GERSHWIN, GEORGE

born September 26, 1898, Brooklyn, New York, U.S. died July 11, 1937, Hollywood, California original name Jacob Gershvin one of the most significant and popular American composers of all time. He wrote primarily for the Broadway musical theatre, but important as well are his orchestral and piano compositions in which he blended, in varying degrees, the techniques and forms of classical music with the stylistic nuances and techniques of popular music and jazz. Additional reading Charles Schwartz, Gershwin: His Life and Music (1973, reprinted 1979); Ean Wood, George Gershwin: His Life & Music (1996); Edward Jablonski, Gershwin (1987, reissued 1990); Rodney Greenberg, George Gershwin (1998); and Joan Peyser, The Memory of All That: The Life of George Gershwin (1993, reissued 1998), are among the better Gershwin biographies. The songwriting partnership of the Gershwin brothers is examined in Edward Jablonski and Lawrence D. Stewart, The Gershwin Years: George and Ira (1996; originally published as The Gershwin Years, 1958); and in Deena Rosenberg, Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin (1991, reissued 1997). Essays by noted Gershwin scholars are collected in Gregory R. Suriano (ed.), Gershwin in His Time: A Biographical Scrapbook, 19191937 (1998); and in Wayne Schneider (ed.), The Gershwin Style: New Looks at the Music of George Gershwin (1999). The history and musical structure of Gershwin's best-known orchestral work are explored in David Schiff, Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (1997).