Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue | |
---|---|
by George Gershwin | |
Genre | Orchestral jazz |
Form | Rhapsody |
Composed | January 1924 |
Published | June 12, 1924[1] | Harms, Inc.
Premiere | |
Date | February 12, 1924 |
Location | Aeolian Hall, New York City, US |
Conductor | Paul Whiteman |
Performers |
|
Audio sample | |
The United States Marine Band's 2018 performance of the 1924 jazz band version, with pianist Bramwell Tovey |
Rhapsody in Blue is a 1924 musical composition written by
The rhapsody is one of Gershwin's most recognizable creations and a key composition that defined the Jazz Age.[5][6][7] Gershwin's piece inaugurated a new era in America's musical history,[8] established his reputation as an eminent composer and became one of the most popular of all concert works.[9] In the American Heritage magazine, Frederic D. Schwarz posits that the famous opening clarinet glissando has become as instantly recognizable to concert audiences as the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.[10]
History
Commission
Following the success of an experimental classical-jazz concert held with Canadian singer Éva Gauthier in New York City on November 1, 1923, bandleader Paul Whiteman decided to attempt a more ambitious feat.[2] He asked composer George Gershwin to write a concerto-like piece for an all-jazz concert in honor of Lincoln's Birthday to be given at Aeolian Hall.[11] Whiteman became fixated upon performing such an extended composition by Gershwin after he collaborated with him in The Scandals of 1922.[12] He had been especially impressed by Gershwin's one-act "jazz opera" Blue Monday.[13] Gershwin initially declined Whiteman's request on the grounds that he would have insufficient time to compose the work and there would likely be a need to revise the score.[14]
Soon after, on the evening of January 3, George Gershwin and lyricist
The news announcement puzzled Gershwin as he had politely declined to compose any such work for Whiteman.[18][19] In a telephone conversation with Whiteman the next morning, Whiteman informed Gershwin that Whiteman's arch rival Vincent Lopez planned to steal the idea of his experimental concert and there was no time to lose.[20] Whiteman thus finally persuaded Gershwin to compose the piece.[20]
Composition
With only five weeks remaining until the premiere, Gershwin hurriedly set about composing the work.[15] He later claimed that, while on a train journey to Boston, the thematic seeds for Rhapsody in Blue began to germinate in his mind.[21][20] He told biographer Isaac Goldberg in 1931:
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.[21]
Gershwin began composing on January 7 as dated on the original manuscript for two pianos.
Premiere
Rhapsody in Blue premiered during a snowy Tuesday afternoon on February 12, 1924, at
In a pre-concert lecture, Whiteman's manager Hugh C. Ernst proclaimed the purpose of the concert to be "purely educational".
Many of the early numbers in the program underwhelmed the audience, and the ventilation system in the concert hall malfunctioned.
Whiteman's orchestra performed the rhapsody with "twenty-three musicians in the ensemble" and George Gershwin on piano.[37][38] In characteristic style, Gershwin chose to partially improvise his piano solo.[38] The orchestra anxiously waited for Gershwin's nod which signaled the end of his piano solo and the cue for the ensemble to resume playing.[38] As Gershwin did not write the solo piano section until after the concert, it remains unknown exactly how the original rhapsody sounded at the premiere.[39]
Audience reaction and success
Upon the conclusion of the rhapsody, the audience tumultuously applauded Gershwin's composition,[4][40] and, quite unexpectedly, "the concert, in every respect but the financial,[a] became a 'knockout'."[42] The concert soon became historically significant due to the premiere of the rhapsody, and its program would "become not only a historic document, finding its way into foreign monographs on jazz, but a rarity as well."[25]
Following the success of the rhapsody's premiere, future performances followed. The first British performance of Rhapsody in Blue took place at the Savoy Hotel in London on June 15, 1925.[43] The BBC broadcast the performance in a live relay. Debroy Somers conducted the Savoy Orpheans with Gershwin himself at the piano.[43] Audiences heard the piece again in the United Kingdom during the second European tour of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, most notably on April 11, 1926, at the Royal Albert Hall, with Gershwin in the audience. The Gramophone Company/HMV recorded this performance.[44]
By the end of 1927, Whiteman's band had performed Rhapsody in Blue approximately 84 times, and its recording sold a million copies.
