First heard this at a children's concert given by The City of Norfolk (Virginia) Symphony for the public school system back in 1958. I f e l l in love with piece. Could not get it out of my mind. My dad was a member of the Colombia Record Club. One month it came up as one of the selections. I begged him to make it one of his selections. He acted like for that month, he wouldn't have the money to make selections. Heart broken. Guess what, HE GOT IT FOR ME. Still have it. Still my favorite piece of music.
A genius. And to die at only 38. What he and his brother might have achieved had he lived. It always makes me cry when I think about it. Named my cats after George and Ira
I used to listen to this tune intentionally after midnight, while in graduate school consecutively at Fordham and Columbia, visualizing all the diversity of The City's communities and cultures. The passages written for the French horns and other brass wind instruments are simply magical.
I believe the original opening clarinet solo was by my cousin Chester Hazlett of the Paul Whiteman band! He also played the sax for the band which he gave to my grandmother (Josephine Hazlett who played in an all girl big band in the '30s) and now passed down to my mother.
Whiteman's clarinet guy could do that gliss - it was his trademark, and GG used it to start the piece. Every Clarinet player since "Rhapsody" learns it (and the Cat from Peter and the Wolf.)
@@roylamberton9576 So I guess that would mean 'ol cousin Chester was fabricating to the family...BTW, that 90-year old saxophone must have a tremendous aged dried spittle collection inside the thing. Josephine probably left red lipstick on her reeds...
To the person who said it evoked depression-era New York . . . sorry--it was the roaring twenties, the jazz age! And I almost agree that it's the best piece of American music ever composed. Certainly one of the best. There are others that you can't dismiss. Some of Copeland, Bernstein, and others . . .
listened to this 3 times in a row now, the memories I have with this song are nothing short of beautiful, shoutout to my mum for giving me the best upbringing ever
Simply majestic and Magnificent music! Arguably one of, if not the Best piece of American music Ever composed! When I close my eyes, it Makes me feel as If I'm back in 1920's New York and the Jazz Age then!
Ardath Zelig, my piano teacher from 1966 to 1976, assigned this to me. I learned it and it was challenging to say the least. I only wish my Mason and Hamlin was in good enough shape for me to re-learn it.
If this is what it sounded like in 1924, the crowd must have gone wild. I've always liked Bernstein's performances but this might just beat them. And Mr. Litton is a demon piano player; that boy really rips it up. How fresh, how strong, how delightful. Ye gods.
+Phil Good Agreed, especially in Manhattan, unless you own a 'beater' and / or have lotsa patience & $ burning a hole in your pocket, to pay for parking & fines! (And, have had practice driving thru an obstacle course as well!)
ANYTIME WHEN I HEAR THIS WONDERFUL MASTERPIECE IT LET ME FEEL I AM IN NEW YORK CITY, TRYING TO FOLLOW ITS DYNAMIC LIFE AND CLEARLY CAN SEE ITS MAGNIFICENT GRANDEUR.
Growing up saturated in a pop culture with "jock" type lifestyle I happened to catch this on PBS 49 years ago....and was mesmerized! Changed my outlook on music
February 12, 1924: Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin, performed for first time “The audience packed a house that could have been sold out at twice the size,” wrote New York Times critic Olin Downes on February 13, 1924, of a concert staged the previous afternoon at the Aeolian Hall in New York City. Billed as an educational event, the “Experiment In Modern Music” concert was organized by Paul Whiteman, the immensely popular leader of the Palais Royal Orchestra, to demonstrate that the relatively new form of music called jazz deserved to be regarded as a serious and sophisticated art form. The program featured didactic segments intended to make this case - segments with titles like “Contrast: Legitimate Scoring vs. Jazzing.” After 24 such stem-winders, the house was growing restless. Then a young man named George Gershwin, then known only as a composer of Broadway songs, seated himself at the piano to accompany the orchestra in the performance of a brand new piece of his own composition, called Rhapsody In Blue. “It starts with an outrageous cadenza of the clarinet,” wrote Downes of the now-famous two-and-a-half-octave glissando that makes Rhapsody in Blue as instantly recognizable as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. “It has subsidiary phrases, logically growing out of it… often metamorphosed by devices of rhythm and instrumentation.” The music critic of the New York Times was in agreement with Whiteman’s basic premise: “This is no mere dance-tune set for piano and other instruments,” he judged. “This composition shows extraordinary talent, just as it also shows a young composer with aims that go far beyond those of his ilk.” (more at history.com)
The combination of that opening glissando with the vicious vibrato on the top C on the clarinet was delicious… as a former clarinetist I love that and as a pianist I still love that.
