Rhapsody in Blue

Gershwin’s debut concert work, Rhapsody in Blue (1924), tapped the pulse of the Jazz Age and has become one of the most recognisable pieces of American music. Its roots date to 1923, when Paul Whiteman, the self-styled “King of Jazz”, told Gershwin about his plans for an experimental concert highlighting the potential intersection of concert music and jazz and invited Gershwin to write a piece for piano and jazz orchestra. The composer was busy with his musical comedy Sweet Little Devil, however, and reportedly forgot about the proposal until January 1924, when he read about the concert in a newspaper. Estimates of the score’s genesis range from several months to barely 10 days. The premiere took place on 12 February 1924, at New York’s Aeolian Hall with the composer at the piano, accompanied by Whiteman and his 22-piece orchestra. Billed as “An Experiment in Modern Music”, the sprawling programme drew an audience of critics and musical luminaries who cheered Gershwin’s new score, despite an incomplete piano solo and a hasty arrangement by Ferde Grofé. The opening clarinet solo—which got its trademark wailing glissando from Whiteman’s clarinetist Ross Gorman—is followed by a succession of syncopated, blues-tinged melodies, framing a lush, expansive middle section. The solo part borrows techniques from ragtime and stride piano styles. Rhapsody’s success led to arrangements for full symphony orchestra and a leaner "theatre orchestra”, both by Grofé.