George Gershwin: How He Influenced American Music
Rhapsody in Blue is ringing in the ears of its listeners; it is quintessentially New York. The composer George Gershwin's distinctive style formed an unprecedented music genre with intensified sophistication from classical music from European legacy and a sense of casual blues elements from African American music. George Gershwin's compositions altered the American's perception of Jazz music by integrating classical music elements, producing a new genre of music, and inspiring other classical composers to emerge jazz elements into their compositions.
Born in a household of Jewish immigrants on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, George Gershwin was the younger of the Gershwins brothers.
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Since a young age, George Gershwin had contrasting personalities and beginnings with his brother, Ira. George was active and naughty compared to Ira's devouring of literature. Undoubtedly, the music in the street influenced George as he grew up. In 1910, when George's unusual gift nurtured by years of listening took over the piano bought for Ira, George started to study piano with Charles Hambitzer in 1912. Hambitzer was the fundamental pedagogue of George's piano journey and had extent effect on George's future compositions as he insisted on educating Gershwin on European classical tradition. However, Hambitzer ceased in 1917 then Edward Kilenyi, a Hungarian-American classical pianist, instructed George. With Kilenyi, George received more classical insights and training in 1917 that was critical to the pieces that reshaped the American's view on Jazz. Then, it was his first endeavor to compose classical repertoires. In 1914, Gershwin's passion grew, and his desire to strive for composing intensified. Unexpectedly, he dropped out of high school and started working as a song promoter for a publisher for Tin Pan Alley songwriters, Jerome H. Remick & Co. There, Gershwin was introduced to great songwriters and grasped excellent composing techniques, thus, composed his first song