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
12 - The Coverage of Gershwin in Music History Texts
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
George Gershwin has long been a challenging figure to categorize and evaluate within mainstream music historiography. Few have gone as far as the Russian composer Alexander Glazunov, who, after attending a performance of Rhapsody in Blue, deemed him “half human and half animal.” But music historians and chroniclers have reacted variably to the composer’s rather anomalous achievement and place in the history of Western music.
To explore and gauge such differing perspectives on Gershwin, in particular his more serious compositions, I have examined his coverage – or lack thereof – among a fairly broad range of mainly American texts on Western and in particular American and twentieth-century concert music.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin , pp. 221 - 234Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019