concluded to his orchestral composition “An American in Paris”. This piece was rooted in the blues and classical traditions. In addition, Gershwin often challenged soloist to bend, slide, and growl stipulated notes and passages to incorporate the musicianship of the 1920s style of jazz. The harmonic blueprint of this piece embodies the impressions of an American tourist in Paris, who listens to the sounds of streets and absorbs the French atmosphere as he strolls through the city. It came to be noticeably more balletic than symphonic when it gained its fame in 1951 for its use, by Gene Kelly, as the closing ballet sequence of the classic film musical. (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, "George