Gershwin: Chamber Works
View all works by Gershwin in the main appExplore the complete catalog of Chamber compositions by Gershwin. This curated list includes composition years, historical Wikipedia context, and interactive audio to add specific tracks directly to your listening queue.
| Title | Year | Actions |
|---|---|---|
| Lullaby, for string quartet |
Porgy and Bess ( PORG-ee) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play Porgy, itself an adaptation of DuBose Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy. Porgy and Bess was first performed in Boston on September 30, 1935, before it moved to Broadway in New York City. It featured a cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. A 1976 Houston Grand Opera production gained it a renewed popularity, and it is now one of the best known and most frequently performed operas. The libretto of Porgy and Bess tells the story of Porgy, a disabled black street beggar living in the slums of Charleston. It deals with his attempts to rescue Bess from the clutches of Crown, her violent and possessive lover, and Sportin' Life, her drug dealer. The opera plot generally follows the stage play. In the years following Gershwin's death, Porgy and Bess was adapted for smaller-scale performances. It was adapted as a film in 1959. Some of the songs in the opera, such as "Summertime", became popular and are frequently recorded. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the trend has been toward productions with greater fidelity to Gershwin's original intentions, though smaller-scale productions also continue to be mounted. A complete recorded version of the score was released in 1976; since then, it has been recorded several times. |
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| Short Story, for violin and piano |
Short Story is a piece for violin and piano composed by George Gershwin in 1925. Gershwin composed the duet from two other short works that premiered at the same time as his Three Preludes. He combined a section of the Novelette in Fourths and another slower work (the forgotten Rubato prelude) to create this piece. The 1940s two-piano, four-hands arrangement by the duo-pianists Al and Lee Reiser was published by Associated Music Publishers. |
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| Three Preludes for Violin and Piano |
Three Preludes is a collection of short piano pieces by George Gershwin, which were first performed by the composer at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City in 1926. Each prelude is a well-known example of early-20th-century American classical music, as influenced by jazz. The three pieces, when played together consecutively, typically run about a total of five minutes. Gershwin originally planned to compose 24 preludes called The Melting Pot for this group of works. The number was reduced to seven in manuscript form, and then reduced to six in public performance, and further decreased to three when first published in 1926. Two of the remaining preludes not published were rearranged for solo violin and piano and published as Short Story. Of the other two, the Prelude in G was eliminated by the publisher because somewhat similar music had already appeared in Gershwin's Concerto in F. The other was excluded for unknown reasons. Gershwin dedicated his Preludes to friend and musical advisor Bill Daly. The pieces have been arranged for solo instruments, small ensembles, and piano. |
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| Tribute to Benny Goodman, for clarinet |
"The Man I Love" is a popular standard with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin. Part of the 1924 score for the Gershwin musical comedy Lady, Be Good, the song was deleted from that show and put into the Gershwins' 1927 government satire Strike Up the Band (where it appears as "The Man I Love" and "The Girl I Love"), which closed out-of-town. It was considered for, then rejected from, the 1928 Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. hit Rosalie. The song was used as the title of, and was prominently featured in, the 1947 film noir melodrama The Man I Love, starring Ida Lupino and Bruce Bennett. |