George Gershwin
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Larry Starr
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Format: ClothPrice: $50.00
Out of Print
In this welcome addition to the immensely popular Yale Broadway Masters series, Larry Starr focuses fresh attention on George Gershwin’s Broadway contributions and examines their centrality to the composer’s entire career. Starr presents Gershwin as a composer with a unified musical vision—a vision developed on Broadway and used as a source of strength in his well-known concert music. In turn, Gershwin’s concert-hall experience enriched and strengthened his musicals, leading eventually to his great “Broadway opera,” Porgy and Bess. Through the prism of three major shows—Lady Be Good (1924), Of Thee I Sing (1931), and Porgy and Bess (1935)—Starr highlights Gershwin’s distinctive contributions to the evolution of the Broadway musical. In addition, the author considers Gershwin’s musical language, his compositions for the concert hall, and his movie scores for Hollywood in the light of his Broadway experience.
“Larry Starr's valuable new book…is not a traditional biography…but rather an insightful, technically intricate yet easy-to-follow study of Gershwin's music, particularly as it came out of the Broadway tradition.”—Tim Page, The Washington Post
“This book bristles with fresh insights about Gershwin's Broadway shows, a repertory that delivered tunes we continue to love. The shows themselves, however, are less well known than the songs that emerged from them. Starr brings us close to these distant-seeming theater works. His capacity to take a reader inside a piece of music is simply remarkable.”—Carol J. Oja, Harvard University
“A carefully crafted, insightful look into the music of an iconic American composer that sheds light on the musical genius that makes our toes tap so and our lips hum!”—Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano
“Whatever aspect of Gershwin's music interests you, you will find nourishing insights in this book.” —Wayne D. Shirley, Music Division, Library of Congress (emeritus)
“Notwithstanding his immense popularity, Gershwin was long patronized by American classical musicians and music historians. Larry Starr’s heartfelt new book – so characteristically shrewd, humane, and felicitous, so vulnerable to Gershwin’s greatness – buttresses an overdue ‘Gershwin moment’ now wondrously upon us.” —Joseph Horowitz, author, Classical Music in America: A History
“This book is a compelling, constantly engaging read….If you enjoy Gershwin’s work, in whatever form, and want to deepen your understanding of it, then Starr’s book is an ideal port of call.”—Jildysauce.co.uk
Publication Date: December 14, 2010
19 b/w illus. + 24 music examples