SpaghettiToaster Well so is Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, Houston, San Francisco, Boston, and other large cities. Who's to say Rhapsody in Blue was written for New York exclusively?
This is a wonderful recording to have that sets the pace of this remarkable piece. The 1924 written manuscripts have been organized and scored in a new critical edition by Dr. Ryan Banagale, through the University of Michigan Gershwin Initiative. The first recording of this edition has been released on August 27, 2021. It brings together the Adrian Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Bruce Kiesling and yours truly. I have studied the many recordings, the printed scores, the Alicia Zizzo 'Annotated Rhapsody in Blue' for solo piano, and Dr. Banagale's new edition. Hope readers will find the new recording enjoyable!
Thank you for the description paragraphs above. There are several variations on this (from 12+ minutes to up to 17 minutes. The first full version I hit on when I went looking for it was by students at a Polish music school and It's played a bit slower by them and is still my favorite. But it is very similar to this version.
this brings back one of the most special times in my life, I'd switched over to the saxophone in the middle of the school year, and our jazz band director gave me the solo in this song for our spring concerto, and for one night in my life, I was a star. Thank you for sharing this soulful masterpiece for all to enjoy!
@Admiral Rusty - listen again. This is the original scored for "stage band." It was rescored for full orchestra. Listen for the lack of all the lush strings that you are used to. I was lucky enough to play this scoring in college.
Having conducted this piece (and working from a copy of the original score) this is the instrumentation: 2 Trumpets, 2 Trombones, 2 French Horns, 3 Reeds doubling on everything {please refer to OtherJC's comment for the reed listing}, 8 Violins {one of the violinists, Mario Perry, doubled on accordion.} 1 Solo Piano, 2 additional pianists {in the orchestra and they didn't do much!}, 1 Banjo, 1 String Bass {Doubles on Tuba} and 1 Percussionist. Including Whiteman at the podium that makes 24.
Gershwin was on a ship coming back to America when he read in Variety (?) that he was writing a piece for Paul Whiteman's jazz performance at Carnegie Hall in one week. He had forgotten about it. He quickly wrote Rhapsody in Blue and they had time for one rehearsal before the performance. From old liner notes. He also said Oscar Levant did the best piano job on this piece he ever heard.
"Gershwin was on a ship coming back to America when he read in Variety (?) that he was writing a piece for Paul Whiteman's jazz performance at Carnegie Hall in one week. He had forgotten about it. He quickly wrote Rhapsody in Blue and they had time for one rehearsal before the performance." UTTER AND COMPLETE BULLSHIT. WIKIPEDIA -- November 1923, band leader Paul Whiteman decided to attempt something more ambitious. He asked Gershwin to contribute a concerto-like piece for an all-jazz concert he would give in Aeolian Hall in February 1924. Whiteman became interested in featuring such an extended composition by Gershwin in the concert after he had collaborated with Gershwin in the Scandals of 1922, impressed by the original performance of the one-act opera Blue Monday, which was nevertheless a commercial failure. Gershwin declined on the grounds that, as there would certainly be need for revisions to the score, he would not have enough time to compose the new piece. Late on the evening of January 3, at the Ambassador Billiard Parlor at Broadway and 52nd Street in Manhattan, while George Gershwin and Buddy De Sylva were playing billiards, his brother Ira Gershwin was reading the January 4 edition of the New York Tribune. An article entitled "What Is American Music?" about the Whiteman concert caught his attention, in which the final paragraph claimed that "George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto, Irving Berlin is writing a syncopated tone poem, and Victor Herbert is working on an American suite." In a phone call to Whiteman next morning, Gershwin was told that Whiteman's rival Vincent Lopez was planning to steal the idea of his experimental concert and there was no time to lose. Gershwin was finally persuaded to compose the piece. Since there were only five weeks left, Gershwin hastily set about composing a piece, and on the train journey to Boston, the ideas of Rhapsody in Blue came to his mind. He told his first 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
Thank you. I got this info from an old set of Boston Pops music. This was in the booklet on Rhapsody in Blue. That piece is one of the 2 pieces I would take to that proverbial desert isle.
That's incredible! To be able to run something up at the last minute when you realised you'd forgotten to do it! And what a wonderful last minute job it was!! I've heard Levant playing this before.
