And now, listen to a Gershwin's Composition.
Variations on "Facinating Rthythm"
& variations on "Lisa"
Composer: George Gershwin
date of composition: 1924
On the Radio programme: Rudy Vallee "Fleischmann Hour"
10 November 1932
On the piano: Gershwin himself !
Are you amazed at the similarity of the above two songs? Do you hear it?
Another one ... same formula, we start with the "hard" core :-)
That isn't very hard at all. Now enjoy Ella's vocal ...
My Man's Gone Now (From the opera - Porgy & Bess)
Composer: George Gershwin
Date of composition: 1935
Vocal: Ella Fitzgerald
Date of Recording: 1958
Jewish Influences ?
Gershwin's parents were Russian of Jewish descent, having immigrated to the USA. George was born - Jacob Gershowitz, on the 26 September 1898 in Brooklyn, New York.
The Gershwin's were not a particularly religious family though they surely must have interacted with kinsmen and participated in traditional festivities in a foreign land that they are determined to call home.
Social, cultural and aesthetic traditions of their Jewish race sets them apart from the majority of the immigrants from Europe, particularly western Europe.
The Yiddish language would have occupied a role, in his growing up years, for they recited the Torah in the language of the Jewish people that came from the central and eastern Europe. Yiddish traditional or folk songs. Yiddish cantillation (a form of singing out the words from the Torah/Talmud) must have featured regularly year after year for the young Gershwin during their religious celebrations. He had to inadvertently internalised the melodic voices of his people.
One wonders, was he aware of the Yiddish motif in his composition, or a subconscious invocation during the period of self absorbed, intense concentration that gave birth to the melodic tunes of the young America that we are familiar today.
George Gershwin was a second generation immigrant to the United States of America at the dawn of the twentieth century. Second generation immigrant - a category of residents that evoke debates in recent time on our small island republic. There was no National Service then in the US of A, at least not until the out break of WWII when America entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in the December of 1941. By then George had pass away for about four years. If he was still alive at the time, he would be in his early forties, even if he had volunteered, the US Army draft board may not take him due to his age.
His growing up years were spend mostly in Brooklyn New York where his parents ran mom and pop shop and small time businesses. The Gershwin family shifted house sixteen times in ten years! He grew up like any typical city kid of his time and like any typical city kid, like to skip school. I don't think he attended any tuition classes when he was "schooling" as a boy. At ten, he took piano lessons when his parents noticed that he had a talent with the up-right they bought intending for the elder brother Ira to take lessons. He stopped school at fifteen.
George was a man driven by his musical passion. Very early on he was able to take a job as a song plugger at Tin Pan Alley. Being able to earn a living playing the piano as a song plugger at the ripe old age of seventeen, showed his passion and commitment at learning and pounding the keyboard even though he was so drawn towards music, a natural talent. If you were to ask Morris (George's father) to reveal some "tips" on how to bring up a child musical prodigy, you will draw a blank. Apart from his music teacher which had a positive influence in his musical formative years until the former died when George was twenty years old. There was really no other special master classes nor was he in the circle of the musically elite groupy when he first started out.
George Gershwin loved life. He loved America such that he gave the young nation a voice through his music. He was totally immersed into the America of his time, so much so that he took two years "time out" from his regular composition work with the studios and a twentieth century opera was born - Porgy and Bess. A "rojak" if you may, of the distinct American sound, an musical evolutionary leap, standing on the shoulders of the likes of Dvorak's new world symphony. He loved his country and America loved him back. He gave America a part of the core. He is an American core. The senior Gershowitz were determined to call America home. THIS is their home. They can't be packing up and going back to eastern Europe.
How can a country evoke such emotive loyalty and the people participates willingly in turn shaping the country into a nation? Maybe that era of innocence is gone, in its place an ever more sophisticated cynicism, a people jaded. Maybe during such times, we really need some old fashion?
Singapore, a symphonic suite, finale.
Composer : Tsao Chieh [Link]
Performed by the SAF Central Band
05 March 2013
His growing up years were spend mostly in Brooklyn New York where his parents ran mom and pop shop and small time businesses. The Gershwin family shifted house sixteen times in ten years! He grew up like any typical city kid of his time and like any typical city kid, like to skip school. I don't think he attended any tuition classes when he was "schooling" as a boy. At ten, he took piano lessons when his parents noticed that he had a talent with the up-right they bought intending for the elder brother Ira to take lessons. He stopped school at fifteen.
George was a man driven by his musical passion. Very early on he was able to take a job as a song plugger at Tin Pan Alley. Being able to earn a living playing the piano as a song plugger at the ripe old age of seventeen, showed his passion and commitment at learning and pounding the keyboard even though he was so drawn towards music, a natural talent. If you were to ask Morris (George's father) to reveal some "tips" on how to bring up a child musical prodigy, you will draw a blank. Apart from his music teacher which had a positive influence in his musical formative years until the former died when George was twenty years old. There was really no other special master classes nor was he in the circle of the musically elite groupy when he first started out.
George Gershwin loved life. He loved America such that he gave the young nation a voice through his music. He was totally immersed into the America of his time, so much so that he took two years "time out" from his regular composition work with the studios and a twentieth century opera was born - Porgy and Bess. A "rojak" if you may, of the distinct American sound, an musical evolutionary leap, standing on the shoulders of the likes of Dvorak's new world symphony. He loved his country and America loved him back. He gave America a part of the core. He is an American core. The senior Gershowitz were determined to call America home. THIS is their home. They can't be packing up and going back to eastern Europe.
How can a country evoke such emotive loyalty and the people participates willingly in turn shaping the country into a nation? Maybe that era of innocence is gone, in its place an ever more sophisticated cynicism, a people jaded. Maybe during such times, we really need some old fashion?
Composer : Tsao Chieh [Link]
Performed by the SAF Central Band
05 March 2013
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