Critical response
"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 colleagues. Tuttis are too long, cadenzas are too long, the peroration at the end loses a large measure of the 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."
—Olin Downes, The New York Times, February 1924[4]
In contrast to the warm reception by concert audiences,[4][42] music critics gave the rhapsody mixed reviews.[46] Samuel Chotzinoff, music critic of the New York World, conceded that Gershwin's composition had "made an honest woman out of jazz,"[27] while Henrietta Strauss of The Nation opined that Gershwin had "added a new chapter to our musical history."[8] Olin Downes, reviewing the concert in The New York Times, favorably noted the rhapsody as "a "highly original form", and the composer as a "new talent finding its voice."[4]
Nonetheless, other reviewers were less positive. Pitts Sanborn declared that the rhapsody "begins with a promising theme well stated" yet "soon runs off into empty passage-work and meaningless repetition."[40] A number of reviews were particularly negative. Lawrence Gilman—a Richard Wagner enthusiast who would later write a devastating review of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess—harshly criticized the rhapsody as "derivative," "stale," and "inexpressive" in a New-York Tribune review on February 13, 1924.[47][48]
Overall, professional music critics recurrently criticized Gershwin's piece as essentially formless and asserted that the composer had haphazardly glued melodic segments together.[49]
Retrospective reviews
Years after its premiere, Rhapsody in Blue continued to divide music critics principally due to its perceived melodic incoherence.[50][51][52] Constant Lambert, a British composer whose oeuvre often incorporated jazz elements, openly dismissed the work:
The composer [George Gershwin], trying to write a Lisztian concerto in a jazz style, has used only the non-barbaric elements in dance music, the result being neither good jazz nor good Liszt, and in no sense of the word a good concerto.[50]
In an article in
Rhapsody in Blue is not a real composition in the sense that whatever happens in it must seem inevitable, or even pretty inevitable. You can cut out parts of it without affecting the whole in any way except to make it shorter. You can remove any of these stuck-together sections and the piece still goes on as bravely as before. You can even interchange these sections with one another and no harm done. You can make cuts within a section, or add new cadenzas, or play it with any combination of instruments or on the piano alone; it can be a five-minute piece or a six-minute piece or a twelve-minute piece. And in fact all these things are being done to it every day. It's still the Rhapsody in Blue.[51][52]
Orchestration
As Gershwin did not have sufficient knowledge of orchestration in 1924,
In the heat of the occasion, the contribution of Ferdie Grofé, the arranger on the Whiteman staff who had scored the Rhapsody in ten days, was overlooked or ignored. It is true that an appreciable part of the scoring had been indicated by Gershwin; nevertheless, the contribution of Grofé was of prime importance, not only to the composition, but to the jazz scoring of the immediate future.[54]
Grofé hastily arranged the famous 1924 score to take full advantage of the Whiteman orchestra's particular strengths.[56] He developed this orchestration for solo piano and Whiteman's twenty-three musicians.[57] For the reeds section, Ross Gorman (Reed I) played an oboe, a heckelphone, a clarinet in B♭, sopranino saxophones in E♭ & B♭, an alto saxophone, one E♭ soprano clarinet, and alto and bass clarinets; Donald Clark (Reed II) played a soprano saxophone in B♭, alto and baritone saxophones, and Hale Byers (Reed III) played soprano saxophone in B♭, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, and a flute.[57]
For the brass section, two trumpets in B♭ were played by Henry Busse and Frank Siegrist; two French horns in F were played by Arturo Cerino and Al Corrado; two trombones were played by Roy Maxon and James Casseday, and a tuba and a double bass played by Guss Helleburg and Alus Armer respectively.
