Editing Rhapsody in Blue (section)

== History ==
=== Commission ===
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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.{{sfn|Schiff|1997|p=53}} 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 Building (42nd Street)|Aeolian Hall]].{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|p=61}} Whiteman became fixated upon performing such an extended composition by Gershwin after he collaborated with him in ''[[George White's Scandals|The Scandals of 1922]]''.{{sfn|Wood|1996|pp=68–69, 112}} He had been especially impressed by Gershwin's one-act "jazz opera" ''[[Blue Monday (opera)|Blue Monday]]''.{{sfnm|Wood|1996|1p=112|Howard|2003}} 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.{{sfn|Wood|1996|p=81}}

Soon after, on the evening of January 3, George Gershwin and lyricist [[Buddy DeSylva]] played a game of [[billiards]] at the Ambassador Billiard Parlor at [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]] and [[52nd Street (Manhattan)|52nd Street]] in Manhattan.{{sfn|Schwartz|1979|p=76}} George's brother, [[Ira Gershwin]], interrupted their billiard game to read aloud the January 4 edition of the ''[[New-York Tribune]]''.{{sfnm|Wood|1996|1p=81|Jablonski|1999}} An unsigned ''Tribune'' article entitled "What Is American Music?" about an upcoming Whiteman concert had caught Ira's attention.{{sfn|Schwartz|1979|p=76}} The article falsely declared that George Gershwin had begun "work on a jazz concerto" for Whiteman's concert.{{sfnm|Schiff|1997|1p=53|Schwartz|1979|2p=76}}

The news announcement puzzled Gershwin as he had politely declined to compose any such work for Whiteman.{{sfnm|Schwartz|1979|1p=76|Wood|1996|2p=81}}{{sfn|Jablonski|1999}} 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.{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|pp=64–65}} Whiteman thus finally persuaded Gershwin to compose the piece.{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|pp=64–65}}

=== Composition ===
With only five weeks remaining until the premiere, Gershwin hurriedly set about composing the work.{{sfn|Schwartz|1979|p=76}} He later claimed that, while on a train journey to [[Boston]], the thematic seeds for ''Rhapsody in Blue'' began to germinate in his mind.{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=139}}{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|pp=64–65}} He told biographer [[Isaac Goldberg]] in 1931:

{{blockquote|It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer&nbsp;... 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.{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=139}}}}

Gershwin began composing on January 7 as dated on the original manuscript for two pianos.{{sfn|Schiff|1997|p=53}} He tentatively entitled the piece as ''American Rhapsody'' during its composition.{{sfn|Schiff|1997|p=13}} Ira Gershwin suggested the revised title of ''Rhapsody in Blue'' after his visit to a gallery exhibition of [[James McNeill Whistler]] paintings, which had titles such as ''[[Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket]]'' and ''[[Arrangement in Grey and Black]]''.{{sfn|Schiff|1997|p=13}}{{sfn|Reef|2000|p=38}} After a few weeks, Gershwin finished his composition and passed the score, titled ''A Rhapsody in Blue'', to [[Ferde Grofé]], Whiteman's arranger.{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|p=69}} Grofé finished [[orchestration|orchestrating]] the piece on February 4—a mere eight days before the premiere.{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|p=69}}

=== Premiere ===
[[File:Aeolian Hall (1923).jpg|thumb|right|The ''Rhapsody'' premiered on a snowy afternoon at [[Aeolian Building (42nd Street)|Aeolian Hall]], [[Manhattan]], pictured here in 1923.]]
''Rhapsody in Blue'' premiered during a snowy Tuesday afternoon on February 12, 1924, at [[Aeolian Building (42nd Street)|Aeolian Hall]], [[Manhattan]].{{sfn|Downes|1924|p=16}}{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=143}} Entitled "An Experiment in Modern Music",{{sfn|Cowen|1998}} the much-anticipated concert held by Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra drew a packed house.{{sfn|Downes|1924|p=16}}{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=142}} The excited audience consisted of "[[vaudevillian]]s, concert managers come to have a look at the novelty, [[Tin Pan Alley]]ites, composers, symphony and opera stars, [[flapper]]s, cake-eaters, all mixed up higgledy-piggledy."{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=143}}<!--

