On Feb 12, 1924, a concert organised by popular jazz band leader Paul Whiteman was held at the Aeolian Hall in New York City. Despite the cold and snow, the show was jam-packed not only with music fans but also composers like Sergei Rachmaninov and John Philip Souza and popular actors like Gertrude Lawrence.
The concert was billed as "An Experiment in Modern Music" and Whiteman said later that his idea was to show the advances made in popular music and jazz. The concert featured more than 20 performances and near the end of a long night, songwriter and composer George Gershwin introduced his first compositional piece, Rhapsody In Blue, which he performed on piano. He received a standing ovation from the audience.
Over the next 100 years, Rhapsody would go on to be recognised as the musical embodiment of New York -- a modern, brash, always on the go city. It is no accident film director Woody Allen used the music for his opening sequence in Manhattan
Nonetheless, in 1924, music critics and classical composers were not so impressed, with The New Republic dubbing Rhapsody In Blue as circus music. What Gershwin had attempted in the composition was to synthesise jazz and classical music, and so Rhapsody features jazz and blues elements like expressive blue notes, syncopated rhythms and stride piano techniques, to name a few. It was one of the first compositions to successfully incorporate jazz and classical music.
American classical composers could have explored the musical possibilities of African-American music but in the main they did not. Jazz's low-brow origins counted against the music and some Americans regarded jazz, like the blues, as sinful music. But within a year, recordings were pressed and released, and sheet music of the song became very popular. Rhapsody In Blue was on its way to becoming an American classic.
There are at least five versions of Rhapsody In Blue (many regard Leonard Bernstein's 1959 version with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, on Sony Records, as the best), which Gershwin originally wrote as a short score for two pianos (YouTube has a performance of the two-piano version by Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang and jazz maestro Herbie Hancock, from 2012. Well worth checking out).
The version that was performed at Whiteman's concert was orchestrated by Ferde Grofe, who also scored versions for a theatre orchestra in 1926 and the well-known symphony orchestra score in 1942.
The original orchestration and the 1942 version remain the most performed. Some commentators have argued that the orchestral versions smooth out some of the jazz elements, in an attempt at elevating the music for concert halls. Indeed, elevating the popular (jazz) music to the concert hall was one the aims of the concert, according to Whiteman's comments in his autobiography.
Gershwin himself came from the songwriting mecca of Tin Pan Alley, where he started as a song plugger before he began writing songs. One of his songs, Swanee, was picked up by Al Jolson, who heard Gershwin play the melody at a party. Jolson sang it in one of his popular Broadway shows; the song made Gershwin's name and became the biggest selling song in his career.
Rhapsody was composed when Gershwin was just 24, and he would go on to write other orchestral compositions such as An American In Paris, and some of his songs like Embraceable You, I Got Rhythm and Summertime (from the opera Porgy And Bess, 1935) have become jazz standards.
His expertise and familiarity with the simple form of popular songs (opening melody, two verses, a bridge and a final verse) is actually what Rhapsody is based on, and the basic theme or melody begins with the evocative opening glissando by a solo clarinet, which is repeated, with subtle variations throughout the piece, underpinned by the syncopation of jazz.
Rhapsody was one of the favourite songs played in my home, often during Christmas festivities, when my father would play it on the piano. To my young ears, it was a magical piece of music, and led me quickly to listen to his other works. When I spoke with my father about writing this column, all I had to do to remind him of which composition and song I was writing about was whistle the first few notes. Later, I heard a version of Rhapsody that left me speechless -- Larry Adler's on a chromatic harmonica.
Throughout this year, musicians have gathered and created some fascinating versions of Rhapsody In Blue. I've seen and heard versions performed on melodicas, saxophones and guitars. There is one lady who performs it on an accordion as a kind of tango, as well. But for me, the version that really impressed me the most from my sample of new versions, is the version by banjo maestro Bela Fleck and his band. He calls it Rhapsody In Blue (Grass).
Gershwin's career was short but spectacular -- sadly he died young at the age of 38 in 1937. He did however create a body of work that remains as vibrant today as it did in the 1920s and 1930s. And Rhapsody remains one of the most popular American compositions of the 20th century.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