Musicologists largely ignored this original arrangement—with its unique instrumental requirements—until its revival in reconstructions beginning in the mid-1980s, owing to the popularity and serviceability of the later scorings.[61] After the 1924 premiere, Grofé revised the score and made new orchestrations in 1926 and 1942, each time for larger orchestras.[61] He published his arrangement for a theater orchestra in 1926.[62] Grofé orchestrated this adaptation for a more standard "pit orchestra," which included one flute, one oboe, two clarinets, one bassoon, three saxophones; two French horns, two trumpets, and two trombones; as well as the same percussion and strings complement as the later 1942 version.[63]
Grofé later produced a 1942 arrangement for a full
Grofé's other arrangements of Gershwin's piece include those done for Whiteman's 1930 film, King of Jazz,[64] and the concert band setting (playable without piano) completed by 1938 and published 1942. The prominence of the saxophones in the later orchestrations is somewhat reduced, and the banjo part can be dispensed with, as its mainly rhythmic contribution is provided by the inner strings.[65]
Gershwin himself made versions of the piece for solo piano as well as two pianos.[66] The solo version is notable for omitting several sections of the piece.[b] Gershwin's intent to eventually do an orchestration of his own is documented in 1936–37 correspondence from the publisher Harms.[67]
Notable recordings
After the warm reception of Rhapsody in Blue by the audience at Aeolian Hall, Gershwin recorded several abridged versions of his composition in different formats.
Due to the length limitations of early recording formats, the first complete and unabridged recording of Gershwin's composition did not occur until the
During the final months of World War II, amid the box-office success of the Gershwin biographical film Rhapsody in Blue (1945), pianist Oscar Levant recorded the now iconic composition with Eugene Ormandy's Philadelphia Orchestra on August 21, 1945.[79] Levant had been an intimate friend of the deceased composer,[80][81] and he sought to replicate Gershwin's idiomatic playing style in his performance.[82] Levant's homage—labelled Columbia Masterworks 251—received rapturous reviews and became one of the best-selling record albums of the year.[83] As a result of Levant's recording and the 1945 biographical film about Gershwin's life, a "Gershwin revival" ensued.
By the 1960s and 1970s, Gershwin's rhapsody had become a predictable staple of both concert performances and orchestra recordings; consequently, more diverse and irreverent interpretations appeared over time. In Summer 1973, Brazilian
Concurrent with the emergence of these more diverse interpretations, scholarly interest revived in the original 1924 arrangement by Ferde Grofé which had not been performed since the end of the Jazz Age. On February 14, 1973, conductor
One hundred years after the debut of Gershwin's rhapsody in 1924, tens of thousands of orchestras as well as solo pianists have recorded the piece, both abridged and unabridged. A number of these recordings have garnered critical recognition such as pianist
Form and analysis
As a jazz concerto, Rhapsody in Blue is written for solo piano with orchestra.
The opening of Rhapsody in Blue is written as a clarinet trill followed by a legato, 17 notes in a diatonic scale. During a rehearsal, Whiteman's virtuoso clarinetist, Ross Gorman, rendered the upper portion of the scale as a captivating and trombone-like glissando.[96] Gershwin heard it and insisted that it be repeated in the performance.[96] The effect is produced using the tongue and throat muscles to change the resonance of the oral cavity, thus controlling the continuously rising pitch.[97] Many clarinet players gradually open the left-hand tone holes on their instrument during the passage from the last concert F to the top concert B♭ as well. This effect has now become standard performance practice for the work.[97]
Rhapsody in Blue features both rhythmic invention and melodic inspiration, and demonstrates Gershwin's ability to write a piece with large-scale harmonic and melodic structure. The piece is characterized by strong
The harmonic structure of the rhapsody is more difficult to analyze.[102] The piece begins and ends in B♭ major, but it modulates towards the sub-dominant direction and abruptly returns to B♭ major at the end.[103] The opening modulates "downward" through the keys B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, B, E, and finally to A major.[103] Modulation through the circle of fifths in the reverse direction inverts classical tonal relationships, but does not abandon them. The entire middle section resides primarily in C major, with forays into G major (the dominant relation).[104] Such modulations occur freely, although not always with harmonic direction. Gershwin frequently uses a recursive harmonic progression of minor thirds to give the illusion of motion when in fact a passage does not change key from beginning to end.[102] Modulation by thirds is a common feature of Tin Pan Alley music.
