[On May 5th,
1891, Carnegie Hall—first
known as Music Hall—opened in New York City. In the 125 years since, the
hall has become synonymous with classical music in America. So this week I’ll
AmericanStudy five iconic figures from that tradition, leading to a special
weekend tribute to some 21st century classical musicians and
composers!]
On the
lesser-known careers and works of the other two Gershwin siblings.
If yesterday’s
subject Aaron Copland has competition for the title of the most influential
American classical composer, it’d have to be the talented brothers Ira (1896-1983) and George
(1898-1937) Gershwin. Although each produced significant and enduring works
on his own (with George’s Rhapsody in Blue
[1924) a particular stand out), between 1924 and George’s untimely death in
1937 the brothers collaborated on almost all their projects. The results of
this incredibly fruitful period include the greatest American opera (Porgy
and Bess [1934], on the lyrics for which Ira collaborated with novelist
DuBose Heyward) and many
works that remain on the short list of most influential American songs (such as
“I Got Rhythm” and “Someone to Watch over Me”).
I’m not here to dispute the seminal importance of these two most famous
Gershwin siblings—but it’s worth noting that their younger brother and sister
were also a composer and dancer/performer (respectively), with careers that
offer their own additions to our narratives of American classical and popular music.
The second
sentence in the
Wikipedia page on Arthur Gershwin (1900-1981) nicely illustrates the
challenging expectations faced by Ira and George’s younger brother: “Although
he was a composer, he was not a professional musician, and made his living as a
stockbroker.” In fact, as his
New York Times obituary noted,
Arthur retired from stockbroking in 1938 to try for a full-time composing
career, and he did achieve a few significant 1940s successes before health
forced his early retirement in the 50s. The most notable of these was the comic
musical A Lady Says Yes (1945), which features sequences in
both 1545 and 1945, wedding a contemporary wartime setting with imagined
sequences in Renaissance Venice to consider romance, relationships, and gender
roles in both worlds. It seems to me no coincidence that for his one produced
musical Arthur strayed far afield, in both topic and form, from the popular
hits his brothers had penned over the prior two decades. Indeed, while his
brothers’ collaborative works are deeply ingrained in American settings and
communities, Arthur’s musical focuses on an American officer abroad (in the
war’s Pacific theater) who then imagines himself in an even more dramatically
distant sphere. I doubt very much Arthur ever felt himself out of Ira and
George’s shadow, but Lady certainly
occupies its own territory.
As you mght
expect, that dynamic of expectations and shadows seems to have weighed even
heavier on the trio’s sister, Frances
Gershwin Godowsky (1906-1999). Frances was actually the first sibling to
perform professionally, touring as a dancer with the children’s musical Daintyland when she was only 11 years
old. But by the 1920s she was mostly utilizing her talents as a test singer and
dancer for her brothers’ songs and musicals in production, and when she married
family friend and future Kodachrome inventor Leopold Godowsky Jr. (himself a violinist and the son
of an acclaimed pianist) in 1930 her own musical career was relegated even
further down on the list of priorities. In later years she took up painting
and sculpture with a good deal of success (one more reflection of her own
artistic talents), only returning to the world of music for the 1975 tribute
album Frances
Sings for George and Ira and performances thereafter. Yet in all those
areas—dancing and singing, painting and sculpture—it’s perhaps most accurate to
say that Frances, like Arthur, complemented the careers and genres of her more
famous brothers, reflecting the genuine musical and artistic diversity of this
supremely talented American family.
Next icon
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other classical music greats you’d highlight?
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