George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue

George Gershwin was born on September 26th, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York under the original name of Jacob Gershwin. He is the second descendent of Jewish mother and father of four, Rosa Gershvin and Morris Gershvin. As George’s family grew, the family name underwent spelling and pronunciation changes. Though his parents grew to be known as Gershvins, George decided to take on the last name of Gershwin. He grew up in the busy state of New York and was known as being in the lower class. Georges father, Morris, had a small chain of restaurants that ultimately failed and propelled the family into declaring bankruptcy. Accompanying George’s poor home life, was a poor attitude at school. He was often recognized as a trouble maker and held no interest

Although Rhapsody in Blue was noted by most biographers as his most famous production, he had composed many other pieces that are anticipated to never be forgotten. The first song George ever published was, “When You Want ‘Em You Can’t Get ‘Em”. This song as well as many to follow are what sparked the initial conditions he needed for his name to become attention grabbing, especially to Broadway luminaries. One of the most popular years for George, prior to Rhapsody, was experienced in 1919 when his hit song “Swanee” and show La, La Lucille were both performed. The song premiered in the musical Sinbad which quickly sold more than two-million recordings. This song remained the biggest hit of his career. Soon following this overnight fame, the show La, La Lucille, which was entirely composed by George, premiered and became an instant hit. Several more hit accomplishments preceded George’s fame famous work of Rhapsody in Blue. During the premier of Rhapsody, George claims to have had included some of the notes that he had previously removed from the script. Fortunately the other performers followed along and George’s improvisation skills proved to be effective. Despite the short period that the piece was written in (approximately three weeks), it ultimately revoked the general negative consensus that Jazz was “degrading, pathological, nerve-irritating, sex-exciting music”,

The older brother, Ira, joined him and began writing the majority of the lyrics for most of Georges tunes. Though his path to fame was not quite the same as George’s, Ira quickly rose to level that received nearly as much approval as George. Ira was known for his knowledgeable wordplay. Ira was recognized by major songwriters as hardly being satisfied by his own work, and his work had been noted as “truly phenomenal”. After George’s passing, Ira continued his legacy by employing tunes that he had written but never