Rhapsody in Blue

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Rhapsody in Blue is a composition by George Gershwin which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects.

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History

Rhapsody in Blue was commissioned by Paul Whiteman for a 12 February, 1924 concert entitled "An Experiment in Modern Music," which took place in Aeolian Hall in New York City. <ref>Downes, Olin (1924) "A Concert of Jazz,"The New York Times, February 13, 1924, p. 16</ref>. The event has since become historic specifically because of its première of the Rhapsody. Whiteman became interested in such a work by Gershwin after he conducted the original performance of the one-act opera Blue Monday, which was a commercial failure.

Edward Jablonski<ref>Jablonski, Edward (1999) "Glorious George," Cigar Aficionada Jan/Feb 1999 [1]</ref> writes:

[In 1922] Paul Whiteman... suggested to Gershwin that he should write a "serious" composition in jazz. (Whiteman was known as "The King of Jazz" at a time when few had heard of Louis Armstrong or Jelly Roll Morton) Gershwin agreed, then forgot about it. Two years later, Gershwin was joltingly reminded of that casual exchange. The setting was the Ambassador Billiard Parlor at Broadway and 52nd Street in Manhattan; it was not quite midnight, January 3, 1924.... Ira Gershwin was reading the morning's New York Tribune [and read that] "George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto."

Gershwin hastily set about composing a piece, and on a train journey to Boston, the ideas of Rhapsody in Blue came to his mind. Later he wrote:

It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer—I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise... And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper—the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind and tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance. <ref>Cowen, Ron (1998), "George Gershwin: He Got Rhythm" The Washington Post Online: [2] (Quotation re inspiration on the train)</ref><ref>Howard, Orrin, "Rhapsody in Blue" (program notes for Los Angeles Philarmonic) [3]</ref>.

In three weeks, Rhapsody in Blue was born. However, due to the lack of time, Gershwin did not write out the piano part, only the band parts. As a result, he improvised some of what he was playing. Because he didn't write out the piano part until after the performance we don't know exactly how the original Rhapsody sounded.

Paul Whiteman's "orchestra" was a very popular dance band. Whiteman styled himself "The King of Jazz". (This appellation, applied to Whiteman's band of all-white musicians playing from written arrangements, would be questioned today, but in the 1920s the word jazz was used loosely to cover a broad range of contemporary popular music). Gilbert Seldes, in his book The Seven Lively Arts, was one of the first books to treat popular culture in a serious way, and "jazz" was starting to be seen as a significant American contribution to musical culture. Whiteman undertook to present what for the most part was an ordinary set of dance-band numbers in a concert hall under the trappings of high culture. Dance-band numbers were presented under headings such as "True Form of Jazz" and "Contrast: Legitimate Scoring vs. Jazzing." It was performed by Whiteman's band with an added section of string players, and George Gershwin on piano (partially improvising his piano solo).

Whiteman adopted the "Rhapsody in Blue" as his band's theme song, and opened his radio programs with the slogan "Everything new but the Rhapsody in Blue".

The piece received mixed reviews from mainstream critics. Olin Downes, reviewing the concert in The New York Times<ref>Downes, Olin (1924) op. cit.</ref>

This composition shows extraordinary talent, as it shows a young composer with aims that go far beyond those of his ilk, struggling with a form of which he is far from being master... In spite of all this he has expressed himself in a significant and, on the whole, highly original form.... His first theme... is no mere dance-tune... it is an idea, or several ideas, correlated and combined in varying and contrasting rhythms that immediately intrigue the listener. The second theme is more after the manner of some of Mr. Gershwin's colleague. Tuttis are too long, cadenzas are too long, the peroration at the end loses a large measure of wildness and magnificence it could easily have had if it were more broadly prepared, and, for all that, the audience was stirred and many a hardened concertgoer excited with the sensation of a new talent finding its voice... There was tumultuous applause for Gershwin's composition.