Do NOT add Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky, Fritz Kreisler, John Philip Sousa or Leopold Stokowski. Many sources wrongly conflate the concert's publicized Patrons (sponsors) with the concert's attendees. These are two separate groups, and many sponsors did not attend. On the same day, Rachmaninoff was giving a concert in Kansas City, Missouri (Kansas City Times 1924.02.13 p=13), Stokowski was conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra in Washington DC (Washington Evening Star 1924.02.13 p=4), and Sousa was performing with his band in Pensacola, Florida (https://www.marineband.marines.mil/About/For-Researchers/Sousa-Band-Press-Books/). On the following day, Kreisler was giving a recital in Birmingham, Alabama (Birmingham Age-Herald 1924.02.12 p=14), and the 1924 train schedules would not have got him there in time if he had been at Aeolian Hall on the 12th. Stravinsky does not even appear in the concert programme as a Patron, but instead the former conductor of the [[New York Philharmonic]], [[Josef Stransky]], does. Stravinsky did not travel to the USA until January 1925, arriving at [[Ellis Island]] on January 4 on the S.S. Paris. There are others who have been widely reported as having attended, and who could not have been there for similar reasons, including John McCormack, Mischa Elman, Moriz Rosenthal, Mary Garden and Jasha Heifetz (sources can be provided if necessary).

--> A number of influential figures of the era were present, including [[Carl Van Vechten]],{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=154}} [[Marguerite d'Alvarez]],{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=154}} [[Victor Herbert]],{{sfn|Jenkins|1974|p=144}} [[Walter Damrosch]],{{sfn|Jenkins|1974|p=144}} and [[Willie "the Lion" Smith]].{{sfn|Wood|1996|p=85}}

In a pre-concert lecture, Whiteman's manager Hugh C. Ernst proclaimed the purpose of the concert to be "purely educational".{{sfn|Schwartz|1979|p=84}}{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=144}} Whiteman had selected the music to exemplify the "melodies, harmony and rhythms which agitate the throbbing emotional resources of this young [[Jazz Age|restless age]]."{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=145}} The concert's lengthy program listed 26 separate musical movements, divided into 2 parts and 11 sections, bearing titles such as "True Form Of Jazz" and "Contrast—Legitimate Scoring vs. Jazzing".{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|pp=146–147}} The program's schedule featured Gershwin's rhapsody as merely the [[Wiktionary:penultimate|penultimate]] piece which preceded [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]]'s ''[[Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1]]''.{{sfn|Schiff|1997|pp=55–61}}

Many of the early numbers in the program underwhelmed the audience, and the ventilation system in the concert hall malfunctioned.{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|pp=72}} Some audience members had departed the venue by the time Gershwin made his inconspicuous entrance for the rhapsody.{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|pp=72}} The audience purportedly were irritable, impatient, and restless until the haunting clarinet [[glissando]] played the opening notes of ''Rhapsody in Blue''.{{sfn|Cowen|1998}}{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|pp=72–73}} The distinctive glissando had been created quite by happenstance during rehearsals: {{Blockquote|As a joke on Gershwin&nbsp;... [[Ross Gorman|[Ross] Gorman]] [Whiteman's virtuoso clarinetist] played the opening [[Measure (music)|measure]] with a noticeable glissando, 'stretching' the notes out and adding what he considered a jazzy, humorous touch to the passage. Reacting favorably to Gorman's whimsy, Gershwin asked him to perform the opening measure that way&nbsp;... and to add as much of a '[[Vociferation|wail]]' as possible.{{sfn|Schwartz|1979|pp=81–83}}}}

