Gershwin
...ired by a train ride to Boston for the audition of Sweet Little Devil. It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattlety-bang that is so often stimulating to a composer (I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise), that I suddenly heard--even saw on paper-- the complete construction of the Rhapsody from beginning to end… I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America--of our vast melting-pot, of our incomparable national pep, our blues, and our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston, I had the definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance (Schafer 226-27). The clarinet glissando in the beginning of the rhapsody indicates "jazz" to the audience in 1924 to the present. This one element extends into the rest of the piece that jazz and classical music can be brought together into one composition. The Cuban clave style popular in the Charleston (a dance during the Jazz era) made presence in Gershwin's piece. Also, the short long short rhythm of notes or, syncopated rhythm, added and justified Gershwin's efforts to marry theses two styles. The Rhapsody “began as a purpose, not a plan,” (Schneider 180) Gershwin said. His intent of his Rhapsody was to show America that popular music can have quality and not just quantity (McCue 41). He believed that the popular music of the 1920’s, jazz, could be incorporated and set into a traditional orchestration. Gershwin knew the misconceptions of jazz as having strict rhythms and straight forward tempos. With this Rhapsody Gershwin took all these misconceptions and resolved them with “one blow” (Schneider 180). Rhapsody in Blue premiered on February 12, 1924 in the Aeolian hall with orchestrations by Fered Grofe and accompaniment by the Palais Royal Orchestra. This piece "fired the jazz shot that was heard round the world" (Schneider 178). Because of it’s emphasize on jazz it became both controversial among the public and in the jazz community resulting with both positive and negative stand points. Critics were calling Gershwin a weak attempt to include jazz and even to write jazz in general. One critic said, The Rhapsody, of course, was and always will remain nothing more than ersatz jazz, equally as incompatible with the original New Orleans jazz music as Pee-Wee Russell’s clarinet would appear if featured in a Ravel suite conducted by Toscanini. In one respect, the Aeolian concert (which later was followed by a repeat performance at Carnegie Hall) is to be regretted in the colorful history of jazz music, for it gave rise to a misunderstanding which still exists and which may never be eliminated completely (Schneider 180). Why did jazz critics defile Gershwin’s Rhapsody? Jazz critics thought that the music did not incorporate the soulful touch of true jazz. Most critics believed that Gershwin’s piece was a cover up of the same over played dance rhythms and over used jazz chords. Even fifteen to thirty years later Gershwin’s Rhapsody was attacked by critics calling it a “nuisance” in jazz. A critic by the name of André Hodeir said, “It is no longer possible, as it was fifteen or twenty years ago, for an alert reasonably well-informed person to confuse authentic jazz with cheap dance music or pretentious pieces like Rhapsody in Blue…” (Schneider 175). Critics also abused Gershwin’s piece because it did not incorporate the true technique of jazz, improvisation. “Rhapsody in Blue is less a derivate from communal improvising, which real jazz is, than from commercial popular music,” (Thomson 52). Not only was the jazz community opposed to Gershwin’s Rhapsody but also the public thought it was inappropriate for the classic concert hall. Most concert seekers of the 1920’s consisted of traditional Americans. During the 1924 performance of Rhapsody in Blue the audience brought mixed reviews. Audiences of the 1920’s were use to the Classical style of music. With its harmonically correct chords and not to radical rhythms these styles were what listeners grew up with. Just like today when fathers and mothers cringe at the heavy metal or rap music that their children listen to is exactly how the audience felt about jazz, they were uncomfortable with the new style. Not only were the audience not comfortable with the new genre of music but where it had originated from. Jazz is a combination of different genres of music through out the United States. From spirituals, Southern mountain songs, country fiddling, blues, cowboy songs, and ragtime, jazz morphed its way into the lives of America’s youth (Cowell 45). Rhapsody in Blue upset the audience because they associated this song with jazz, and as it was and still is jazz was and is still associated with African Americans. From this stereotype, Americans of the 1920’s deemed this music “Negro music” (Sales 34). Audience members thought this new genre would take over the Classical style and touch the youth with this devil music. As segregation became more prevalent in American society Gershwin became more unappealing to old fashion listeners because the association of his music to the African American culture shocked the American culture (www.pbs.org). Not everyone thought that Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was a horrible piece. Deems Taylor, a writer for the New York World described the Rhapsody as, “Genuine jazz music, not only in its scoring but in its idiom…[Gershwin] may yet bring jazz out of the kitchen” (Schneider 180). Samuel Charters argued later that Gershwin was a master at composing a large orchestration with a jazz idea embedded in the musical line. He thought that no other attempt at writing a jazz orchestration was better than Rhapsody in Blue. Charters even went as far to say that even Duke Ellington’s attempts to writing a jazz suite was not as grand as Gershwin’s (Jablonski/Lawrence 87). Even though Rhapsody in Blue had very mixed reviews, this piece ignited his short but very successful career as a great composer. Joan Crawford (actress); Lily Pons (opera singer); Elmer Rice (playwright); J.B. Priestley (novelist); Jascha Heifetz (violinist); Paul Whiteman (bandleader); and Harold Ross (publisher) were some of the celebrities present for the opening of Porgy and Bess (Alpert 1). Porgy and Bess premiered in New York City at the Alvin Theatre on October 10, 1935 (Erb). Even though these big starts sat in the audience the true star of the night was Gershwin. After reading Porgy by DuBose Heyward in 1927 Gershwin decided that this book needed to become a folk opera. Writing to Heyward and explaining the idea in the letter, Gershwin’s schedule did not permit him to begin this idea until 1934 (Erb). DuBose Heyward was a native from Charleston, South Carolina. Living all his life there Heyward experienced and witnessed everyday what he depicted in his novel Porgy. Closing his insurance sales business he soon began writing his book (Alpert 11). Living in Charleston, Heyward was intrigued by the African American population. Wanting to express his interest in his book he modeled his main character after a cripple beggar, Sammy Smalls, well known on the Charleston business district. This wasn’t any ordinary beggar because Smalls used a peculiar means of transportation, a handmade cart pulled by a goat (Alpert 12). Porgy became Heyward’s character for his story based on an African American society. The story is set in Charleston, South Carolina on Catfish Row, a black neighbor hood set by the waterfront (www.myhero.com). Heyward’s book portrays Porgy, a homeless cripple, striving for his sweet love and in the end finds himself stranded alone still searching for his love. While waiting for Gershwin to contact him again, Heyward and his wife revamped his book and dramatized it into a stage production adding more of a love story and soulful spirituals. This play ran for 367 performances sparking other interest in the play fro various writers like Al Jolson, but nothing became of these ideas until 1934 (Erb). After years of correspondence George and Ira Gershwin finally joined Heyward at his house in Folly Beach for the summer to begin work on the opera. Heyward wrote the libretto (lines) also collaborating with Ira to write the lyrics (Alpert 77). Gershwin wrote some of the recitatives during that summer, but also had another obligation, to tour around the south and celebrate the tenth anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue. Leaving after that summer Gershwin went home and composed the rest of the recitatives and also finished the orchestration. Completing the 700 page opera in July of 1935 it “represented his most ambitious creation and his favorite composition” (Alpert 89). “According to David Ewen, Gershwin’s first biographer, he’ never quite ceased to wonder at the miracle that he had been its composer, he never stopped loving each and every bar, never wavered in the conviction that he had produced a work of art’” (Erb). Gershwin not only wrote the music to Porgy and Bess, but also had a lar...