Furia, who has already attempted a general survey of the great
American lyricists (Poets of Tin Pan Alley, 1990), turns his
attention to the works of a giant of the field. There have been
numerous biographies of Ira's brother, George, but the shy, quiet
older sibling has been given short shrift by music and theater
historians. Ira was a retiring, private man, a slow-working
perfectionist who was nicknamed "the Jeweller" by his more
mercurial brother; that, and his uneventful private life, have
undoubtedly contributed to his neglect by all but a few scholars of
the American popular song. Furia's (English/Univ. of Minnesota)
book attempts to combine academic analysis of Ira's writing with an
alltoo-cursory recounting of his life. Granted, compared to the
sexual shenanigans, relentless self-promotion, and sudden, tragic
death of George, Ira's calm waters look like an unlikely place to
go trolling for a good story. But as Furia points out in his
introductory chapter, Ira Gershwin was not only one of our most
prolific songwriters, working with almost every major American
composer of theater music - Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen, Jerome Kern,
and, of course, his brother - but one of the key figures in the
field, a man who "took the American vernacular and made it sing."
Regrettably, Furia's focus is almost entirely on the lyrics, and
his analyses, while interesting, will probably prove too technical
for the casual reader and insufficiently rigorous for the
professional. One yearns for more insight into this charming and
clever man who chose to hide his own light under his brother's not
inconsiderable bushel. Ira was a master at breathing new life into
old formulas with an urbane wit; Furia, unfortunately, is unable to
do the same. (Kirkus Reviews)
In Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist, the older and less flamboyant of the Gershwin brothers at last steps out of the shadows to claim his due as one of American songwriting's most important and enduring innovators. Philip Furia traces the development of Ira Gershwin's lyrical art from his early love of light verse and Gilbert and Sullivan, through his apprentice work in Tin Pan Alley, to his emergence as a prominent writer during the golden era of Broadway and Hollywood musicals. He reveals how Gershwin took the everyday speech of ordinary Americans and made it sing.
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