It breaks my heart to think that GG left us at such a young age. What he might have accomplished and contributed to the world of music had he lived another 40 or 50 years is, of course, the stuff of fantasy. But it's a wonderful fantasy to have!
That run at 6 minutes 41 seconds sounds like he's playing the harp it is incredible what an amazing young man he was and what a terrible loss to the world as he was taken from us so early in his life. I guess the Lord was short a composer in his Rhythm Section that day I'm sure we will hear him again hopefully when we all get there...
I remember taking the "Music by Gershwin" radio transcriptions out of the library when I was in high school. It opened up a new dimension of the composer for me. I so wished I could have heard him talking in person. All the biographies notwithstanding I still kind of wonder what he was like.
Thanks a lot for this wonderful video! It is very easy to tell he was really a happy man. Well, I should say "s'wonderful" about this video (and, of course, "s'marvelous, awful nice, paradise" too). Greetings from Chile.
WOW! I haven't ever seen these movie clips. Terrific!! What make Gershin so special is his aiblity to take simple melodic or rhymic figures and make really great music with it. Look at "I Got Rhythm": Just a simple, pentatonic, four note phrase and Gershwin makes into musical gold! Most is his music is of the same construction.
I am so proud to be born in the same city as Gershwin - in Odesa, Ukraine! I truly adore his art = performing his Rhapsody in Blue wuth the symphony orchestra as I was 15 truly changed my life as a musician! Also when I compose my own music - I often come to him for the inspiration
@@nathanielsilver6752 yes, you`re right, i somehow confused that his grandfather was from Odesa. Here`s Quote from Wikipedia "Gershwin was of Jewish ancestry. His grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, was born in Odessa, russian Empire (now Ukraine)" later he moved to st petersburg
No he didn't. You're rewriting history for political reasons. Gershwin was born in Brooklyn. His paternal grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, was born in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Thank you so much for this. The value of hearing a great composer explain and then play his music is a priceless treat. What would Beethoven have told us had he been able?
Thanks for preserving this broadcast. It's incredible listining direct words from the composer's voice explaining how he made his music. P.S. that shot at 6:27 of Gershwin playing tennis made me laugh for some reason, I mean, it's like a situation that anyone could be in, but at the same time it's what I least expected to see on video xD
@@randysills4418 Nadia Boulanger famously refused to accept Gershwin as a student, saying it would stifle his creativity. Ravel also said the same. However, Gershwin was a famous autodidact and spent almost all of his life studying - including composition.
I don't know exactly that it was 'destroyed'... more like popular tastes changed and other songwriters gained prominence because they found favor with the public. Popular music was getting so complex by the late 1940s-1950s that it was going over the heads of the average member of the public. For one example, when bebop came out and this new jazz wasn't really danceable (and you had to be a real virtuoso to sing it), it was necessarily (actually, by design) less _popular_ than swing music. Even the pop music of the day which was considered 'watered down' (by some) from 'pure jazz', was incredibly complex, what with the various film themes, TV themes etc getting more and more 'modern' with more and more far-out chords to reflect the hustle and bustle of modern life as well as hint at post-modern (definitely post-WWII) disillusionment. The music indeed reflected the times. That is why much of the public turned to much simpler tunes, with the crazes for country music, folk songs, rhythm & blues, and finally rock and roll. It was more what the average person was comfortable with, while the "classier" set still had their Richard Rodgers, and later, Stephen Sondheim, and many others of course.
With the advent of Motown, the Beatles, Bossa Nova Music, Simon and Garfunkel, the Byrds, etc etc I think pop and rock music found a real 'second renaissance' in the 1960s-1970s with some absolutely wonderful melody writing, luscious chords, new and expansive rock rhythms full of possibilities, etc. and a lot of the previous complexity present in recent jazz and show-music now reintroduced into rock and roll etc. to form what I think was a real second Golden Age of popular songwriting. I think the best songwriters of this era really managed to hit the right 'sweet spot' that straddled folk and popular idioms, as well as straddling the simpler folk/blues chords, salting them with new more way-out progressions, for an expansion of the possible harmonic palette, but without 'hitting people over the head' with a barrage of harmonic / dissonant modernity UNLESS it was felt to be in the service of the song / the music. I think some of this great writing continued into the 1980s and maybe even the 1990s, depending upon the songwriter and one's tastes of course. I think it was only with the advent of autotune, easier editing techniques etc that _the_most_popular_ popular music really started going 'downhill', although I always have felt there is still a vast reservoir of lesser-known great current pop, rock, r&b, country etc etc music out there, some of it labeled 'indie', that frequently has not had mainstream success, yet can be very satisfying and pleasing for musicians to hear.
