Rhapsody In Blue Premiered on February 12, 1924 in New York City, N.Y.

Famous jazz artist George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin’s compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), and there were a few others.

There’s just something very different about this eclectic piece. He combines jazz and classical music into one dynamic package. When one hears this elegant piece one thinks of progress in the early 20th century, American culture, and a bustling metropolis. Some have interpreted Rhapsody in Blue as a “musical portrait of New York City”, and “a musical kaleidoscope of America” is how Gershwin described it.

Is it jazz in the sense of genre? Hard to say. It’s fantastic. “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.”

Gershwin had this to say about composing Rhapsody In Blue 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.

Gershwin began his work on January 7, finished it on February 4, and the premier came in an afternoon concert on February 12, 1924 in New York City. This historic event took place in Aeolian Hall. Gershwin’s “experiment” turned out to be a huge success and put him in the history books.

“By the end of 1927, Whiteman’s band had played the Rhapsody eighty-four times, and its recording sold a million copies.”

This upbeat tune is one of my personal favorites.