The influences of jazz and other contemporary styles are present in Rhapsody in Blue.
Gershwin incorporated different piano styles into his work. He used the techniques of
Legacy and influence
Cultural zeitgeist
With the debut of Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin inaugurated a new era in America's musical history.[8] He established his reputation as one of the eminent composers of the Jazz Age, and his composition eventually became one of the most popular of all concert works.[9] In the American Heritage magazine, Frederic D. Schwarz posits that the famous opening clarinet glissando has become as instantly recognizable to concert audiences as the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.[10]
According to critic Orrin Howard of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gershwin's rhapsody made an indelible mark "on the fraternity of serious composers and performers—many of whom were present at the premiere—and on Gershwin himself, for its enthusiastic reception encouraged him to other and more serious projects."[7] Howard posits that the work's legacy is best understood as embodying the cultural zeitgeist of the Jazz Age:
Beginning with that incomparable, flamboyant clarinet solo, Rhapsody is irresistible still, with its syncopated rhythmic vibrancy, its abandoned, impudent flair that tells more about the Roaring Twenties than could a thousand words, and its genuine melodic beauty colored a deep, jazzy blue by the flatted sevenths and thirds that had their origins in the African-American slave songs.[7]
Although Gershwin's rhapsody is "by no means a definitive example of jazz in the Jazz Age,"[108] music historians such as James Ciment and Floyd Levin have similarly concurred that it is the key composition that encapsulates the spirit of the era.[5][109] As early as 1927, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald opined that Rhapsody in Blue idealized the youthful zeitgeist of the Jazz Age.[110] In subsequent decades, both the latter era and Fitzgerald's related literary works have been often culturally linked by critics and scholars with Gershwin's composition.[111] In 1941, social historian Peter Quennell opined that Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby embodied "the sadness and the remote jauntiness of a Gershwin tune."[112] Accordingly, director Baz Luhrmann used Rhapsody in Blue as a dramatic leitmotif for the character of Jay Gatsby in his 2013 film The Great Gatsby, a cinematic adaptation of Fitzgerald's 1925 novel.[59][113]
Various writers, such as the American playwright and journalist Terry Teachout, have likened Gershwin himself to the character of Gatsby due to his attempt to transcend his lower-class background, his abrupt meteoric success, and his early death while in his thirties.[111]
Musical portrait of New York City
Rhapsody in Blue has been interpreted as a musical portrait of early-20th-century New York City.[114] Culture scribe Darryn King wrote in The Wall Street Journal that "Gershwin's fusion of jazz and classical traditions captures the thriving melting pot of Jazz Age New York."[114]
Likewise, music historian
Accordingly, the opening montage of Woody Allen's 1979 film Manhattan features a rendition by Zubin Mehta in which quintessential New York scenes are set to the music of Gershwin's famed jazz concerto.[115] Twenty years later, Walt Disney Pictures used the composition for the New York segment of the 1999 animated film Fantasia 2000, in which the piece lyrically frames an animated segment drawn in the style of illustrator Al Hirschfeld.[116]
Influence on composers
Gershwin's rhapsody has influenced a number of composers. In 1955, Rhapsody in Blue inspired accordionist
Other uses
At the opening ceremony of the
Preservation status
On September 22, 2013, the Gershwin estate announced that a
Rhapsody in Blue entered the public domain on January 1, 2020, although individual recordings of it may remain under copyright.[130][131]
References
Notes
- ^ Paul Whiteman gave away free tickets to promote the concert and lost money.[41] He expended $11,000, and the concert netted $4,000.[41]
- ^ Omissions include the bars from rehearsal mark 14 to halfway through the fifth bar of rh. 18; from two bars before rh. 22 to the fourth bar of rh. 24; and the first four bars of rh. 38.
- ^ Victor 55225 is the June 10, 1924, acoustic recording with the original clarinetist, Ross Gorman, performing the opening glissando.[69]
- RCA Victor 33+1⁄3-rpm.[72]
- ^ Fiedler and the Boston Pops made another popular recording of the work in stereophonic sound with Earl Wild at the piano for RCA Victor in 1959.
Citations
- ^ 1924 Copyright Filing.