@@THEPETERC1 The "symphonic version" is actually the original one. F. Grofé only orchestrated this piece because Gershwin wasn’t experimented enough but after all, every pieces of music he composed (from the piano concerto) was orchestrated by him. He was a genius composer who had an outstanding writing for voices, piano and orchestra. Porgy and Bess is his ultimate masterpiece who involves the finest orchestration of the great composer.
It breaks my heart to think that GG left us at such a young age. What he might have accomplished and contributed to the world of music had he lived another 40 or 50 years is, of course, the stuff of fantasy. But it's a wonderful fantasy to have!
May he rest in peace. This composer was one of the best who ever lived…
That run at 6 minutes 41 seconds sounds like he's playing the harp it is incredible what an amazing young man he was and what a terrible loss to the world as he was taken from us so early in his life. I guess the Lord was short a composer in his Rhythm Section that day I'm sure we will hear him again hopefully when we all get there...
That's such a nice comment! Thank you.
6:41
He was undoubtedly real musical genius!
George Gershwin was a musical genius!
Of that there is no doubt
Sheer beauty.
wonderful hearing him speak. ❤
This is fantastic! It´s always great when we get to listen to the composer too.
❤Simply wonderful.
I got chills listening to this
George Gershwin was a genius!!!
Of course he was.
That run at 6:41 is 50 years ahead of its time! ! !
A music lover, are you?
@@paulparoma I play a little bit: ua-cam.com/video/did2-zYpuGY/v-deo.html
@@paulparoma *I listened again... it's very 'Jetsons'-esque, so I'll go with 20 years ahead of its time instead. Still very cool.
I remember taking the "Music by Gershwin" radio transcriptions out of the library when I was in high school. It opened up a new dimension of the composer for me. I so wished I could have heard him talking in person. All the biographies notwithstanding I still kind of wonder what he was like.
Listening to his music makes me want to dance and play it at the same time. I feel like I am floating and I get chills.
2022 and I'm in love.
I just adore George.
Thanks a lot for this wonderful video! It is very easy to tell he was really a happy man. Well, I should say "s'wonderful" about this video (and, of course, "s'marvelous, awful nice, paradise" too).
Greetings from Chile.
WOW! I haven't ever seen these movie clips. Terrific!!
What make Gershin so special is his aiblity to take simple melodic or rhymic figures and make really great music with it. Look at "I Got Rhythm": Just a simple, pentatonic, four note phrase and Gershwin makes into musical gold! Most is his music is of the same construction.
A real treat.
FANTASTIC! I have never heard any recordings of Gershwin himself playing or speaking. thank you for uploading!
This was his first ever recording of Rhapsody in Blue (1924). Small jazz ‘orchestra’/band.
ua-cam.com/video/VxNbAtTMZXc/v-deo.htmlsi=thuxE1KthwZw4N9v
Masterful
Thank you Jack, I had never seen this video before.
I always wondered if Gershwin's voice was ever recorded.Thanks for posting.
I am so proud to be born in the same city as Gershwin - in Odesa, Ukraine! I truly adore his art = performing his Rhapsody in Blue wuth the symphony orchestra as I was 15 truly changed my life as a musician! Also when I compose my own music - I often come to him for the inspiration
George's father and mother were from Russia, but George was born in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn.
@@nathanielsilver6752 yes, you`re right, i somehow confused that his grandfather was from Odesa. Here`s Quote from Wikipedia "Gershwin was of Jewish ancestry. His grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, was born in Odessa, russian Empire (now Ukraine)" later he moved to st petersburg
No he didn't. You're rewriting history for political reasons. Gershwin was born in Brooklyn. His paternal grandfather, Jakov Gershowitz, was born in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Thank you so much for this. The value of hearing a great composer explain and then play his music is a priceless treat. What would Beethoven have told us had he been able?
Probably to go to blazes!
Oh, Jack. I love it every time you upload more of George’s work.
Fabulous footage - thank you so much for posting
Thanks for preserving this broadcast. It's incredible listining direct words from the composer's voice explaining how he made his music.
P.S. that shot at 6:27 of Gershwin playing tennis made me laugh for some reason, I mean, it's like a situation that anyone could be in, but at the same time it's what I least expected to see on video xD
"...on the theory that you shouldn't let one hand know what the other one is doing." HA!