You may believe that, but that sounds like total bullshit on so many levels. And it wasn't performed at Carnegie Hall. Get real. Where do you usually get your info, FOX?
How perfectly timed...so suitable for a small jazz band, less would have been hard-taxed. The softness, timbre, is so commital that the larger orchestra demands and gets space, but the4 loss in a presentation which depends so fundamentally on this youthful bond cannot sustain squeezing the notes in the trains to make up for lost time. I feel I grew up on this recording!
Always a classic and a favorite. Makes me proud to be an American and a product of pretty much direct immigrants via grandparents from Eastern and Northern Europe. Music has always inspired me and kept me going and thank God I unforcibly (sp?) passed it onto my children. My oldest son (14) is learning to play an ammeded version/arrangement of this on the piano.
Die Kunst bei dieser phantastischen Musik ist nicht die Tempi zu überziehen oder künstlich zu phrasieren sondern jedem Thema seinen eigentlichen Sinn und Ausdruck zukommen zu lassen. Papa Lipp
Can you still hear dad playing this sitting cross-legged on the couch in the living room? Before he would go out to play at the Elks he would warm up with this! My very favorite piece for clarinet!
Great, wonderful version. As musician myself, and as a fan of Gershwin's standards and symphonic pieces, this is one of most beautiful rendition I've ever heard. Thank you !
+scribesunlimited I doubt rock 'n' roll would have originated with Gershwin. It was either from rhythm and blues or the combination of country and r & b. Besides, Ben Vaughn(look for his radio show, "The Many Moods of..")popularized the proverb, "If it has more than four chords, it's jazz." All the same, music history probably might have been different had Gershwin been blessed with better health.
Simply the greatest piece of American music. Period. And hearing it as originally arranged is pure joy. It's like you can smell, taste, and feel Depression-era New York City.
Rick Knight this was written in 1924. And the depression was called that because people were living on the street watching their kids starve to death and killing themselves because they were so broke and saw no hope.
The handwritten score says that there were only 3 woodwind players. Working backwards: The Bari Sax Chair (#3) doubled on Alto & Soprano. The Tenor Sax Chair (#2) doubled on Bari, Soprano & Flute. Ross Gorman (#1 Chair) played E-flat & B-flat Soprano Saxes, Alto Sax, Oboe, Heckelphone, E-flat Clarinet, B-flat Clarinet, Alto & Bass Clarinet and... Octavion. The Accordion was played by one of the violinists. (There were no violas or cellos.) One perc player for everything; two trombones doubling.
Too bad that the poster had no clue as to the 1924 instrumentation. It is not have fluegelhorns, euphonium, accordian. It also had the solo pianist and a second piano that played parts of what later became the solo piano in later versions. And yes I have a copy of the original hand written (in ink) Grofe score in my hands.
in my conservatory the orchestra is playing that music, so, i try to study to be a composer and director and i love this music to analyze and see what i can bring to the orchestra. my email is Hiericho@hotmail.com . thanks for your time
woody allen's manhatten is always what i think of when i hear this. such a beautiful song with new york in black and white in the background mmmm magifique
Am persuaded that this oh so vivid original orchestration is preferable to any other, so much more revealing of the composer's intentions. The soloist is up to the standard that Earl Wild, Oscar Levant and Michael Tilson Thomas, among few others, set forth. The sound of the wind instruments gives us a clear idea of the cultural moment.
OK Krombacher is good But my local brewery Hauf Lichtenau has been brewing beer since 1489 and its just as tasty as this wonderfull rendition of one of the best pieces of music ever written scuse me while I run to the fridge then push the repeat button....................
My papa leslie jones he used listen to this every time and sit back in his old fashioned sofa and listen to it on the old fashioned music player i forgot what it was called
Leo Raymundo i think so, have you heard of the wizard and oz? Not the wizard of oz. look them up on youtube. and i have to accounts this is my video account TheMegaStarMusic. my other account is Jessica Mccormack.
the original 1924 recording (the best) was just nine minutes long and featured a smaller band than this. This is in fact yhe reworked orchestral version from the 1940s.
@Tom Felkner, thought it was Ross Gorman with that wailing tone. Gorman played it satirically in rehearsal but Gershwin saw the meaning behind the spoof and urged Gorman to play it the same way in concert.