- ^ a b c Schiff 1997, p. 53.
- ^ a b c Cowen 1998.
- ^ a b c d e f g Downes 1924, p. 16.
- ^ a b Ciment 2015, p. 265.
- ^ Gilbert 1995, p. 71.
- ^ a b c Howard 2003.
- ^ a b c d e Goldberg 1958, p. 154.
- ^ a b Schiff 1997, Book jacket.
- ^ a b c Schwarz 1999.
- ^ Greenberg 1998, p. 61.
- ^ Wood 1996, pp. 68–69, 112.
- ^ Wood 1996, p. 112; Howard 2003.
- ^ Wood 1996, p. 81.
- ^ a b c Schwartz 1979, p. 76.
- ^ Wood 1996, p. 81; Jablonski 1999.
- ^ Schiff 1997, p. 53; Schwartz 1979, p. 76.
- ^ Schwartz 1979, p. 76; Wood 1996, p. 81.
- ^ Jablonski 1999.
- ^ a b c Greenberg 1998, pp. 64–65.
- ^ a b Goldberg 1958, p. 139.
- ^ a b c d e f Schiff 1997, p. 13.
- ^ Reef 2000, p. 38.
- ^ a b Greenberg 1998, p. 69.
- ^ a b c Goldberg 1958, p. 143.
- ^ Goldberg 1958, p. 142.
- ^ a b c Jenkins 1974, p. 144.
- ^ Wood 1996, p. 85.
- ^ Schwartz 1979, p. 84.
- ^ Goldberg 1958, p. 144.
- ^ Goldberg 1958, p. 145.
- ^ Goldberg 1958, pp. 146–147.
- ^ Schiff 1997, pp. 55–61.
- ^ a b Greenberg 1998, pp. 72.
- ^ Greenberg 1998, pp. 72–73.
- ^ Schwartz 1979, pp. 81–83.
- ^ Goldberg 1958, p. 147.
- ^ a b c Schwartz 1979, p. 89.
- ^ Schwartz 1979, pp. 88–89.
- ^ a b Goldberg 1958, p. 152.
- ^ a b Goldberg 1958, pp. 142, 148.
- ^ a b c Goldberg 1958, p. 148.
- ^ a b Radio Times 1925.
- ^ Royal Albert Hall 1926; Rust 1975.
- ^ Rayno 2013, p. 203.
- ^ a b Schneider 1999, p. 180.
- ^ Slonimsky 2000, p. 105.
- ^ Jablonski 1992, p. 30.
- ^ Greenberg 1998, pp. 74–75.
- ^ a b Schneider 1999, p. 182.
- ^ a b c Wyatt & Johnson 2004, p. 297.
- ^ a b Schiff 1997, p. 4.
- ^ Greenberg 1998, p. 66.
- ^ a b Goldberg 1958, p. 153.
- ^ Bañagale 2014, pp. 45–46.
- ^ Bañagale 2014, p. 4.
- ^ a b c Schiff 1997, p. 5.
- ^ Sultanof 1987.
- ^ a b Levy 2019.
- ^ Schiff 1997, p. 5; Goldberg 1958, p. 148; Sultanof 1987; Levy 2019.
- ^ a b c Greenberg 1998, p. 76.
- ^ a b Bañagale 2014, p. 43.
- ^ Bañagale 2014, p. 44.
- ^ Greenberg 1998, p. 67.
- ^ a b Schiff 1997, p. 65.
- ^ Ferencz 2011, p. 143.
- ^ Ferencz 2011, p. 141.
- ^ Greenberg 1998, pp. 75; Schiff 1997.
- ^ Rust 1975, p. 1924.
- ^ Rust 1975, p. 1924; Rayno 2013, p. 327.
- ^ Schiff 1997, p. 64.
- ^ a b Rust 1975, p. 1931.
- ^ Greenberg 1998, pp. 75–76; Rust 1975, p. 1931.
- ^ Sobczynski 2018; Greenberg 1998, p. 78.
- ^ The New York Times 1932: "Despite the depression, the Boston 'Pops' have been astonishingly successful this season, sold-out houses being an almost nightly circumstance."
