Description
In 1919-20, George Gershwin was establishing his reputation through Broadway songs and his inaugural show in New York. However, he was already drawn to classical music, a realm he would boldly enter in 1924 with "Rhapsody in Blue." To prepare for this transition, he undertook an intensive composition course, during which he composed the brief "Lullaby" for string quartet, likely in 1919. He was so taken with its memorable melody that he later incorporated it into his one-act "jazz opera," "Blue Monday Blues." His brother Ira remarked in 1968, upon the quartet movement's first publication, that he found the piece "charming and kind." Consequently, this American composer gifted the world a second lullaby, one that stands proudly alongside his renowned "Summertime" from "Porgy and Bess."
