April 6, 1994
Contact: Helen Dalrymple (Library of Congress) (202) 707-1940
Steven D. Bowen (212) 865-0720
Library of Congress Launches Second Phase of Gershwin Publishing Project
The Leonore S. Gershwin-Library of Congress Recording and
Publishing Project has begun work on a series of scholarly
printed editions of Gershwin musicals as the second phase of the
project, which was originally initiated in 1989.
The series of printed editions will use manuscripts housed
in the Music Division of the Library of Congress, as well as
those preserved at the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts, to
assemble piano-vocal editions of the classic Gershwin scores.
Since the initiation of the first phase of the
Gershwin-Library of Congress Project, complete recordings of four
musical theater works have been prepared: "Girl Crazy"; "Strike
Up the Band"; "Lady, Be Good!"; and "Pardon My English" (soon to
be released).
The first score in the series of printed editions to be
completed will be "Strike Up the Band," the landmark
collaboration among the Gershwin brothers and librettist George
S.Kaufman. It is expected that it will be available in 1995.
A biting satire of war profiteering and jingoism, "Strike Up
the Band" opened in Philadelphia in September 1927 to critical
cheers. But its subject matter proved too controversial for Jazz
Age audiences, and by the time the show reached New York --
nearly three years later -- it had been heavily revised.
In 1991 Roxbury Recordings produced the first recording of
the original "Strike Up the Band" as part of the Leonore S.
Gershwin-Library of Congress Recording and Publishing Project.
Stephen Holden in The New York Times predicted, "It should
broaden the reputation of a composer who is still identified in
most people's minds with his two-dozen best-known popular
standards, the opera Porgy and Bess and Rhapsody in Blue." Now
the score will be preserved in printed form as well.
Orchestrator and conductor Steven D. Bowen, who served as
musical supervisor on the acclaimed 1991 recording, will work on
the score. Collaborating with Mr. Bowen will be James W. Pruett,
chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, and Tommy
Krasker, president of Roxbury Recordings, the company created in
1989 by Leonore (Mrs. Ira) Gershwin to document and celebrate the
Gershwin brothers' rich and rewarding legacy.
The George and Ira Gershwin Collection at the Library of
Congress is the world's preeminent source for original materials
documenting the lives and works of the Gershwins. It contains
extraordinary holdings of manuscript and printed music for
virtually every important type of work, from the concert pieces
of George Gershwin, such as Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F, and
An American in Paris, to the stage and screen collaborations of
George and Ira Gershwin, including "Porgy and Bess," "Of Thee I
Sing," and "Girl Crazy." In addition, the collection contains
photographs, programs, scrapbooks, paintings and drawings,
correspondence, and other memorabilia. These materials are
available for use by researchers and scholars in the Performing
Arts Reading Room of the Library of Congress.
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PR 94-067
4/6/94
ISSN 0731-3527