Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Historical Context
- Part II Profiles of the Music
- Part III Influence and Reception
- 12 The Coverage of Gershwin in Music History Texts
- 13 When Ella Fitzgerald Sang Gershwin
- 14 The Afterlife of Rhapsody in Blue
- 15 Broadway’s “New” Gershwin Musicals: Romance, Jazz, and the Ghost of Fred Astaire
- 16 Gershwin and Instrumental Jazz
- Epilogue: The Gershwin I Knew, and the Gershwin I Know
- Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Epilogue: The Gershwin I Knew, and the Gershwin I Know
from Part III - Influence and Reception
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2019
- The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin
- Cambridge Companions to Music
- The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Historical Context
- Part II Profiles of the Music
- Part III Influence and Reception
- 12 The Coverage of Gershwin in Music History Texts
- 13 When Ella Fitzgerald Sang Gershwin
- 14 The Afterlife of Rhapsody in Blue
- 15 Broadway’s “New” Gershwin Musicals: Romance, Jazz, and the Ghost of Fred Astaire
- 16 Gershwin and Instrumental Jazz
- Epilogue: The Gershwin I Knew, and the Gershwin I Know
- Guide to Further Reading
- Index
Summary
All of us experience moments that permanently change the course of our lives. Mine came when I met Ira Gershwin in 1977. I was twenty, and he was eighty. For years, I had been reading about and collecting everything I could get my hands on regarding the Gershwin brothers. When I finally met Ira, I was well prepared for the encounter.
For the next six years I became blissfully immersed in a long-vanished era, channeled through a survivor with whom I vicariously relived a time that looms large in cultural history. George had died forty years before, but he was still alive and well in Ira’s house. Surrounded by George’s everyday items – his pipe, tie clip, self-portraits, tune notebooks, grand piano, gold bracelet, photos, letters, and passport – I soaked up a sense not only of him, but also of his music and how it evolved and changed through the years. Countless stories were told by Ira and his friends.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin , pp. 289 - 297Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019