Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXIV, no. 2 (Summer 1998)
Events of Note
The Gershwins and Their World: A Symposium Sponsored by the Music Division of the Library of
Congress and the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trust
Concerns that George Gershwin's music might be soon forgotten surfaced immediately after his death in
June 1937. While Ira fiecely protected the unpublished music and began a life-long campaign as a lobbyist
and curator of his brother's reputation, his mother Rose created the Gershwin Collection at the Library of
Congress. By the time of the great Gershwinophile gathering at the Museum of the City of New York in 1968, the
family had succeeded in shaping an invincible legacy. Many of the swarm of scholars, performers, students,
and curiosity-seekers who crowded into the newly-renovated Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress
from 13-16 March 1998 were oblivious of these past anxieties; they came to witness the spectacle.
A permanent exhibition area for materials from the library's George and Ira Gershwin Collection was christened
at Friday's opening ceremony. The Gershwin room houses George's unique writing desk and one of his many
Steinway pianos (curiously rebuilt by the manufacturer in New York for its current zoo-like existence), Ira's
typewriter with table, self-portraits of each brother, and scores, letters and other icons which will be
roated with myriad other items stored within the bowels of the Madison Building.
On the following three days, an array of headliners took the stage. Saturday opened with Michael Feinstein
followed by the ever-glamorous and gracious Kitty Carlisle Hart, Angie Dickinson, and the original Bess,
Annie Brown; on Sunday, Bill Bolcolm and Joan Morris spun their magic web, Michael Tilson Thomas related family
stories and other anecdotes linking him to the Gershwin family, and a concert version of Vincent Youmans' Great Day --
complete with superb soloists and the choir from Howard University -- sent the audiences into the streets whistling.
To avoid a final day letdown, Dick Hyman, Ned Rorem (who read his 1984 Gershwin essay), the classy "Jimmy Durante
act-alike" Max Morath and the Bolcolm/Morris duo were billed to keep the audience wonderfully agitated. Noticeably
missing were the east coast Gershwins: Frances Gershwin Godowsky, her son Leopold Godowsky and Marc Gershwin.
To stimuilate the scholars present, the list of invited biographers and afilliated author reads like the "Who's Who" in
twentieth-century popular music. The groundbreakers -- Ed Jablonski, Robert Kimball, and Lawrence Stewart -- shared the
podium with Deena Rosenberg, Gerald Boardman, Lee Davis, Allen Forte, Philiip Furia, Charles Hamm,
Mary Henderson, Vivian Perlis, and Wayne Shirley. What they contributed to the festivities cannot be
adequately noted here. When transcripts of the symposium are available, Sonneck members are hereby advised to
purchase copies from the LIbrary.
To be expected of a production of this magnitude, the performers were top-drawer: by Austin, Steven Blier, Rob Fisher, John McGlinn, Peter
Mintun, in addition to the list already mentioned. The music was not from the Gershwins alone. Marthanne Verbit played
pieces by composers Gershwin met on European travels, including George Antheil, Alexandre Tansman and Vernon Duke;
the Saturday evening finale brought more Vernon Duke songs; a movement of Alban Berg's Lyric Suite was
performed; Ed Jablonski provided tidbits of private audio treasures featuring the crooning of Harold Arlen, Jerome
Kern and Yip Harburg. Pianists Hyman and Morath thrilled listeners with their offerings of works by James P. Johnson,
Scott Joplin, Zez Confrey, Willie "The Lion" Smith, and others.
But perhaps the most endearing were the personal tributes. English Strunsky was nine when his parent's Greenwich Village
home became one of the meeting places of the Gershwins, Paleys, Edward G. Robinson, Mabel Pleshette (later Schirmer), and a host of
others. The richness in his testimony, along with that of Gershwin intimates Kitty Carlisle Hart and David Raksin, broiugh a charming
authenticity to the moment. Also in two were relatives of other Gershwin pals: Kay Duke (wife of
Vernon), Ann Kaufman Schneider (the only child of irascible George S. Kaufman) and Kathy Weber (granddaughter of
Kay Swift, the closest thing to a love in George Gershwin's life).
With tender excuses for the laundry list, please try to imagine the incredible excitement that the symposium
generated. When audiences adjourned to the nearby coffee area, the room buzzed with activity; theories were exchanged,
bragging, and "one-ups-manship" were at a premium; names were dropped. But most of all, appreciation and
enthusiasm for the genius of two brothers were abundant. Allow us to tip our hats to them and to the efforts of
Bob Kimball and Betty Auman, who made the event a significant and memorable one.
--Robert Wyatt
Levine School of Music, Washington, D.C.
Updated 8/31/98