Yes it was, and the original recording had the sarcastic laughing clarinet at the end of that famous "slide" that Gershwin thought so characteristically American. To laugh off a real accomplishment as 'Just a lucky shot' or my personal favorite, 'Well, yeah, it was a surprise to me. That was supposed to be a right foul line single, but it got caught in the wind up there, and over the fence it went. It was really a pop-up.'
This early version dates back to the time when ragtime was still an influence in jazz, which had not yet stabilized into the genre as we know it today. There are no recordings of this era, as far as I know. I think this recording sounds so fun, I hate the way it reminds me of Looney Tunes.
This piece is used for all sorts of things. In Germany, this big tune at the middle is used to promote a beer. Krombacher, eine Perle der Natur (Krombacher, a pearl from nature). The beer is actually pretty good. Before I moved to Germany, I used to fly United all the time.
Happy 100th to this glorious music, February 12 2024.
this is a rerecording. not the '24 version.
A brilliant composer who left us too soon. One of my favorites pieces of music. Never fails to move me.
I can't imagine what Gershwin would have wrote if he was alive during the 1940s or even 1950s. Maybe he could have been working for Disney or MGM?
Can't wait for the opportunity to introduce my great nieces and nephews to this piece at the Hollywood Bowl!
A brilliant musician and composer.
All instruments in his Blue were perfect for the sound of this rhapsody blue.
New York before the crash.
The beauty of this piece and that George Gerswin passed away so young makes me cry.
First heard this at a children's concert given by The City of Norfolk (Virginia) Symphony for the public school system back in 1958. I f e l l in love with piece. Could not get it out of my mind.
My dad was a member of the Colombia Record Club. One month it came up as one of the selections. I begged him to make it one of his selections. He acted like for that month, he wouldn't have the money to make selections. Heart broken. Guess what, HE GOT IT FOR ME. Still have it. Still my favorite piece of music.
A genius. And to die at only 38. What he and his brother might have achieved had he lived. It always makes me cry when I think about it. Named my cats after George and Ira
I used to listen to this tune intentionally after midnight, while in graduate school consecutively at Fordham and Columbia, visualizing all the diversity of The City's communities and cultures. The passages written for the French horns and other brass wind instruments are simply magical.
Paulina Cortes-De Lorenzo Ferde Grofe scored the orchestra parts doesn’t get enough credit.
I believe the original opening clarinet solo was by my cousin Chester Hazlett of the Paul Whiteman band! He also played the sax for the band which he gave to my grandmother (Josephine Hazlett who played in an all girl big band in the '30s) and now passed down to my mother.
Whiteman's clarinet guy could do that gliss - it was his trademark, and GG used it to start the piece. Every Clarinet player since "Rhapsody" learns it (and the Cat from Peter and the Wolf.)
Clarinet "guy" was virtuoso Ross Gorman... FWIW (and the rest was music history)
@@roylamberton9576 So I guess that would mean 'ol cousin Chester was fabricating to the family...BTW, that 90-year old saxophone must have a tremendous aged dried spittle collection inside the thing. Josephine probably left red lipstick on her reeds...
I have an album with Paul Whiteman conducting the USC jazz band playing this from the 1990s.
To the person who said it evoked depression-era New York . . . sorry--it was the roaring twenties, the jazz age! And I almost agree that it's the best piece of American music ever composed. Certainly one of the best. There are others that you can't dismiss. Some of Copeland, Bernstein, and others . . .
FINE AND SO WONDERFUL
The roaring twenties was literally the depression era
@@samaldag478 Kind of. It started in 1929 and ended in 1933. But this is from 1924.
Are you referring to this Grofe jazz band version? This is the one I personally love.
Pretty sure the piece was written well before the depression
listened to this 3 times in a row now, the memories I have with this song are nothing short of beautiful, shoutout to my mum for giving me the best upbringing ever
Thank you again for adding this masterpiece...so enjoyed on a humid, hot and sooner rainy afternoon..cigars and all, blessed
Definitely the greatest piece of American music ever composed!!
Simply majestic and Magnificent music! Arguably one of, if not the Best piece of American music Ever composed! When I close my eyes, it Makes me feel as If I'm back in 1920's New York and the Jazz Age then!
Ardath Zelig, my piano teacher from 1966 to 1976, assigned this to me. I learned it and it was challenging to say the least. I only wish my Mason and Hamlin was in good enough shape for me to re-learn it.
