George and Ira Gershwin Collection [finding aid ... - American Memory

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Collection Summary Title: George and Ira Gershwin Collection Span Dates: 1895-2008 Bulk Dates: (bulk 1920-1960) Call No.: ML31.G38 Creator: Gershwin, George, 1898-1937 Creator: Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983 Extent: 60,000 items ; 136 containers ; 53 linear feet Language: Collection material in English Location: Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Summary: Composer George Gershwin (1898-1937) and his lyricist brother Ira (1896-1983) wrote some of the most significant American popular songs of the first half of the twentieth century. Working with novelist and poet DuBose Heyward, they created the great American opera Porgy and Bess. Additionally, George Gershwin composed several singularly American concert works, including An American in Paris and Rhapsody In Blue, and both brothers produced many distinguished songs working with other collaborators. The George and Ira Gershwin Collection contains music manuscripts, handwritten and typewritten lyric sheets, printed music, correspondence, photographs, programs and publicity materials, legal and financial documents, and thirty-one scrapbooks, which present nearly a complete record of the Gershwins' lives and work as they were chronicled in the contemporary press. Selected Search Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein. People Armitage, Merle, 1893-1975--Correspondence. Bennett, Robert Russell, 1894-1981. Botkin, Benjamin Albert, 1901-1975--Correspondence. Botkin, Henry Albert, 1896-1983--Correspondence. Corbett, Rosamond Walling Tirana, 1910-1999--Correspondence. Daly, William, -1974. Damrosch, Walter, 1862-1950--Correspondence. DePackh, Maurice, 1896-1960. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937--Archives. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937--Correspondence. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937--Photographs. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937. Porgy and Bess. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937. Porgy and Bess. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937. Works. Selections. Gershwin, George, 1898-1937. Works. Selections; arranged. Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983--Archives. Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983--Correspondence. Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983--Photographs. Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983. Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983. Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983. George and Ira Gershwin collection. 1895-2008. Gershwin, Rose--Correspondence. Heyward, DuBose, 1885-1940. Kaufman, George S. (George Simon), 1889-1961. Pringle, Aileen, 1895-1989--Correspondence. Ryskind, Morrie, 1895-1985. George and Ira Gershwin Collection 2
Saddler, Frank. Sirmay, Albert--Correspondence. Sirmay, Albert. Spialek, Hans. Swift, Kay, 1897-1993. Tamber, Selma--Correspondence. Weill, Kurt, 1900-1950--Correspondence. Subjects Composers--United States--Autographs. Composers--United States--Correspondence. Composers--United States. Lyricists--United States--Correspondence. Lyricists--United States. Musical films. Musicals--Scores. Musicals--Vocal scores with piano. Musicals. Revues. Form/Genre Artifacts (Object genre) Correspondence. Financial records. Legal documents. Photographic prints. Programs (Documents) Scrapbooks. Administrative Information Provenance The George and Ira Gershwin Collection has been assembled over a period of more than seventy years from a number of sources, foremost among them, members of the Gershwin family. The first acquisition that would become part of the Gershwin Collection was George's 2-page holograph sketch for Roll Dem Bones (or, "The Crap Shooter's Song") from Porgy and Bess, donated by Ira in 1939. The next gift, and the first substantial one, was received in 1953 from the estate of Rose Gershwin, consisting of George's holograph scores for six of his seven large-scale orchestral works: An American in Paris, Concerto in F, Cuban Overture, Porgy and Bess, Rhapsody in Blue, and Second Rhapsody. Ira's first major gifts were George’s custom-made desk and Ferde Grofé's holograph score for his symphonic orchestration of Rhapsody in Blue, also in 1953, and George's holograph score for the "I Got Rhythm" Variations, in 1954. During the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, Ira donated numerous music manuscripts, lyric sheets, photographs, sound recordings, and other materials in his possession, many of them accompanied by his informative explanatory notes. He also donated the drafts for his memoir, Lyrics on Several Occasions, in 1966, and he purchased and donated several items that he considered interesting and appropriate for the collection. By the early 1980s, as Ira's advancing age was diminishing his activity on behalf of the Gershwin Collection, his wife, Leonore, became increasingly involved with collecting and preserving the Gershwins' documentary legacy. In 1983, she purchased George's holograph two-piano score for An American in Paris, which she donated the following year. After Ira's death in 1983, Leonore continued and expanded her husband’s efforts, donating the remaining music manuscripts and lyric sheets (some 6,000 documents) from their home in 1987. She purchased and donated George's letters to Julia Van Norman in 1988. Her final gift, in the spring of 1991, included an early tune book of George’s sketches for An American in Paris. Following her death later that year, the Library of Congress received from her estate self-portrait oil paintings of both brothers, posters from the 1950s international tour of Porgy and Bess, one of George's pianos, and thirty- George and Ira Gershwin Collection 3
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George and Ira Gershwin Collection [finding aid ... - American Memory

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