Gershwin: Keyboard Works

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Explore the complete catalog of Keyboard 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
3 Preludes

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.

An American in Paris

An American in Paris is a jazz-influenced symphonic poem (or tone poem) for orchestra by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and energy of the French capital during the Années folles. Gershwin scored the piece for the standard instruments of the symphony orchestra plus celesta, saxophones, and automobile horns. He brought back four Parisian taxi horns for the New York premiere of the composition, which took place on December 13, 1928, in Carnegie Hall, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Philharmonic. It was Damrosch who had commissioned Gershwin to write his Concerto in F following the earlier success of Rhapsody in Blue (1924). He completed the orchestration on November 18, less than four weeks before the work's premiere. He collaborated on the original program notes with critic and composer Deems Taylor. On January 1, 2025, An American in Paris entered the public domain in the United States.

Impromptu in Two Keys

This is a list of compositions by George Gershwin, a Broadway songwriter and a classical composer. His works are grouped thematically in this list, and in chronological order according to the dates of compositions in the same group.

Love walked in, for piano

George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the hit "Summertime". His Of Thee I Sing (1931) was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inquired about studying with him. He subsequently composed An American in Paris, returned to New York City and wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, it came to be considered one of the most important American operas of the 20th century and an American cultural classic. Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed several film scores. He died in 1937, only 38 years old, of a brain tumor. His compositions have been adapted for use in film and television, with many becoming jazz standards.

Merry Andrew
Novelette in Fourths

A novelette is "a short piece of lyrical music, especially one for the piano". The word was used by the composer Robert Schumann as a title for some piano pieces, a choice that reflected his literary background and interests. The music in question (op. 21, and op. 99 no. 9) is episodic, however, and does not especially resemble a narrative. The name may also allude to Clara Novello. Schumann was followed by Niels Gade, Theodor Kirchner, Stephen Heller, Anatoly Lyadov, and much later, by Poulenc (Trois novelettes), Lutosławski ("Novelette for Orchestra"), Chaminade, Tcherepnin, Josef Tal, and George Gershwin ("Novelette in Fourths").

Rialto Ripples

George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930) and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the hit "Summertime". His Of Thee I Sing (1931) was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark, Henry Cowell, and Joseph Brody. He began his career as a song plugger but soon started composing Broadway theater works with his brother Ira Gershwin and with Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris, intending to study with Nadia Boulanger, but she refused him, afraid that rigorous classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style; Maurice Ravel voiced similar objections when Gershwin inquired about studying with him. He subsequently composed An American in Paris, returned to New York City and wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, it came to be considered one of the most important American operas of the 20th century and an American cultural classic. Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed several film scores. He died in 1937, only 38 years old, of a brain tumor. His compositions have been adapted for use in film and television, with many becoming jazz standards.

Rubato, prelude

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.

Sleepless Night, prelude

Katharine Faulkner "Kay" Swift (April 19, 1897 – January 28, 1993) was an American composer of popular and classical music, the first woman to score a hit musical completely. Written in 1930, the Broadway musical Fine and Dandy includes some of her best known songs; the song "Fine and Dandy" has become a jazz standard. "Can't We Be Friends?" (1929) was her biggest hit song. Swift also arranged some of the music of George Gershwin posthumously, such as the prelude "Sleepless Night" (1946).

Swiss Miss

Swiss Miss is a brand of ConAgra Foods, Inc. Swiss Miss may also refer to: Heidi, an 1880 fictional orphaned Swiss girl Helvetia, the female personification of Switzerland Swiss Miss (film), a 1938 film starring Laurel and Hardy "Swiss Miss", a villain from Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark Martina Hingis (born 1980), retired professional tennis player from Switzerland Vreneli, nickname for a range of legal tender gold coins produced in Switzerland An episode of the animated TV series Archer A musical composition by George Gershwin

Three-Quarter Blues

This is a list of compositions by George Gershwin, a Broadway songwriter and a classical composer. His works are grouped thematically in this list, and in chronological order according to the dates of compositions in the same group.