Only ever heard the "big" orchestration - great to hear the original orchestration; adds another layer to this beloved classic
If this is what it sounded like in 1924, the crowd must have gone wild. I've always liked Bernstein's performances but this might just beat them. And Mr. Litton is a demon piano player; that boy really rips it up. How fresh, how strong, how delightful. Ye gods.
They actually hated it. It was a crowd that normally listened to classical music
instablaster...
You can hear the band with Gershwin on the piano on You Tube. Recorded shortly after the concert.
@@gabesmith9171 Idiots. They certainly all needed a nice, tall glass of "lighten up, people!"
I have never been to NYC. But I know if I ever drive into the city, this song will be playing on my deck.
+Casparus Kruger First, play Sinatra's "New York, New York", then play Ellington's "Take the A Train", then finish with this!!!!
+Casparus Kruger Do NOT drive into NYC
LOL> Yes, this is what I've heard since about 1967
+Casparus Kruger yes, celebrate the Brooklyn Bridge , Fifth Avenue etc.
+Phil Good Agreed, especially in Manhattan, unless you own a 'beater' and / or have lotsa patience & $ burning a hole in your pocket, to pay for parking & fines! (And, have had practice driving thru an obstacle course as well!)
whenever i hear it i fall in love with george gershwin all over again. what a wonderful musician.
One of the most great musics ever composed
Music like this is life.
I find every note exciting, innovative, creative, and moving...awesome!!! Thanks Gershwin for thiis gift to the ages.
ANYTIME WHEN I HEAR THIS WONDERFUL MASTERPIECE IT LET ME FEEL I AM IN NEW YORK CITY, TRYING TO FOLLOW ITS DYNAMIC LIFE AND CLEARLY CAN SEE ITS MAGNIFICENT GRANDEUR.
Growing up saturated in a pop culture with "jock" type lifestyle I happened to catch this on PBS 49 years ago....and was mesmerized! Changed my outlook on music
The masterpiece of symphonic jazz, no doubt
February 12, 1924: Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin, performed for first time
“The audience packed a house that could have been sold out at twice the size,” wrote New York Times critic Olin Downes on February 13, 1924, of a concert staged the previous afternoon at the Aeolian Hall in New York City. Billed as an educational event, the “Experiment In Modern Music” concert was organized by Paul Whiteman, the immensely popular leader of the Palais Royal Orchestra, to demonstrate that the relatively new form of music called jazz deserved to be regarded as a serious and sophisticated art form. The program featured didactic segments intended to make this case - segments with titles like “Contrast: Legitimate Scoring vs. Jazzing.” After 24 such stem-winders, the house was growing restless. Then a young man named George Gershwin, then known only as a composer of Broadway songs, seated himself at the piano to accompany the orchestra in the performance of a brand new piece of his own composition, called Rhapsody In Blue.
“It starts with an outrageous cadenza of the clarinet,” wrote Downes of the now-famous two-and-a-half-octave glissando that makes Rhapsody in Blue as instantly recognizable as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. “It has subsidiary phrases, logically growing out of it… often metamorphosed by devices of rhythm and instrumentation.” The music critic of the New York Times was in agreement with Whiteman’s basic premise: “This is no mere dance-tune set for piano and other instruments,” he judged. “This composition shows extraordinary talent, just as it also shows a young composer with aims that go far beyond those of his ilk.” (more at history.com)
Feeling like walking around 20´s New York City
Oh the 20's... What a fantastic piece of joy.
The combination of that opening glissando with the vicious vibrato on the top C on the clarinet was delicious… as a former clarinetist I love that and as a pianist I still love that.
Great rendition , " the experiment " was a success, " it's Alive!!"
Gershwin's masterpiece. It has "1920s New York City" written all over it.
The piece was titled "American Rhapsody" during composition. No new york.
Eliezer Pennywhistler did u know that New York is actually in America?
SpaghettiToaster Well so is Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, Houston, San Francisco, Boston, and other large cities. Who's to say Rhapsody in Blue was written for New York exclusively?
Nobody ever said that
@@willmorris8198 Most people associate this song with New York City.
This is a brilliant recording in the original arrangement. Makes me happy.
J'aime beaucoup Rhapsody in Blue
This is a wonderful recording to have that sets the pace of this
remarkable piece. The 1924 written manuscripts have been organized and
scored in a new critical edition by Dr. Ryan Banagale, through the
University of Michigan Gershwin Initiative. The first recording of this
edition has been released on August 27, 2021. It brings together the
Adrian Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Bruce Kiesling and yours truly. I
have studied the many recordings, the printed scores, the Alicia Zizzo
'Annotated Rhapsody in Blue' for solo piano, and Dr. Banagale's new
edition. Hope readers will find the new recording enjoyable!
