One of the greatest American composers was George Gershwin. He was able to write both enormously successful pop songs and classical music, which is still performed today - a combination that probably no one else has done so well. Gershwin started by writing songs for Broadway shows, usually collaborating with his brother Ira, who wrote lyrics. The songs they wrote together (like “I Got Rhythm” and “The Man I Love”) are a huge part of what is now known as the “American Songbook” and are still performed and recorded by jazz and pop musicians all over the world.

 

Gershwin very much admired the work of classical composers like Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Schostakovitch, and aspired to write concert music as well as songs. He got his opportunity when the band leader Paul Whiteman commissioned him to write a long piece for his concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. The piece he wrote, Rhapsody in Blue, was an immediate sensation and has been performed by orchestras ever since.

 

In 1935, Gershwin wrote a piece that combined his talents in song and orchestral writing. He called it a “Folk Opera” and named it Porgy and Bess. Some of the songs from Porgy and Bess, like “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, are among the most popular he ever wrote.