MODERN 1900 –1950 261
Insistence on a black cast for Porgy
and Bess—seen here on Broadway in
1942—made Gershwin the subject of
criticism and prevented the opera from
being performed in opera houses.dissonance that Gershwin admired
so much in the work of the Austrian
modernist composer Alban Berg.A closer alliance
In Europe, jazz continued to
influence classical composers, most
particularly those who skirted the
middle-European cabaret scene.
In Germany, the Austrian composer
Ernst Krenek’s 1927 opera Jonny
Plays, which tells the story of a jazz
violinist, was an instant success,
with its then-subversive portrayal
of jazz as a challenge to European
tradition. Similarly, the German
composer Kurt Weill used jazz
elements in The Threepenny Opera—
produced in Berlin, in 1928—to
such effect that The Ballad of Mack
the Knife became a jazz standard.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the
boundaries between jazz and
classical works became more fluid.
Jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman
commissioned Contrasts, a piece
for clarinet, violin, and piano, from
Bela Bartók in 1938, while Igor
Stravinsky’s 1945 Ebony Concerto
was written for another jazz
clarinetist, Woody Herman.This cross-fertilization between
jazz and classical did not always
meet with approval. In 1957, the
American composer Gunther
Schuller, wary of unsatisfying
classical-jazz collaborations (such
as Benny Goodman playing Mozart)
and unconvinced by the jazz he
found in composers such as Ravel
and Shostakovich, suggested a new
genre—the “Third Stream.” This
required performers to be proficient
in both classical and jazz so that
composed and improvised music
could sit side by side. Schuller’s
ideas influenced jazz musicians,
such as John Lewis, Bill Russo,
and Charles Mingus, who would
go on to lead the avant-garde “free
jazz” style of the 1960s, while, in
the classical tradition, composers
such as Hans Werner Henze, in
Germany, and Krzysztof Penderecki,
in Poland, took up the challenge,
including free jazz in their works. ■George Gershwin
Born the second son of Jewish
immigrants in 1898, Brooklyn-
born Gershwin became
interested in music at the
age of 10. By the time he was
15, he had a job as a “song
plugger” in New York’s Tin
Pan Alley, playing the latest
sheet music for prospective
customers. He published his
first song in 1916, but his big
break came in 1920 when
Broadway star Al Jolson
performed the Gershwin song
Swanee, after which he was
invited to collaborate on a
number of Broadway musicals.
Following the success of
Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin
focused as much on classical
traditions as jazz, with
compositions such as the
opera Porgy and Bess and the
Piano Concerto in F running
alongside shows such as Girl
Crazy and Funny Face, which
he wrote with his lyricist
brother Ira, and film scores,
including Shall We Dance. He
died in 1937 of a brain tumor.Other key works1925 Piano Concerto in F
1927 Funny Face
1935 Porgy and Bess
1937 Shall We DanceUS_258-261_Gershwin.indd 261 26/03/18 1:01 PM