Thank you for the description paragraphs above. There are several variations on this (from 12+ minutes to up to 17 minutes. The first full version I hit on when I went looking for it was by students at a Polish music school and It's played a bit slower by them and is still my favorite. But it is very similar to this version.
this brings back one of the most special times in my life, I'd switched over to the saxophone in the middle of the school year, and our jazz band director gave me the solo in this song for our spring concerto, and for one night in my life, I was a star. Thank you for sharing this soulful masterpiece for all to enjoy!
@Admiral Rusty - listen again. This is the original scored for "stage band." It was rescored for full orchestra. Listen for the lack of all the lush strings that you are used to. I was lucky enough to play this scoring in college.
What a pianist! Tonight he is as conductor with the Bournemouth Symphony but we wish he'd play more. Good for Andrew, he is great.
Having conducted this piece (and working from a copy of the original score) this is the instrumentation: 2 Trumpets, 2 Trombones, 2 French Horns, 3 Reeds doubling on everything {please refer to OtherJC's comment for the reed listing}, 8 Violins {one of the violinists, Mario Perry, doubled on accordion.} 1 Solo Piano, 2 additional pianists {in the orchestra and they didn't do much!}, 1 Banjo, 1 String Bass {Doubles on Tuba} and 1 Percussionist. Including Whiteman at the podium that makes 24.
Gershwin was on a ship coming back to America when he read in Variety (?) that he was writing a piece for Paul Whiteman's jazz performance at Carnegie Hall in one week. He had forgotten about it. He quickly wrote Rhapsody in Blue and they had time for one rehearsal before the performance. From old liner notes. He also said Oscar Levant did the best piano job on this piece he ever heard.
"Gershwin was on a ship coming back to America when he read in Variety (?) that he was writing a piece for Paul Whiteman's jazz performance at Carnegie Hall in one week. He had forgotten about it. He quickly wrote Rhapsody in Blue and they had time for one rehearsal before the performance."
UTTER AND COMPLETE BULLSHIT.
WIKIPEDIA -- November 1923, band leader Paul Whiteman decided to attempt something more ambitious. He asked Gershwin to contribute a concerto-like piece for an all-jazz concert he would give in Aeolian Hall in February 1924. Whiteman became interested in featuring such an extended composition by Gershwin in the concert after he had collaborated with Gershwin in the Scandals of 1922, impressed by the original performance of the one-act opera Blue Monday, which was nevertheless a commercial failure. Gershwin declined on the grounds that, as there would certainly be need for revisions to the score, he would not have enough time to compose the new piece.
Late on the evening of January 3, at the Ambassador Billiard Parlor at Broadway and 52nd Street in Manhattan, while George Gershwin and Buddy De Sylva were playing billiards, his brother Ira Gershwin was reading the January 4 edition of the New York Tribune. An article entitled "What Is American Music?" about the Whiteman concert caught his attention, in which the final paragraph claimed that "George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto, Irving Berlin is writing a syncopated tone poem, and Victor Herbert is working on an American suite."
In a phone call to Whiteman next morning, Gershwin was told that Whiteman's rival Vincent Lopez was planning to steal the idea of his experimental concert and there was no time to lose. Gershwin was finally persuaded to compose the piece.
Since there were only five weeks left, Gershwin hastily set about composing a piece, and on the train journey to Boston, the ideas of Rhapsody in Blue came to his mind. He told his first 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
Thank you. I got this info from an old set of Boston Pops music. This was in the booklet on Rhapsody in Blue. That piece is one of the 2 pieces I would take to that proverbial desert isle.
My CD reconstruction says Aeolian Hall. Oh well.
That's incredible! To be able to run something up at the last minute when you realised you'd forgotten to do it! And what a wonderful last minute job it was!! I've heard Levant playing this before.
You may believe that, but that sounds like total bullshit on so many levels. And it wasn't performed at Carnegie Hall. Get real. Where do you usually get your info, FOX?
Best version......
nah, the real 1924 version is so much more authentic and less classical, more jazzy. this is '51 rerecording.
How perfectly timed...so suitable for a small jazz band, less would have been hard-taxed. The softness, timbre, is so commital that the larger orchestra demands and gets space, but the4 loss in a presentation which depends so fundamentally on this
youthful bond cannot sustain squeezing the notes in the trains to make up for lost time. I feel I grew up on this recording!
