Brooklyn’s Gershwin brothers, George and Ira, were among the leading Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1920s and 30s, with countless popular songs and more than a dozen Broadway musicals to their name. But George (1898-1937), who wrote all of the music to Ira’s lyrics, longed for a place in the classical music pantheon. In 1924, his Rhapsody in Blue for piano and band (later orchestra) established his credentials as a serious composer. Its use of jazz elements within classical structures became a hallmark of Gershwin’s style. His Piano Concerto in F and An American in Paris continued in this direction, culminating in his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. Despite his ultimate success in the classical arena, Gershwin’s requests for lessons with other major composers were repeatedly denied. Arnold Schoenberg, for example, told him “I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you’re such a good Gershwin already.”
Rhapsody in Blue is perhaps one of the most famous pieces of American classical music. It was originally conceived as a crossover piece: jazz impresario Paul Whiteman approached Gershwin for a “jazz concerto” in late 1923. He was putting together a concert for February 12, 1924 called “An Experiment in Modern Music” that was to explore the intersection of jazz and classical music. Gershwin, who already had a full plate, declined. Shortly later, on January 3, 1924, George’s brother Ira saw an article in the New York Tribune that described Whiteman’s upcoming concert, including the claim that “George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto.” This reopened talks between Whiteman and Gershwin, who ultimately agreed to the project after being assured that Whiteman’s arranger, Ferde Grofé, could complete the orchestration to match the unique strengths of Whiteman’s band. Gershwin sketched the piece on a train ride from New York to Boston, as he recalled to Isaac Goldberg:
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 metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance.
His working title was American Rhapsody, but Ira suggested Rhapsody in Blue after seeing an exhibition of James Whistler paintings which bore titles like Arrangement in Gray and Black (the famous Whistler’s Mother). This new title captured both the piece’s classical aspirations and its jazz underpinnings (“blue” referencing the blues), and so Rhapsody in Blue was born.
The premiere took place as scheduled with Whiteman and his band in an orchestration completed just 8 days beforehand by Grofé. Gershwin was the piano soloist, and contemporary accounts suggest that he improvised much of the cadenza material. Grofé ultimately orchestrated the piece four times: the original jazz band with violins version in 1924, a larger theater orchestra version in 1926, a concert band version that can be played with or without piano in 1938, and the now-standard large orchestra version in 1942.
Leonard Bernstein performs as both conductor and soloist (a not uncommon practice) in the full orchestra version with the New York Philharmonic:
Soloist Lola Astanova and conductor Gerard Schwarz lead the All Star Orchestra in something that looks an awful lot like Grofé’s original orchestration:
The 12-inch records at the time could only accommodate about 9 minutes of music, so the first recordings made by Gershwin and the Whiteman Band abridged the piece considerably from its original 16 minutes. Here is one of those, filled with stylistic insights (and a few shortcuts):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U40xBSz6Dc
Grofé’s was just the first of many concert band versions:
Here is another for a smaller ensemble arranged by Donald Hunsberger:
And one more for a larger band arranged by Marco Tamanini:
This just scratches the surface. A search for Rhapsody in Blue at J. W. Pepper, for instance, reveals more than 200 results!
Read more about the composer:
Gershwin.com – the official Gershwin family website.
Another Gershwin bio, with portraits, at naxos.com.
And about the piece: