George Gershwin

In this welcome addition to the immensely popular Yale Broadway Masters series, Larry Starr focuses fresh attention on George Gershwins Broadway contributions and examines their centrality to the composers entire career. Starr presents Gershwin as a composer with a unified musical visiona vision developed on Broadway and used as a source of strength in his well-known concert music. In turn, Gershwins concert-hall experience enriched and strengthened his musicals, leading eventually to his great Broadway opera, Porgy and Bess. Through the prism of three major showsLady Be Good (1924), Of Thee I Sing (1931), and Porgy and Bess (1935)Starr highlights Gershwins distinctive contributions to the evolution of the Broadway musical. In addition, the author considers Gershwins musical language, his compositions for the concert hall, and his movie scores for Hollywood in the light of his Broadway experience.