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Gershwin imagined a grand nationalistic essay,
“a musical kaleidoscope of America—of our
vast melting pot, of our incomparable national
pep, our blues, our metropolitan madness.” Ad-
ditional themes materialized in unlikely places.
Gershwin apparently invented the melodious
“love theme” while improvising at a friend’s par-
ty in Boston. Ira claimed credit for urging his
brother to include the famous clarinet opening,
originally written as a rapid scale spread over
more than two octaves. The
glissando
effect orig-
inated with a prank concocted by Whiteman’s
clarinetist, Ross Gorman, during a rehearsal.
The composer liked the effect and encouraged
Gorman to add a jazzy “wail” at the top end.
Whiteman’s “An Experiment in Modern Music”
took place as scheduled on February 12. Count-
less socialites and musical dignitaries crowded
Aeolian Hall for this major event. Whiteman ex-
plained to his audience that his concert, which
was subdivided into several thematic sections,
was to be “purely educational.” (David Schiff
noted in his detailed study of
Rhapsody in Blue
that New York City had not yet emerged as a
major jazz center.)
Rhapsody in Blue
occupied
the next-to-last section.
Given the press of time, Gershwin allowed Fer-
de Grofé to orchestrate the score. The regular
arranger for the Palais Royal Orchestra, Grofé
understood better than anyone the abilities of
Whiteman’s 23 musicians. He discussed orches-
tration ideas with Gershwin on a regular basis
and completed a rough score on February 4.
However, the exact nature of their individual
contributions later became a point of conten-
tion. Whiteman conducted from an incomplete
score—Gershwin improvised many solo piano
passages, then nodded to the conductor when
the orchestra should enter.
The audience greeted Gershwin’s work, accord-
ing to critic Olin Downes, with “tumultuous
applause.” No one denied that
Rhapsody in Blue
possessed awkward spots, but this one com-
position abundantly justified Whiteman’s ex-
periment. Gershwin finally gained widespread
acknowledgement as a legitimate composer.
Grofé modified the instrumentation numerous
times, publishing a full-orchestra version in
1942. Schiff observed that these transformations
completely reversed the original stylistic bal-
ance: “In the original scoring, the band is play-
ing jazz while the piano introduces the classical
elements; in the symphonic version the orches-
tra seems to be the classical element while the
soloist takes on the burden of sounding ‘jazzy.’ ”
The commonly heard orchestral version, estab-
lished after the composer’s death, may be out-
lined at various levels. Rhapsodic elements exist
in the numerous tempo changes and the long
unaccompanied piano solos. On the other hand,
the specific tempo sequence might be viewed
as a compressed symphony: moderately fast,
scherzo, slow “love” theme, and toccata finale.
Gershwin’s combination of solo piano and larger
ensemble, not to mention the
ritornello
theme
(heard after the opening clarinet wail), suggests
obvious connections to the concerto.
Sheer melodic abundance disguises the care-
ful unity of Gershwin’s themes. All utilize the
blues scale (major and minor thirds and minor
seventh), and two share a common syncopated
rhythm. The exact sequence and selection of
themes varies considerably in different perform-
ing versions, raising the perplexing question:
What exactly constitutes the
Rhapsody in Blue?
This nebulous situation existed from the very
origins of the work and has persisted to the pres-
ent day. Leonard Bernstein, in his
Joy of Music
,
categorized the numerous possible alterations
of this score and commented that “
Rhapsody in
Blue
is not a real composition in the sense that
whatever happens in it must seem inevitable,
or even pretty inevitable.” The clearest yet most
sterile definition of this “piece” exists in copy-
right law: six melodies and a motivic tag, any
one of which constitutes the
Rhapsody in Blue
.
Listeners over the past nine-plus decades have
defined this music in other terms—an American
classic.
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971)
Le sacre du printemps
(
The Rite of Spring
):
Scenes of Pagan Russia in Two Parts
Scored for three flutes (plus two piccolos and alto
flute), four oboes and two English horns, three
clarinets (plus piccolo and bass clarinets), four
bassoons and two contrabassoons, eight horns,
four trumpets (plus piccolo and bass trumpets),
three trombones, two tubas, timpani, triangle,
tambourine, guiro, antique cymbals, cymbals, bass
drum, tam-tam, and strings
A mature Stravinsky diminished the importance
of “inspiration” to musical composition. “Most
music lovers believe that what sets the compos-
er’s creative imagination in motion is a certain
emotive disturbance generally designated
inspi-
ration
. … I simply maintain that inspiration is
in no way a prescribed condition of the creative
act, but rather a manifestation that is chrono-
logically second.” This excerpt comes from the
Poetics of Music
(1942), a series of lectures de-
livered while Stravinsky held the Charles Eliot
Norton Chair of Poetics at Harvard University.
At the distance of 30 years, Stravinsky apparent-
ly had forgotten a conspicuous case of “primary
inspiration” in his most notorious work:
Le sacre
du printemps
(
The Rite of Spring
).
While writing
L’oiseau de feu
(
The Firebird
) score
for a 1910 production by the Ballets Russes, Stra-
vinsky experienced a vivid, detailed vision. “I
saw in [my] imagination a solemn pagan rite:
sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a young
girl dance herself to death. They were sacrific-
ing her to propitiate the god of spring.” Stravin-
sky shared his startling dream with the painter
Nicholas Roerich and Sergei Diaghilev, the im-
presario of the Ballets Russes. Both were elec-
trified by the vision and thought of its balletic
potential. First, Stravinsky had another project
to dispense with: the puppet burlesque
Petrush-
ka
. Meanwhile, Roerich expanded Stravinsky’s
vision into a fullscale ballet scenario.
The following year, Stravinsky devoted full at-
tention to
The Rite of Spring
, hoping that Diaghi-
lev would bring it to the stage in 1911. The sce-
nario is cast in two parts, comprising 13 scenes.
The Adoration of the Earth
, the first part, brings
the winter thaw and reawakening of the earth.
The solo bassoon is the harbinger of spring, but
its placid call is overcome by primitive ferocity.
In a conversation with Robert Craft, Stravinsky
remembered “the violent Russian spring that
seemed to begin in an hour and was like the
whole earth cracking.” The second part,
The
Sacrifice
, is a reckless, whirling dance that ends
in the chosen girl’s death, beginning again the
annual cycle of rebirth.
Background material for
The Rite of Spring
, sub-
titled
Scenes of Pagan Russia
, was discovered
partly in published folksong collections. Stra-
vinsky fashioned a unique modern style from
the primeval elements—motivic and rhythmic
George Gershwin
Igor Stravinsky (1913)
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