- ^ Moore 1935, p. 7; Sherman 1935.
- ^ Moore 1935, p. 7: "This piece, introduced a decade ago by Paul Whiteman, speedily grew so popular that another version had to be made, changing from the Whiteman instrumentation to that of the conventional symphony orchestra, which is the case here."
- ^ Sherman 1935.
- ^ Billboard 1945, p. 24.
- ^ Tampa Bay Times 1945, p. 35: "Levant was a close friend of Gershwin and was a wise choice to do the thrilling new recording of the Rhapsody. Levant's interpretation is fiery and brilliant."
- ^ Greenberg 1998, pp. 49, 212.
- ^ Cassidy 1945, p. 11: "Oscar Levant ghosts Gershwin's playing, and he comes closer than anyone else to recapturing what sometimes seems to have been a one man idiom."
- ^ Tampa Bay Times 1945, p. 35; Billboard 1945, p. 24.
- ^ Palmer 1973.
- ^ Palmer 1973: "Rhapsody resembles the Gershwin original only when strings and horns interrupt extended guitar and keyboard solos with fragments of the work's principal themes. The solos are played over up‐tempo neo‐samba rhythms.... these long improvisational sections have little to do with the thematic material which is inserted here and there".
- ^ Billboard 1973, pp. 27, 56.
- ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - October 6, 1973" (PDF).
- ^ "RPM Top AC - October 27, 1973" (PDF).
- ^ Mazey 1985: "Clayderman butchered Gershwin's intoxicating Rhapsody in Blue, for example, with a pulsing disco beat. If they ever do a record called Hooked on Gershwin, Clayderman is their man."
- ^ Colford 1985.
- ^ Smith 1973, p. 10.
- ^ Schiff 1997, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Westphal 2006.
- ^ Schiff 1997, p. 26.
- ^ Goldberg 1958, p. 157.
- ^ a b Greenberg 1998, p. 70.
- ^ a b Chen & Smith 2008.
- ^ a b Gilbert 1995, p. 17.
- ^ Bañagale 2014, pp. 39–42.
- ^ a b c Bañagale 2014, p. 107.
- ^ a b c Schiff 1997, p. 14.
- ^ a b Gilbert 1995, p. 68.
- ^ a b Schiff 1997, p. 28.
- ^ Schiff 1997, p. 29.
- ^ Schiff 1997, p. 12.
- ^ Schneider 1999, p. 187.
- ^ Schiff 1997, p. 36.
- ^ Sisk 2016.
- ^ Levin 2002, p. 73.
- ^ Fitzgerald 2004, p. 93.
- ^ a b Teachout 1992.
- ^ Mizener 1960.
- ^ Bañagale 2014, pp. 156–157.
- ^ a b c d King 2016.
- ^ King 2016; Cooper 2016.
- ^ Solomon 1999.
- ^ Serry 1957.
- ^ a b Carlin 2006, pp. 25, 118.
- ^ BBC News 2011.
- ^ Schiff 1997, p. 1.
- ^ Swed 2009.
- ^ United Airlines 2020; Bañagale 2014, pp. 158–173.
- ^ Eldred v. Ashcroft 2003.
- ^ King, Darryn (June 12, 2015). "Ben Folds's latest project pays homage to Gershwin, 'the Elton John of his day'". The Guardian. Retrieved November 29, 2020.
- ^ Lipshutz, Jason; Lynch, Joe; Bowenbank, Starr; Havens, Lyndsey (November 28, 2022). "10 Cool New Pop Songs to Get You Through The Week: Red Velvet, Alan Walker, Julia Pratt & More". Billboard. Archived from the original on December 1, 2022. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
- ^ Gershwin Initiative 2013.
- ^ Canty 2013.
- ^ Clague & Getman 2015.
- ^ Clague 2013.
- ^ King & Jenkins 2019.
- ^ Jenkins 2019.
Works cited
Print sources
- "A Concert of Syncopated Symphonic Music". Radio Times. No. 90. London, England. June 12, 1925. p. 538. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
- Bañagale, Ryan Raul (2014). Arranging Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue and the Creation of an American Icon. Oxford, England: ISBN 978-0-19-997837-3.