But other critics, and some concertgoers, gave it a tepid response, believing it nothing more than "Negro music". Another reviewer, Lawrence Gilman, wrote in the New York Tribune on February 13, 1924:

How trite and feeble and conventional the tunes are; how sentimental and vapid the harmonic treatment, under its disguise of fussy and futile counterpoint! ... Weep over the lifelessness of the melody and harmony, so derivative, so stale, so inexpressive!<ref>Slonimsky, Nicolas (2000): Lexicon of Musical Invective. W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 039332009X. (Gilman's unfavorable review, "weep over the lifelessness," p. 105)</ref>

In any event, by the end of the year Whiteman’s band had played the piece eighty-four times and its recording sold a million copies.<ref>Schwarz, Frederick D. (1999) Time Machine: 1924 Seventy-five Years Ago: Gershwin’s Rhapsody. American Heritage 50(1), February/March 1999[4]</ref>

Two audio recordings exist of Gershwin performing the piece with the Whiteman Orchestra, and a piano roll captured his performance in a piano-solo version. The Paul Whiteman Orchestra performs the piece in the 1930 film King of Jazz featuring Ferde Grofé on piano.

Rhapsody in Blue was orchestrated by Whiteman's arranger, Ferde Grofé, originally for the instrumental complement of Whiteman's band, then later for full symphony orchestra. Since the mid-20th century it has usually been performed by classical orchestras playing the expanded arrangement. In this form, it has become a staple of the concert repertoire. It has direct popular appeal while also being regarded respectfully by classical musicians. Classical commentator Ethan Mordden refers to Gershwin's sense of development and structure as "immature" but "not all that inferior to that of the average conservatory graduate." He characterizes the Rhapsody as "taut, incisive, expertly defined in what it is that had not been before."<ref>Mordden, Ethan (1980), A Guide to Orchestral Music: the Handbook for Non-Musicians, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195026821, p. 491-493</ref>

In the 1990s, interest in the original arrangement has revived. Reconstructions of it have been recorded by Michael Tilson Thomas and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and by Maurice Peress as part of a reconstruction of the entire 1924 concert.

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Trivia

Whiteman's clarinettist, Ross Gorman, showed Gershwin a virtuoso maneuver by which he could produce a smooth, unbroken multi-octave glissando. Such a glissando opens the Rhapsody in Blue; an American Heritage columnist called it the "famous opening clarinet glissando... that has since become as familiar as the start of Beethoven’s Fifth."<ref>Schwarz, Frederick D. (1999) Time Machine: 1924 Seventy-five Years Ago: Gershwin’s Rhapsody. American Heritage 50(1), February/March 1999[5]</ref>

Although Gershwin himself spoke of the Rhapsody as "a musical kaleidoscope of America," Rhapsody in Blue has often been interpreted as a musical portrait of New York City It is used to this effect in Woody Allen's film Manhattan and the Disney film Fantasia 2000<ref>Solomon, Charles (1999): Rhapsody in Blue: Fantasia 2000's Jewel in the Crown; in 1991 the female barbershop quartet Ambiance recorded an a cappella version of Rhapsody in Blue with lyrics describing scenes in New York life.<ref>Ambiance Quartet website, describes the arrangement as "a virtual vocal orchestration of relentless intensity and chutzpah"</ref> An excerpt of Rhapsody is known to many as the theme for United Airlines, and has been in use by the company since the 1970s.

The copyright on Rhapsody in Blue expires in 2007 in the European Union and between 2019 and 2027 in the United States of America.

Brian Wilson was reportedly heavily influenced by this music, and the SMiLE project can almost be thought as a direct offshoot of the concept, with its use of recurring themes and unmistakably American song structures. During the film "Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of SMiLE" Brian Wilson is shown playing the introduction of Rhapsody in Blue on the piano, then directly segueing into the SMiLE song "Heroes and Villains"

The 1945 film about Gershwin, starring Robert Alda, is also named Rhapsody in Blue.

The band The Toasters did a ska version of this song entitled "Rhapsody in Bluebeat" on their album Ska Killers.<ref>Ska Killers Amazon listing; "Rhapsody in Bluebeat" excepts: (RealOne), (Windows Media Player)</ref>