{"id":36396,"date":"2024-02-07T02:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T02:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=36396"},"modified":"2024-02-14T22:05:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:05:20","slug":"george-gershwins-rhapsody-in-blue-is-a-story-of-jazz-race-and-the-fraught-notion-of-americas-melting-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/george-gershwins-rhapsody-in-blue-is-a-story-of-jazz-race-and-the-fraught-notion-of-americas-melting-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"George Gershwin\u2019s \u2018Rhapsody in Blue\u2019 is a story of jazz, race and the fraught notion of America\u2019s melting\u00a0pot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ryan Raul Ba\u00f1agale<\/a>, Colorado College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 12, 1924, was a frigid day in New York City. But that didn\u2019t stop an intrepid group of concertgoers<\/a> from gathering in midtown Manhattan\u2019s Aeolian Hall for \u201cAn Experiment in Modern Music.\u201d The organizer, bandleader Paul Whiteman<\/a>, wanted to show how jazz and classical music could come together. So he commissioned a new work by a 25-year-old Jewish-American upstart named George Gershwin<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gershwin\u2019s contribution to the program, \u201cRhapsody in Blue<\/a>,\u201d would go on to exceed anyone\u2019s wildest expectations, becoming one of the best-known works of the 20th century. Beyond the concert hall, it would appear in iconic films such as Woody Allen\u2019s \u201cManhattan<\/a>\u201d and Disney\u2019s \u201cFantasia 2000<\/a>.\u201d It was performed during the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics<\/a>, and if you ever fly on United Airlines, you\u2019ll hear it playing during the preflight safety videos<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve spent nearly two decades researching<\/a> and writing<\/a> about this piece<\/a>. To me, \u201cRhapsody\u201d isn\u2019t some static composition stuck in the past; rather, it\u2019s a continuously evolving piece of music whose meaning has changed over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Programming \u201cRhapsody\u201d for concerts today has become somewhat of a double-edged sword. A century after it premiered, it remains a crowd favorite \u2013 and almost always guarantees a sold-out show. But more and more scholars are starting to see the work as a whitewashed version of Harlem\u2019s vibrant Black music scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cobbled-together hit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whiteman commissioned Gershwin to write \u201cRhapsody\u201d sometime in late 1923. But as the story goes, the composer forgot about his assignment until he read about the upcoming concert in a newspaper<\/a> on Jan. 4, 1924.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gershwin had to work quickly, writing as time allowed in his busy schedule. Manuscript evidence suggests<\/a> that he only worked on the piece a total of 10 days over the span of several weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Handwritten<\/a>
A copy of the first page of George Gershwin\u2019s manuscript for \u2018Rhapsody in Blue.\u2019 Gabriel Hackett\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Accordingly, he relied on the familiar melodies, harmonies, rhythms and musical structures that had started to garner him acclaim as a popular composer for the Broadway stage. This music was increasingly influenced by early jazz, as the improvised, syncopated and blues-infused sound of Black musicians such as Louis Armstrong<\/a> made its way north from New Orleans. Gershwin also mingled with, and was influenced by, some of the great Harlem stride pianists of the day, including James P. Johnson<\/a> and Willie \u201cThe Lion\u201d Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite being quickly cobbled together, \u201cRhapsody in Blue\u201d ultimately sold hundreds of thousands of records and copies of sheet music<\/a>. Gershwin\u2019s own performances of the work on tour also helped boost its popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But success also opened up the piece to criticism \u2013 particularly that Gershwin had appropriated Black music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black musicians feel snubbed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is not only a 21st-century critique by music historians. Even back then, some Black artists were miffed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But rather than calling it out in print, they did so through their own art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1929, blues artist Bessie Smith starred in a short film called \u201cSt. Louis Blues<\/a>,\u201d based on the song of the same name by composer W.C. Handy<\/a>. It features an all-Black cast, including members of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra<\/a> and the Hall Johnson Choir<\/a>. Instrumental and vocal versions of Handy\u2019s song provide the sonic backdrop for this 15-minute film \u2013 with one very pointed exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith plays the part of Bessie, an unrequited lover to a duplicitous gambler named Jimmy. In the final scene, after a previous falling out, Jimmy and Bessie reconcile in a club. They embrace on the dance floor to the strains of \u201cSt. Louis Blues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But unbeknownst to the love-struck Bessie, Jimmy carefully picks her pocket and unmercifully shoves her back to her bar stool. After Jimmy flashes his newly acquired bankroll, the opening clarinet glissando of \u201cRhapsody in Blue\u201d begins. During this brief, 20-second cue<\/a>, Jimmy boastfully backs out of the club, bowing and tipping his hat like a performer acknowledging his ovation. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S1qqB9l7RQM?wmode=transparent&start=0 The short film \u2018St. Louis Blues\u2019 takes a subtle dig at Gershwin 14 minutes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard not to see the subtext of introducing Gershwin\u2019s famous piece at this moment: Just as Jimmy has robbed Bessie, the film suggests that Gershwin had pilfered jazz from the Black community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another musical response to \u201cRhapsody\u201d emerged in 1927 from Gershwin\u2019s stride pianist friend, James P. Johnson: \u201cYamekraw<\/a>.\u201d Publisher Perry Bradford billed the work<\/a> as \u201cnot a \u2018Rhapsody in Blue,\u2019 but a Rhapsody in Black and White (Black notes on White paper).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the \u201cblack notes\u201d were more than just the score itself. Johnson demonstrates how a Black musician would approach the rhapsody genre<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuck in the middle with \u2018Blue\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gershwin once described \u201cRhapsody\u201d \u201cas a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America \u2013 of our vast melting pot<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with the \u201cmelting pot\u201d metaphor is that it asks immigrants to leave behind cultural practices and identities in order to assimilate into the majority population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s just what Whiteman\u2019s musical experiment at Aeolian Hall a century ago was all about: He sought, as he put it, to \u201cmake a lady out of jazz<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the concert\u2019s program read<\/a>, \u201cMr. Whiteman intends to point out, with the assistance of his orchestra and associates, the tremendous strides which have been made in popular music from the day of the discordant Jazz \u2026 to the really melodious music of today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, he wanted to fold the era\u2019s popular jazz music into classical music \u2013 and, in doing so, draw out the inherent beauty in the beast, making it more acceptable to white audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRhapsody in Blue\u201d and other classical-jazz hybrid works like it would soon become known as \u201cmiddlebrow\u201d music<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fraught term emerges from the space between the so-called \u201clowbrow\u201d and \u201chighbrow,\u201d descriptors that locate works of art on a scale from pedestrian to intellectual. These terms originally related to the pseudoscience of phrenology<\/a>, which drew conclusions about intelligence based on skull shape and the location of the ridge of one\u2019s brow line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highbrow music, made by and for white people, was considered the most sophisticated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But highbrow music could also conveniently elevate lowbrow music by borrowing \u2013 or rather, appropriating \u2013 musical elements such as rhythm and harmony. Merging the two, the low gets to the middle. But it could never get to the top on its own terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Gershwin\u2019s \u201cRhapsody\u201d is meant to be heard as a \u201cmusical kaleidoscope of America,\u201d it is important to remember who\u2019s holding the lens, what music gets added to the mix, and how it has changed once admitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s also important to remember that 100 years is a long time. What the culture values, and why, inevitably changes. The same is true for \u201cRhapsody in Blue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Raul Ba\u00f1agale<\/a>, Associate Professor and Chair of Music, Colorado College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Raul Ba\u00f1agale, Colorado College February 12, 1924, was a frigid day in New York City. But that didn\u2019t stop an intrepid group of concertgoers from gathering in midtown Manhattan\u2019s Aeolian Hall for \u201cAn Experiment in Modern Music.\u201d The organizer, bandleader Paul Whiteman, wanted to show how jazz and classical music could come together. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":36397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[15155,15156,14323,8845,5878,14776,2192,53,14520,10380,498],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36463,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36396\/revisions\/36463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}