Thank you this wonderfull performance & recording. Also many thanks for all such relevant information you bothered to offer to us.
Always a classic and a favorite. Makes me proud to be an American and a product of pretty much direct immigrants via grandparents from Eastern and Northern Europe. Music has always inspired me and kept me going and thank God I unforcibly (sp?) passed it onto my children. My oldest son (14) is learning to play an ammeded version/arrangement of this on the piano.
Gershwin was a genius taken from us far too soon
+Steven Smith You are so right!
left just in time
Simply magical
Thank you so much for posting this! I was looking all over for the original jazz band version.
Die Kunst bei dieser phantastischen Musik ist nicht die Tempi zu überziehen oder künstlich zu phrasieren sondern jedem Thema seinen eigentlichen Sinn und Ausdruck zukommen zu lassen.
Papa Lipp
Perhaps the best musical composition of the last 125 years or so !
This is one of my alltime favorite!!!!
piękne, wyzwala niezwykłe refleksje prowadząc w świat baśni
Strong and authentic rendering. Very emotional without being maudlin.
It's a jazz marriage between a train-ride and a cakewalk. Masterful!
wow.... this is the version....
Can you still hear dad playing this sitting cross-legged on the couch in the living room? Before he would go out to play at the Elks he would warm up with this! My very favorite piece for clarinet!
this isn't the 1924 version. this is a 1951 interpretation.
Great, wonderful version. As musician myself, and as a fan of Gershwin's standards and symphonic pieces, this is one of most beautiful rendition I've ever heard. Thank you !
If only George's life wasn't so short. He'd have changed music forever. We'd have possibly had rock-n-roll in the 1930s.
+scribesunlimited I doubt rock 'n' roll would have originated with Gershwin. It was either from rhythm and blues or the combination of country and r & b. Besides, Ben Vaughn(look for his radio show, "The Many Moods of..")popularized the proverb, "If it has more than four chords, it's jazz." All the same, music history probably might have been different had Gershwin been blessed with better health.
I have the same opinion about Mozart and Romanticism in music
Rock and Roll? I hope your not serious.
I Love this in so many different ways
This arrangement is all you need
i adore the original. it's like heaven.
nah, the real 1924 version is so much more authentic and less classical, more jazzy. this is '51 rerecording.
spine tingling......
Yes this music suits a band better than hundred piece symphony orchestra - sportier!
a fine piece of american music - it don't get any better than this!!!!!
!
G BOOGIE
Simply the greatest piece of American music. Period. And hearing it as originally arranged is pure joy. It's like you can smell, taste, and feel Depression-era New York City.
Rick Knight this was written in 1924. And the depression was called that because people were living on the street watching their kids starve to death and killing themselves because they were so broke and saw no hope.
Loved this version, not to mention your excellent video presentation and explanation! Thank you, Ncmtman.
정말 멋진곡이다.
피아노의 생동감과 재즈의 참맛이다.
애절하고 우랑찬 선률 환상적인 곡이다. 감사합니다.
+김기영김정남 same
a discovery for me, wonderful!
Simply amazing!! ❤️
The handwritten score says that there were only 3 woodwind players. Working backwards: The Bari Sax Chair (#3) doubled on Alto & Soprano. The Tenor Sax Chair (#2) doubled on Bari, Soprano & Flute. Ross Gorman (#1 Chair) played E-flat & B-flat Soprano Saxes, Alto Sax, Oboe, Heckelphone, E-flat Clarinet, B-flat Clarinet, Alto & Bass Clarinet and... Octavion. The Accordion was played by one of the violinists. (There were no violas or cellos.) One perc player for everything; two trombones doubling.
Gershwin was a genius, it is sad that he died at an early age. :(
Out of this world
I absolutely love this version! Much better than the later orch version in my opinion. Truly ground-breaking.
From the beginning up to 1:06 is my favorite part. Listening to it just makes me so happy :D
Too bad that the poster had no clue as to the 1924 instrumentation. It is not have fluegelhorns, euphonium, accordian. It also had the solo pianist and a second piano that played parts of what later became the solo piano in later versions. And yes I have a copy of the original hand written (in ink) Grofe score in my hands.
