George Gershwin (20th Century Composers)
by Rodney Greenberg
List Price:
Our Price: $7.95
You Save: $5.00 (39%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.59 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Rodney GreenbergEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-23
ISBN: 0714847720
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Phaidon Press Inc.
Book Reviews of George Gershwin (20th Century Composers)
Book Review: A Broad Overview
Summary: 3 Stars
Seemed a little odd reading a book about Gershwin by a Brit named Greenberg. There are many on this side of the ocean that knew Gershwin intimately and it is there rather than in this book that you will find an authentic rather than scholarly approach. Anyone can accumulate information and photographs and if skilled at writing assume a role of arbiter.
Gershwin is the natural Jewish American seed of genius--spontaneous genius without the paste and glue of institutional methods and means. Had he lived beyond 39 years perhaps a true symphony would have emerged.
Then Greenberg cannot resist a simple line touching on the prospect of great Gershwin being a homosexual. What was that for? Where is there any indication of it in his hectic star struck life time. Why was it included?
What point did it serve?
There is little need for psychoanalytical applications heaped upon this creative genius. His music speaks the language of the then American heart and soul. He did not caterwaul like Elliot Carter or blast your ears like Reigger, nor create vast intellectual excusions like Sessions who music is terrible. William Schuman could compose for a thousand years and nver approach his teacher Roy Harris' Third Symphony, let alone Gershwin.
So in fact there is alot of intellectual garbage out there oh so rationalized by Boulez et al--who listens to their music? Who listens to late Stravinsky--or the minimalists or the sonorists or the serialists?
Gershwin knew the difference between preprogrammed raucous noise and music from the heart and soul. Serialists are soulless atomatons and are cumulatively not dust between the toes of gershwin creatively--he had the devine spark and we all know it--THEY did not.
Read Levant for some insight and fun about his relationship with George and Ira. There are two other superior biographies around and alot of smaller works by those close to the Gershwins. Get a broad and rounded understanding of this relatively simple man who blazed like a comet through the music world.
The Phaidon label tends toward the intellectualization of music and puts names like Schnittke next to Gershwin--you ever hear of Schnittke? Who has and who listens to his music but that is Phaidon.
Gershwin was not a homosexual, but too many who write about him are--always looking for recruits.
Don't get too intellectual with Gershwin, he is better than them--he is of the people and for the people and he sings to them as no Minimalist, serilaist or sonorist ever could or can.
Read an American author closer to home in time and space. You'll be better off.
Biographies & Memoirs Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in A little list of George Gershwin
Sarah Vaughan - Sarah Vaughan: The George Gershwin Songbook, Vol. 1Release date: 1990-10-05; Music CD
Best price: $32.26
Willard White - Porgy & Bess 20th Anniversary EditionRelease date: 2008-11-04; Music CD
Best price: $26.69
Price in other shops:
Manhattan (1979 Film)Release date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $8.46
Price in other shops:
Gershwin: An American in Paris; Rhapsody in Blue; Catfish Row; Cuban OvertureRelease date: 2008-06-24; Music CD
Best price: $6.44
Price in other shops:
Rhapsody in Blue (No Scratch. 139 Minutes. Full Length. Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith)Published: 1945; DVD
Best price: $22.00
Girl Crazy (1990 Studio Cast)Release date: 1990-11-13; Music CD
Best price: $16.50
Price in other shops:
Strike Up The Band (1990 Studio Cast)Release date: 1991-10-11; Music CD
Best price: $24.48
Price in other shops:
Michael Feinstein - Nice Work If You Can Get It: Songs by the GershwinsRelease date: 1996-02-13; Music CD
Best price: $5.52
Price in other shops:
![Gershwin: Porgy and Bess [Original 1935 Production Version] Image](/images/Gershwin-Porgy-and-Bess-Original-1935-Production-Version-B000H0MGTG-X.jpg)
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess [Original 1935 Production Version]Release date: 2006-09-12; Music CD
Best price: $18.18
Price in other shops:
Gershwin - Porgy and Bess / White ? Haymon ? Blackwell ? Baker ? LPO ? Sir Simon RattleRelease date: 1997-09-23; Music CD
Best price: $84.99
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Richard Strauss (20th-Century Composers)by Tim Ashley
Phaidon Press; Published: 1999-11-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.73
Price in other shops:
Gyorgy Ligeti (20th-Century Composers)by Richard Toop
Phaidon Press; Published: 1999-10-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.08
Price in other shops:
Bela Bartok (20th Century Composers)by Kenneth Chalmers
Phaidon Press Inc.; Published: 2008-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.52
Price in other shops:
Benjamin Britten (20th Century Composers)by Michael Oliver
Phaidon Press Inc.; Published: 2008-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.96
Price in other shops:
Jean Sibelius (20th Century Composers)by Guy Rickards
Phaidon Press Inc.; Published: 2008-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.93
Price in other shops:
Giacomo Puccini (20th Century Composers)by Conrad Wilson
Phaidon Press Inc.; Published: 2008-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.75
Price in other shops:
Maurice Ravel (20th-Century Composers)by Gerald Larner
Phaidon Press; Published: 1996-09-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.18
Price in other shops:
Claude Debussy (20th Century Composers) (20th Century Composers)by Paul Roberts
Phaidon Press Inc.; Published: 2008-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.58
Price in other shops:
Minimalists (20th Century Composers)by K. Robert Schwartz
Phaidon Press Inc.; Published: 2008-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.84
Price in other shops:
Sergey Prokofiev (20th Century Composers)by Daniel Jaffe
Phaidon Press Inc.; Published: 2008-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops: