Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Rhapsody in Blue
Alphonce Mungunda
11.9.2015
Music 1010-406
Early Life
Gershwin was born at the
end of the 19th century, in
1898, in Brooklyn, NY. He
was the son of Russian
Jewish instruments. No one
else in his family played
music, but his parents
bought a piano so that
young Georges older
brother, Ira, could learn to
play music. However,
George took it upon himself
to learn how to play the
piano, even at a young age.
The Plugger
Gershwin also worked as
something called a plugger. This
was not a glorious job. In those
days, a songs popularity was not
determined by how many records
were sold or how many digital files
were downloaded like songs are
today. Instead, one of the main
ways that people consumed music
was to buy sheet music and play
songs in their homes. A pluggers
job was to sit at the store and play
the sheet music for people when
they came in, trying to convince
them to buy it. Gershwin did this
for three years before moving on
to other, better things.
First Successes
In 1916, when he was
just 18 years old, he had
a song published for the
first time. This song was
called, When You Want
Em, You Cant Get Em
(When You Got Em, You
Dont Want Em). His
talent was being
discovered and this led
to the jobs that would
bring him to fame.
Rhapsody in Blue
Gershwin wrote the piece
Rhapsody in Blue with the
intention of bringing
respectability into jazz
music, which much of the
white public of the United
States still viewed as
disparagingly as degrading,
pathological, nerve-irritating,
sex-exciting music. (
http://www.britannica.com/b
iography/George-Gershwin
). To accomplish this goal, he
combined elements of Jazz
with compositional styles of
classical music.
Late in life
Toward the beginning of 1937,
George Gershwin started having
serious health problems. He got
bad headaches and started
noticing strange smells. It was
determined that he had a brain
tumor. When he was 38, he went
in for surgery to have the tumor
removed and he died on the
operating table (
http://www.biography.com/peopl
e/george-gershwin-9309643#unti
mely-death
). Although his career was cut
short, he produced a high
number of great songs and
beautiful music and will always
be revered as a great musician
and composer.
Sources
http://www.britannica.com/biograph
y/George-Gershwin
http://www.biography.com/people/ge
orge-gershwin-9309643#untimely-dea
th