Whiteman's orchestra performed the rhapsody with "twenty-three musicians in the ensemble" and George Gershwin on piano.{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=147}}{{sfn|Schwartz|1979|p=89}} In characteristic style, Gershwin chose to partially improvise his piano solo.{{sfn|Schwartz|1979|p=89}} 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.{{sfn|Schwartz|1979|p=89}} 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.{{sfn|Schwartz|1979|pp=88–89}}

=== Audience reaction and success ===
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Upon the conclusion of the rhapsody, the audience tumultuously applauded Gershwin's composition,{{sfn|Downes|1924|p=16}}{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=152}} and, quite unexpectedly, "the concert, in every respect but the financial,{{efn|[[Paul Whiteman]] gave away free tickets to promote the concert and lost money.{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|pp=142, 148}} He expended $11,000, and the concert netted $4,000.{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|pp=142, 148}}}} became a 'knockout'."{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=148}} 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."{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=143}}

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.{{sfn|Radio Times|1925}} The [[BBC]] broadcast the performance in a live relay. [[Debroy Somers]] conducted the [[Savoy Orpheans]] with Gershwin himself at the piano.{{sfn|Radio Times|1925}} 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. [[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice]] recorded and released this performance.{{sfnm|Royal Albert Hall|1926|Rust|1975|p=1929}}

By the end of 1927, Whiteman's band had performed ''Rhapsody in Blue'' approximately 84 times, and its recording sold a million copies.{{sfn|Schwarz|1999}} For the entire piece to fit onto two sides of a [[Twelve-inch single|12-inch record]], the rhapsody had to be played at a faster speed than usual in a concert, which gave the recording a hurried feel with noticeably lost [[rubato]]. Whiteman later adopted the piece as his band's [[theme song]] and opened his radio programs with the slogan "Everything new but the ''Rhapsody in Blue''."{{sfn|Rayno|2013|p=203}}

=== Critical response ===
{{Quote box
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| quote = "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&nbsp;... In spite of all this, he has expressed himself in a significant and, on the whole, highly original form&nbsp;... His first theme&nbsp;... is no mere dance-tune&nbsp;... 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. ''[[Tutti]]s'' are too long, [[cadenza]]s 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."
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| author = —[[Olin Downes]]
| source = ''[[The New York Times]]'', February 1924{{sfn|Downes|1924|p=16}}
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In contrast to the warm reception by concert audiences,{{sfn|Downes|1924|p=16}}{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=148}} music critics gave the rhapsody mixed reviews.{{sfn|Schneider|1999|p=180}} Samuel Chotzinoff, music critic of the ''[[New York World]]'', conceded that Gershwin's composition had "made an honest woman out of jazz",{{sfn|Jenkins|1974|p=144}} while Henrietta Strauss of ''[[The Nation]]'' opined that Gershwin had "added a new chapter to our musical history."{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=154}} [[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."{{sfn|Downes|1924|p=16}}

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."{{sfn|Goldberg|1958|p=152}} 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.{{sfn|Slonimsky|2000|p=105}}{{sfn|Jablonski|1992|p=30}}

Overall, professional music critics recurrently criticized Gershwin's piece as essentially formless and asserted that the composer had haphazardly glued melodic segments together.{{sfn|Greenberg|1998|pp=74–75}}

==== Retrospective reviews ====
Years after its premiere, ''Rhapsody in Blue'' continued to divide music critics principally due to its perceived melodic incoherence.{{sfn|Schneider|1999|p=182}}{{sfn|Wyatt|Johnson|2004|p=297}}{{sfn|Schiff|1997|p=4}} [[Constant Lambert]], a British composer whose oeuvre often incorporated jazz elements, openly dismissed the work:

{{Blockquote|The composer [George Gershwin], trying to write a [[Franz Liszt|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.{{sfn|Schneider|1999|p=182}}}}

In an article in ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'' in 1955, [[Leonard Bernstein]], who nevertheless admitted that he adored the piece,{{sfn|Wyatt|Johnson|2004|p=297}} stated:

{{Blockquote|''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''.{{sfn|Wyatt|Johnson|2004|p=297}}{{sfn|Schiff|1997|p=4}}}}