Gershwin Book Review
Wayne Schneider, The Gershwin Style: New Looks at the Music of George Gershwin (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). [UCF Library: ML 410 .G288 G49 1999]
The purpose and scope of this book are made entirely clear in the introductory section written by Wayne Schneider. "This book, The Gershwin Style, then is not another recounting of Gershwin's life: names, places, love interests, parties, personal or psychological successes and failures, reviews, and tragic illness. This book is about Gershwin's music: what makes Gershwin's style his own, what makes it tick, and how the form has been received and passed on (Schneider xiii)." The collected essays in this book are divided up into three different parts; analysis and manuscript studies, reception and performance practice. The contributing author of these essays are performers, journalist, and musicologist with a great deal of knowledge and interest in Gershwin’s music.
Analysis and Performance Practice section explore the study of George Gershwin's music and the exploration of his evolving compositional style. Even though different people wrote all the essays in this section, they all agreed on one central theme. That theme being that between 1920 and 1930 there was a significant evolution in the music of George Gershwin. Every essay carries with it a notes section that is similar to a bibliography and musical examples to help aid the reader with visual examples of what the author is discussing. For example, in John Andrew's essay, "Gershwin's Blue Monday 1922 and the Promise of Success," he explains the compositional differences and similarities to Blue Monday, Porgy and Bess and Rhapsody in Blue. Along with musical examples for comparison, John Andrew writes that Gershwin's compositional style of syncopations, call and response, skips in melodic lines and pentatonic writing over blues or jazz styles are what these pieces have compositionally in common.
Part two consists of three essays that address the reception of George Gershwin and his music. In the essay by Charlotte Greenspan titled, "Rhapsody in Blue: A Study in Hollywood Hagiography," she discusses the issues critics and musicologist had with historical inaccuracies in what they considered a pseudo-biographical film about George Gershwin. The last two essays explore Gershwin impact on popular music and musicians. Susan Richardson’s essay, “Gershwin on the Cover of Rolling Stone” she addresses the comparison between George Gershwin and modern day rockers. Richardson explains that several of Gershwin’s songs was covered by some of the most popular rock stars in modern popular music. The last essay by C. Andre Barbera he examines the similarities between George Gershwin music. “There exist, in fact, two facets of the identification of George Gershwin with jazz-one historical and one analytical. The first concerns the labeling of Gershwin’s music as jazz during the 1920s and 1930s. The second involves the adoption of Gershwin’s songs by jazz musicians, especially in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, as vehicles for improvisation (Schneider 177).”
The latter part of the book concludes with essays written on the performance practice of George Gershwin's works, the cataloging of his piano rolls and a brief essay on his brother, Ira. Artis Wodehouse and Michael Montgomery's essays talk mainly about Gershwin's piano rolls. In Artis’ essay, “Tracing Gershwin’s Piano Rolls,” she explored the history of Gershwin’s piano rolls paying particular attention to the progress of his compositional style. Michael Montgomery took the research of Gershwin’s piano rolls to the next level. In his essay, “George Gershwin’s Piano Rollography,” Montgomery discusses a brief history of Gershwin’s piano rolls and list a complete Rollography. Montgomery categorized very piano roll by date, location, song title, roll company, and price. The last essay by Edward Jablonski titled, "What about Ira?" he discussed the career of Ira Gershwin after the death of George.
Wayne Schneider has succeeded in collecting arguably twelve of the most important essays written about George Gershwin's music and compiling them into one exceptional book. Every essay in this book includes notes, bibliographies, musical examples and any materials required to help aid the reader. The one bit of material missing from this book, however, is the lack of biographical information about the essay writers. If the reader doesn't do their homework, they may not know that Wayne Schneider is responsible for writing the George Gershwin article in the New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians and that Edward Jablonski is considered an expert on the music of George Gershwin. The absence of biographical information may lead to the reader not giving validity to the essays and thereby making the book weaker.
Randall Love