Analysis Of George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue

Yewon Jeong

MHS 590 American Music and National Identities

Professor Dr. Maria Cristina Fava

“What makes George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue as an American Music?”

Rhapsody in Blue was composed by American composer George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band in 1924. When the piece introduced to the world at Aeolian Hall on February 12, 1924, on the afternoon of Lincoln’s Birthday, there was no doubt that Rhapsody was unprecedented, and outshined everything else on the previous Jazz form. The editors of the Cambridge Music Handbooks opined that "The Rhapsody in Blue established Gershwin's reputation as a serious composer and has since become one of the most popular of all American concert works." As we know, Gershwin’s Rhapsody has been one of the most popular and representative pieces in American music history. Rhapsody was considered as the most profitable piece of concert music ever composed. Gershwin could earn more than a quarter of a million dollars just for royalties and rental fees from recording and performance during the first ten years. He became the most celebrated American composer not only by audiences but also by leading modernist composers. He was the most remarkable American musician who conquered

Paul Whiteman (1890-1960), a popular band leader at that time, is the man who played a very important role in making Gershwin to write Rhapsody because he had enthusiasm for moving jazz from Tin Pan Alley to the concert hall. Whiteman wanted to attempt to experiment classical-jazz performance and finally commissioned Gershwin to participate in his plan. When Whiteman asked Gershwin to write a concerto-like piece for an all-jazz concert, an extended work for piano and large dance orchestra, he at first, refused his request because of his busy working on Sweet Little Devil, which was to open in