Editing Rhapsody in Blue (section)

=== 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}}