Gary Bricault can you send me the score? Pls
It is a 10th generation copy on paper. What would you want to use it for?
in my conservatory the orchestra is playing that music, so, i try to study to be a composer and director and i love this music to analyze and see what i can bring to the orchestra. my email is Hiericho@hotmail.com . thanks for your time
J'adore ♥
Sangat luar biasa. Dlm menuangkan imaginasi pd lagu & arrangement.
Tomorrow night - heading to Cleveland for the Cle Orchestra at Severance Hall... the
Jazz version is on the program.
woody allen's manhatten is always what i think of when i hear this. such a beautiful song with new york in black and white in the background mmmm magifique
Whow; I can´t believe all the time I never lurked _this_ up... 0.0 How can I call myself a Jazz fan now?! :,-(
Am persuaded that this oh so vivid original orchestration is preferable to any other, so much more revealing of the composer's intentions.
The soloist is up to the standard that Earl Wild, Oscar Levant and Michael Tilson Thomas, among few others, set forth.
The sound of the wind instruments gives us a clear idea of the cultural moment.
Amazing...a great classic
OK Krombacher is good
But
my local brewery Hauf Lichtenau has been brewing beer since 1489
and its just as tasty as this wonderfull rendition of one of the best pieces of music ever written
scuse me while I run to the fridge then push the repeat button....................
Maravilloso!!!!
This is one of favourite pieces of music right up there with Nocturne and Revolutionary Etude by Chopin and Aurora Awakes by John Mackey!
Tres belle
I like this version a lot better
Thanks for this version
thanks for uploading love this my best bit starts at 15:52
My papa leslie jones he used listen to this every time and sit back in his old fashioned sofa and listen to it on the old fashioned music player i forgot what it was called
Do you mean a phonograph (record player)? They had those back then, usually running in 78 rpm.
Leo Raymundo i think so, have you heard of the wizard and oz? Not the wizard of oz. look them up on youtube. and i have to accounts this is my video account TheMegaStarMusic. my other account is Jessica Mccormack.
A Victrola, maybe?
the original 1924 recording (the best) was just nine minutes long and featured a smaller band than this. This is in fact yhe reworked orchestral version from the 1940s.
I believe Ferdi Grofe arranged both the Jazz style and for full orchaestra
I like the original more. The degraded quality gives it that old-timey feel
Either that or the song is played differently
That's impossible, he died in 37, how could have he arranged this in the 1940's.
Eckbert Wickleberry Gershwin composed rhapsody in blue, but someone else arranged it. There's a difference :)
This is not the version played today by symphonic orchestras if that’s what you mean
I play piano, but this song is gonna make my hands catch fire
Scintillating!
i remember hearing this when i would watch tom & jerry cartoons....
This is so good because it's Gershwin at the piano.
A Great one- Andrew Litton w/ the Dallas Sympho
@Tom Felkner, thought it was Ross Gorman with that wailing tone. Gorman played it satirically in rehearsal but Gershwin saw the meaning behind the spoof and urged Gorman to play it the same way in concert.
Yes it was, and the original recording had the sarcastic laughing clarinet at the end of that famous "slide" that Gershwin thought so characteristically American. To laugh off a real accomplishment as 'Just a lucky shot' or my personal favorite, 'Well, yeah, it was a surprise to me. That was supposed to be a right foul line single, but it got caught in the wind up there, and over the fence it went. It was really a pop-up.'
That riff, on a guitar with lots of distortion, is so metal. Chananan chananan channaana chanananaa
Stunning!!!!!!
Gershwin:le génie dans toute sa grandeur,dommage qu'il soit mort si jeune,au moment de la maturité
LTE3 brought me here!
This early version dates back to the time when ragtime was still an influence in jazz, which had not yet stabilized into the genre as we know it today. There are no recordings of this era, as far as I know. I think this recording sounds so fun, I hate the way it reminds me of Looney Tunes.
Looney Tunes ??????
Omg me too! 😂 Especially the end. Glad I'm not the only one.
I also must add that the banjo intended for this piece was a tenor banjo, according to sources.
I suddenly feel like buying airline tickets
LOL peacelord You fly United Airlines don't you?
This piece is used for all sorts of things. In Germany, this big tune at the middle is used to promote a beer. Krombacher, eine Perle der Natur (Krombacher, a pearl from nature). The beer is actually pretty good.
Before I moved to Germany, I used to fly United all the time.
And go where?
Eliezer Pennywhistler To Kathmandu!(the holy land!).
peacelord *&
Mr.Dimitris Zigouras, all his wonderfull compositions make him the No 1 compositor of the 20th century