George Gershwin: Life, Career, and Musical Legacy
This paper traces the life and career of George Gershwin, widely regarded as one of America's greatest composers of the twentieth century. Beginning with his Brooklyn childhood and early musical influences—including violin prodigy Maxie Rosenzweig and piano teacher Charles Hambitzer—the paper follows Gershwin's path from Tin Pan Alley song plugger to celebrated Broadway composer. It examines landmark works such as Rhapsody in Blue, Lady, Be Good!, Of Thee I Sing, and the groundbreaking folk opera Porgy and Bess, while also exploring his collaborative relationship with his brother and lyricist Ira Gershwin. The paper concludes with an assessment of Gershwin's enduring contributions to American musical theatre.
- Early Life and Musical Awakening: Brooklyn childhood and first musical inspirations
- Training, Tin Pan Alley, and Early Career: Piano teachers, song plugging, and first compositions
- Broadway Success and the Jazz Age: Lady Be Good, jazz era, and Broadway format
- Political Satires and Late Broadway Works: Strike Up the Band, Of Thee I Sing, and sequels
- Porgy and Bess: A Landmark Opera: First Black opera blending jazz, blues, and drama
- Legacy and Lasting Influence: Gershwin's death and enduring contributions to music
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The paper uses a clear chronological structure that makes Gershwin's artistic development easy to follow, from childhood influences through his final major work.
- Direct quotations from primary and secondary sources — including Gershwin's own words — are integrated naturally to support biographical claims and add authenticity.
- The paper balances personal biography with cultural context, situating Gershwin's work within broader movements such as the Jazz Age and the Golden Age of Broadway.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper consistently uses author-date citations (APA style) to attribute specific claims to named scholarly biographers, demonstrating how to blend multiple secondary sources into a unified narrative without losing the thread of argument. This is particularly evident in sections drawing on Jablonski, Pollack, Hyland, and Rimler simultaneously.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an overview of Gershwin's significance, then moves chronologically through his childhood, early training, entry into the music industry, Broadway career, political satire works, and finally Porgy and Bess. A brief concluding section synthesizes his legacy. Each section builds naturally on the previous one, reflecting the progression of Gershwin's career rather than imposing an artificial thematic structure.
Early Life and Musical Awakening
George Gershwin is considered one of the greatest American composers of the twentieth century. He was born Jacob Gershowitz on September 26, 1898, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Russian immigrants who had four children; George was the second. He had an older brother, Ira, a younger sister, Frances, and a younger brother, Arthur. Gershwin is best known for bringing a fresh new sound to the Broadway musical stage during the 1920s and 1930s. His career showed a steady progression of widening horizons — from revue (Scandals) to musical comedy (Lady, Be Good!, Oh, Kay!, Funny Face, Girl Crazy) to comic opera (Strike Up the Band, Of Thee I Sing) to "folk" opera (Porgy and Bess) (Green 1980, 150).
Gershwin was not raised in a particularly cultured household, nor was he pushed by exploitative parents into some kind of unnatural childhood (Jablonski 1998, 1). He grew up in a very typical New York family, like any other kid on the streets of the city. Even Gershwin himself was not immediately aware of his own talents. He wrote, "There is nothing I can really tell…except that music never really interested me, and that I spend most of my time with the boys in the street, skating and, in general, making a nuisance of myself" (1998, 3).
Maxie Rosenzweig was Gershwin's first "music teacher" — a curious fact, since when Gershwin met Maxie (who would later become the violin virtuoso Max Rosen), Maxie was eight years old and Gershwin was ten. One day, Gershwin decided to sneak out of a school assembly where young Maxie had been asked to play his violin. Gershwin expected to be bored, but when he heard Maxie play, he was awestruck. He waited for Maxie in the pouring rain outside, but Maxie had already left through the teachers' exit. Gershwin tracked down the boy's house, but Maxie was not home. Maxie's parents, however, were so impressed by Gershwin's determination that they arranged for the two boys to meet. Maxie and Gershwin became close friends, and Maxie taught Gershwin everything he knew about music. George kept a scrapbook of all things musical — programs, sketches, and pictures of musicians and composers — to fuel his inspiration (Rowley 1997).
References
Green, S. (1980). Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre. De Capo Press.
Hyland, W.G. (2003). George Gershwin: A New Biography. Praeger.
Jablonski, E. (1998). Gershwin. De Capo Press.
Pollack, H. (2007). George Gershwin: His Life and Work. University of California Press.
Rimler, W. (2009). George Gershwin: An Intimate Portrait (Music in American Life).
Rowley, E. (1997). "George Gershwin: The Early Years." Classical Net. Accessed February 26, 2011.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.