Ira Gershwin The Art of the Lyricist [Paperback]

To the perennial question which comes first, the music or the words? Ira Gershwin always responded, the contract. The jest reveals both Ira's consummate professionalism and the self-effacing wit with which he ducked the spotlight whenever possible. Yet the ingeniously inventive melodies George Gershwin composed for such classic songs as Someone to Watch Over Me, Embraceable You, Fascinating Rhythm, It Ain't Necessarily So, and Love is Here to Stay live on in no small part because of the equally unforgettable lyrics of Ira Gershwin, lines crafted with a precision that earned him the sobriquet The Jeweller among his Broadway peers.
InIra 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 for the Broadway musical theater in the 1920s. Furia illuminates his work in satirical operettas such asOf Thee I SingandStrike Up the Band, the smart little revues of the 1930s, and his contributions to the operaPorgy and Bess. After describing the Gershwin brothers' brief but brilliant work in Hollywood before George's sudden death--work that produced such classics as They Can't Take That Away From Me and Let's Call the Whole Thing Off --Furia follows Ira's career through such triumphs asLady in the Darkwith Kurt Weill,Cover Girlwith Jerome Kern, andA Star is Born, with Harold Arlen. Along the way, Furia provides much insight into the art of the lyricist and he captures the magic of a golden era when not only the Gershwins, but Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II, Gertrude Lawrence, Fred Astaire, and othel&