Its prime significance rests in the fact that it decisively proved that it was possible to produce good music within ambitious structures utilizing idioms and techniques of American jazz. The Rhapsody in Blue was by no means the first composition to do so; it was preceded by works by Erik Satie, Stravinsky, and Milhaud among others. But due to its enormous popular appeal it was the most influential composition of all in convincing the world’s foremost composers that jazz could be used with serious intent. Undoubtedly it was largely as a result of the triumph of the Rhapsody in Blue that world-famous composers like William Walton, Constant Lambert, Maurice Ravel, Kurt Weill and Paul Hindemith among many others produced serious jazz music.
Much has been said about its diffuseness of structure, and the inept way its material is developed. But for all its faults, the Rhapsody in Blue remains a vital, dynamic and at times an inspired piece of music. It is filled with wonderful lyricism; its rhythmic cogency is irresistible; its identity is completely American.
The work opened with an ascending seventeen-note slide by the clarinet which culminates in the saucy, first theme. A transition in the wind instrument leads to another brisk, jaunty idea for piano. After some development, and several ascending chords in the piano we get to the heart of the rhapsody and to one of the most famous melodies in all contemporary symphonic music: a spacious, rhapsodic song for the strings. The full orchestra repeats it. Two earlier themes are now briefly recalled, the first theme by the full orchestra, the second by the piano. A brief, dramatic coda brings the rhapsody to an exciting conclusion.
For the Paul Whiteman concert of 1924, Ferde Grofé provided the orchestration from a two-piano version handed him by the composer. Gershwin later prepared his own orchestration, and it is this version that is now given by all the major symphonic organizations.
The Second Rhapsody for orchestra succeeded the more popular Rhapsody in Blue by eight years; it was first performed by the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky on January 29, 1932. Gershwin originally called this work Rhapsody in Rivets because the opening measures present a strongly rhythmic subject in solo piano suggesting riveting. This “rivet theme” is then taken over by the full orchestra, after which we hear a rumba melody. These ideas are then developed. A piano cadenza brings on a spacious melody, first in strings, and then in brass. All this material is amplified before the rhapsody is swept to an exciting end.
This rhapsody was the outgrowth of a six-minute sequence written by the composer for the motion picture, Delicious. The sequence was intended to describe the sights and sounds of a city. In the picture only one of the six minutes of this music was retained, but Gershwin liked the rest of it well enough to expand it into a major symphonic work.
The Variations on I Got Rhythm, for piano and orchestra, was written for a tour of one-night stands made by Gershwin throughout the United States in all-Gershwin programs. Its first performance took place in Boston on January 14, 1934. The main subject is a famous Gershwin song, “I Got Rhythm” which Ethel Merman made famous in the musical comedy Girl Crazy. The symphonic work begins with a four-note ascending phrase from the first measure of the song’s chorus, presented by solo clarinet. The theme is then taken over by solo piano and after that by full orchestra, after which the entire chorus is presented by the piano. In the ensuing variations the composer changes not only the basic structure of the song, melodically and rhythmically, but also its mood and feeling, traversing the gamut of emotion from melancholy to spirited gaiety.
Still another remarkably effective symphonic adaptation of “I Got Rhythm” was made by Morton Gould, and introduced by him with his orchestra over the CBS radio network in 1944.
Gershwin wrote two marches, both with satirical overtones, which are often given at “pop concerts.” Each was meant for a musical comedy. “Strike Up the Band” comes from the musical comedy of the same name, produced on January 14, 1930 starring Clark and McCullough. This was a stinging satire on war and international diplomacy, with America embroiled in a conflict with Switzerland over the issue of chocolates. The march, “Strike Up the Band,” helps deflate some of the pomp and ceremony of all martial music.
“Wintergreen for President” comes from Of Thee I Sing, the epoch-making satire on politics in Washington, D.C., first produced on December 26, 1931. “Wintergreen for President” is the music accompanying a political torchlight parade whose illuminated signs read “Even Your Dog Loves Wintergreen” and “A Vote for Wintergreen Is a Vote for Wintergreen” and so on. The march music carries over the satirical implications of this procession by quoting such tunes as “Hail, Hail the Gang’s All Here,” “Tammany,” “A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.” This music even carries a hasty recollection of Irish and Jewish music to suggest that Wintergreen is a friend of both these people.