{"id":2400,"date":"2020-03-18T14:47:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T18:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/?p=2400"},"modified":"2021-03-04T11:41:30","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T16:41:30","slug":"arachnophonia-george-gershwin-rhapsody-in-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/2020\/03\/arachnophonia-george-gershwin-rhapsody-in-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"Arachnophonia: George Gershwin “Rhapsody in Blue”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Arachnophonia<\/a> is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library<\/a>\u2018s collection.<\/p>\n

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question<\/a> or to additional relevant<\/a> information from<\/a> around the web<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s installment of Arachnophonia<\/a> is by student worker Allison (class of 2022) and features George Gershwin<\/a>‘s classic piece for orchestra and piano, Rhapsody in Blue<\/a><\/em>. Thanks, Allison!<\/em><\/p>\n

George Gershwin<\/a><\/p>\n

Rhapsody in Blue<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Gershwin<\/p>\n

George Gershwin<\/a>\u2019s Rhapsody in Blue<\/a><\/em> was premiered in New York on February 12, 1924 by Paul Whiteman<\/a> and his orchestra, featuring Gershwin on the piano. Whiteman, conductor of the Palais Royal Orchestra, had previously talked with Gershwin about mixing classical music with jazz and decided that Gershwin would premiere a piece at his \u201cExperiment in Modern Music\u201d concert. Although Gershwin had not formally committed to composing a piece, it was already announced in the newspapers so he had to. In just five weeks, the piece was composed and rehearsed, with Gershwin playing the piano part. Interestingly, he left his piano part to be improvised during the world premiere.<\/p>\n

\"Rhapsody

Gershwin\u2019s autograph score to Rhapsody in Blue showing the iconic clarinet opening.
Image source: https:\/\/smtd.umich.edu\/ami\/gershwin\/?p=213<\/p><\/div>\n

Although somewhat common today, it was groundbreaking in that time period for an orchestra to play a jazz concerto. The premiere of Rhapsody in Blue<\/a><\/em> was wildly successful and opened doors for many future composers to incorporate jazz elements into their music. In addition, by choosing to compose this piece, Gershwin opened many doors for himself as a composer. Prior to Rhapsody in Blue<\/a><\/em>, Gershwin composed scores for Broadway musicals<\/a>. The piece didn\u2019t change the trajectory of his career but expanded it as he became more well known. <\/p>\n

\"George

George Gershwin composing at the piano. American composer, 1898-1937. (Source: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/gmo\/9781561592630.article.A2252861)<\/p><\/div>\n

The first Gershwin piece I heard was An American in Paris<\/a><\/em> while preparing for an audition. I was very intrigued by the piece but never was able to fully appreciate it until playing it with my youth orchestra. Because I loved that piece, I was excited to receive music for another Gershwin piece this semester. Rhapsody in Blue<\/a><\/em> is very different from An American in Paris<\/a><\/em> but both pieces are composed in a manner that is clearly Gershwin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library\u2018s collection. All links included in these posts will take you to either the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61217,15223,15236],"tags":[1231,61217,120741,15236,15232,120743,120742,37978,35898],"class_list":["post-2400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arachnophonia","category-collection","category-guest-post","tag-allison","tag-arachnophonia","tag-george-gershwin","tag-guest-post","tag-jazz","tag-jazz-concerto","tag-rhapsody-in-blue","tag-student-workers","tag-students"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgMV3E-CI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}