The Composer That I Favored the Most

The Composer That I Favored the Most

  • Submitted By: luvzhim
  • Date Submitted: 02/21/2009 8:35 PM
  • Category: Biographies
  • Words: 620
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 466

There are many composers in the world but there is only one person who I favor the most. His name is George Gershwin. He is also seen a lot with his brother Ira at his side.
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn in 1898. He was the second of four children in his family. George Gershwin's parents emigrated from Russia to the U.S. in 1891. Surprisingly, when he was young his first musical exposure came when a piano was bought for his brother, Ira. George was 12 at the time. He took an immediate interest in the instrument and began to play a popular song he had memorized from hearing on a neighbor's piano. His parents finally put him in lessons at the beginning of age 13.
He began his musical career as a song-plugger, but was soon writing his own pieces. Gershwin's first song that was published was "When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em", but only earned him five dollars total. Soon after this, he met a young man named Irving Caesar who was a lyricist. Together they composed many songs including "Swanee". That great success sold more than a million copies.Over the course of the next four years, Gershwin wrote forty-five songs. Some of them are "Somebody Loves Me," "Stairway to Paradise," and a twenty-five-minute opera named "Blue Monday."
In 1924, George teemed up with his brother, Ira Gershwin, in writing a musical comedy called "Lady Be Good". That was the beginning of the partnership that continued for the rest of their lifes. Together they wrote many more musicals including "Oh Kay!" and "Funny Face". While he kept composing popular music for the stage, he also began to multi-task, trying to be a serious composer at the same time.
When he was 25 years old, his love of jazz influenced "Rhapsody in Blue" and premiered in New York's Aeolian Hall. Serious music critics were having a very difficult time categorizing him in just one genre because he wrote so many. Some thought his work as tiresome, but it always was a absolute favorite with the public.
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