- "Best-Selling Record Albums by Classical Artists (1945)". The Billboard. Vol. 57, no. 35. September 1, 1945. p. 24. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- "Billboard Top 50 Easy Listening (1973)". The Billboard. Vol. 85, no. 38. September 22, 1973. pp. 27, 56. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
- "Boston's 'Pop' Concerts". The New York Times. New York City. June 22, 1932. p. 4X. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-59486-899-3.
- Ciment, James (2015) [2008]. Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age: From the End of World War I to the Great Crash. ISBN 978-1-317-47165-3. Retrieved October 20, 2020.
- Colford, Paul D. (October 9, 1985). "He's Almost World Famous: Meet Richard Clayderman, 'the world's most popular pianist'". Newsday. Melville, New York. p. 131. Retrieved February 21, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Columbia, Victor Dedicates Albums to Gershwin". Tampa Bay Times. St. Petersburg, Florida. July 29, 1945. p. 35. Retrieved February 21, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- United States Supreme CourtJanuary 15, 2003) ("Even the $500,000 that United Airlines has had to pay for the right to play George Gershwin's 1924 classic Rhapsody in Blue represents a cost of doing business, potentially reflected in the ticket prices of those who fly.").
- JSTOR 41289202.
Reissuance of The Rhapsody in Blue re-scored by yourself for large symphony orchestra
- ISBN 978-1-57806-605-6.
- Gilbert, Steven E. (1995). The Music of Gershwin. ISBN 978-0-300-06233-5.
- LCCN 58-11627 – via Internet Archive.
- Greenberg, Rodney (1998). George Gershwin. London: ISBN 978-0-7148-3504-4.
- ISBN 0-931340-43-8.
- Jenkins, Alan (1974). The Twenties. Great Britain: Peerage Books. ISBN 978-0-434-90894-3. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-520-23463-5. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- Mazey, Steve (September 19, 1985). "'Elevator' pianist bland, lacks vitality, passion". The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario. Retrieved February 21, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- Mizener, Arthur (April 24, 1960). "Gatsby, 35 Years Later". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
- Moore, Edward (October 6, 1935). "New Musical Records Skim Many Moods". The Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. p. 7. Retrieved February 21, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- Palmer, Robert (August 26, 1973). "Recordings: Pop/Jazz Meets Classical Rock". The New York Times. New York City. p. 22D. Retrieved February 21, 2022.
- Rayno, Don (2013). Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, Volume II: 1930–1967. ISBN 978-0-8108-8204-1.
- Reef, Catherine (2000). George Gershwin: American Composer. ISBN 978-1-883846-58-9.
- ISBN 0-87000-248-1.
- ISBN 978-0-521-55077-2 – via Internet Archive.
- Schneider, Wayne, ed. (1999). The Gershwin Style: New Looks at the Music of George Gershwin. Oxford, England: ISBN 978-0-19-509020-8.
- Schwartz, Charles (1979). Gershwin: His Life and Music. New York: ISBN 978-0-306-80096-2 – via Internet Archive.
- Library of Congress Copyright Office.
- Sherman, John K. (October 26, 1935). "Gershwin Rhapsody Vividly Interpreted". The Minneapolis Star. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 34 – via Newspapers.com.
- ISBN 978-0-393-32009-1.
- Smith, Wayne A. (January 27, 1973). "Around the Clock: Rhapsody Revived". The Greenfield Recorder. Greenfield, Massachusetts. p. 10.
- Sultanof, Jeff, ed. (1987). Rhapsody in Blue: Commemorative Facsimile Edition. Warner Brothers Music.
This reproduces Grofé's holograph manuscript from the Gershwin Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
- Wood, Ean (1996). George Gershwin: His Life and Music. London: Sanctuary Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86074-174-6.
- ISBN 978-0-19-802985-4.
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Like a train, Gershwin's sprawling composition had more moving parts than Whiteman had musicians, even augmented with strings, but the band was so versatile that three reed players managed to play a total of 17 parts, including the oboe-like heckelphone, switching as the music dictated.
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