At that time, probably everyone understood the allusion.
I loved this video. Thank you so much for posting!
Gran influencia en Jazz y la música americana. LAmento que haya uerto tan joven. Un músico admirable.
Remembering GEORGE GERSHWIN, who died on this day in 1937.
Gershwin had obviously been taking composition lessons - the 'upside down' thing is a classic tool for varying a melody.
He studied in Paris with the eminent Nadia Boulanger. I believe he also met Stravinsky and Ravel, two famous composers, when there...
@@randysills4418 Nadia Boulanger famously refused to accept Gershwin as a student, saying it would stifle his creativity. Ravel also said the same. However, Gershwin was a famous autodidact and spent almost all of his life studying - including composition.
@@randysills4418 He also met Schoenberg and Berg, the two which he both greatly admired.
More talent and originality in one pinkie than most people have in their entire family.
My childhood hero. I was able to perform the Rhapsody in Blue, slightly cut, at 12. I never mastered this, though.
Hey, George! America actually had the beginning of a real culture for a while.....blessings!
Extraordinarily long fingers, which have been commented on elsewhere. How could they miss?
An Internet gem.
I wonder, has anyone found this score or tried to recreate it and make a new recording?
There are many recordings of this composition, Bruce...
If gershwin were still alive, he would have been responsible for almost all of the super mario music.
Reminds me of my Mum at the piano in the 1950s 😆
If that's true, your Mum must have been truly brilliant.
Her name wasn't Patricia Rossborough was it?
It's sad that this entire great tradition of song writing has been destroyed.
I don't know exactly that it was 'destroyed'... more like popular tastes changed and other songwriters gained prominence because they found favor with the public. Popular music was getting so complex by the late 1940s-1950s that it was going over the heads of the average member of the public. For one example, when bebop came out and this new jazz wasn't really danceable (and you had to be a real virtuoso to sing it), it was necessarily (actually, by design) less _popular_ than swing music. Even the pop music of the day which was considered 'watered down' (by some) from 'pure jazz', was incredibly complex, what with the various film themes, TV themes etc getting more and more 'modern' with more and more far-out chords to reflect the hustle and bustle of modern life as well as hint at post-modern (definitely post-WWII) disillusionment. The music indeed reflected the times. That is why much of the public turned to much simpler tunes, with the crazes for country music, folk songs, rhythm & blues, and finally rock and roll. It was more what the average person was comfortable with, while the "classier" set still had their Richard Rodgers, and later, Stephen Sondheim, and many others of course.
With the advent of Motown, the Beatles, Bossa Nova Music, Simon and Garfunkel, the Byrds, etc etc I think pop and rock music found a real 'second renaissance' in the 1960s-1970s with some absolutely wonderful melody writing, luscious chords, new and expansive rock rhythms full of possibilities, etc. and a lot of the previous complexity present in recent jazz and show-music now reintroduced into rock and roll etc. to form what I think was a real second Golden Age of popular songwriting. I think the best songwriters of this era really managed to hit the right 'sweet spot' that straddled folk and popular idioms, as well as straddling the simpler folk/blues chords, salting them with new more way-out progressions, for an expansion of the possible harmonic palette, but without 'hitting people over the head' with a barrage of harmonic / dissonant modernity UNLESS it was felt to be in the service of the song / the music.
I think some of this great writing continued into the 1980s and maybe even the 1990s, depending upon the songwriter and one's tastes of course.
I think it was only with the advent of autotune, easier editing techniques etc that _the_most_popular_ popular music really started going 'downhill', although I always have felt there is still a vast reservoir of lesser-known great current pop, rock, r&b, country etc etc music out there, some of it labeled 'indie', that frequently has not had mainstream success, yet can be very satisfying and pleasing for musicians to hear.
Ferde Grofe orchestration?
No, why ?
Grofe did the orchestration on the symphonic version of Rhapsody in Blue.
@@THEPETERC1 The "symphonic version" is actually the original one. F. Grofé only orchestrated this piece because Gershwin wasn’t experimented enough but after all, every pieces of music he composed (from the piano concerto) was orchestrated by him. He was a genius composer who had an outstanding writing for voices, piano and orchestra.
Porgy and Bess is his ultimate masterpiece who involves the finest orchestration of the great composer.
1:18
Grande, sommo Gershwin: con H. James il più grande contributo dato dagli Stati Uniti alla Kulturgeschichte!
Oh well at least he wasn't another member of the 27 club.
He sounds like Pete Smith.
5:59