Brighton Institute of Modern Music Cultural Perspectives BIMM 07 11th May 2007 Candidate 123456 Word count: 3300

(A) sort of musical kaleidoscope of America- of our vast melting pot, of our incomparable pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness1. George Gershwin How is American life in the 1920s reflected in Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue?

Introduction

In the years leading up to Gershwin composing Rhapsody in Blue in 1924, America began to go through a series of changes that would completely and irrevocably alter its national identity. Among these was the development of an American cultural identity, with the popularly recognised sound of the age becoming associated with emerging black culture through the medium of jazz. American culture was also influenced strongly by enormous immigration, which dramatically altered the makeup of its cities. In addition booming economic prosperity raised American confidence through the roof until the horror of the depression. Sociologically, there was the emergence of American youth and the great age of recreation. Overall, in the 1920s, America made major political, philosophical and cultural movements away from the puritan, Victorian values that had prevailed over society a decade earlier and towards a new 20th century ideology.

Gershwin was a writer who was highly culturally aware and Rhapsody in Blue reflects many of these themes, which I will examine in the course of my essay. Gershwins aim with Rhapsody in Blue was to present a glimpse into American life at this time. He always felt very strongly that this was the role of Rhapsody. The quote above comes from an interview with Gershwin where he recounts what he originally saw

Greenberg R., 1998, George Gershwin, London, Phaidon Press Limited, p.66

Rhapsody as when he first started to compose it, inspired by sitting on a train from New York to Boston, amid the steam and noise and bustle. Further, when asked what Rhapsody was he remarked, It is a picnic party in Brooklyn or a dark-skinned girl singing and shouting the blues in a Harlem cabaret. I try to depict a scene, a New York crowd.2 A broad sign of the pieces success is that Rhapsody in Blue has transcended its role as merely a piece of music to become a symbol of its age so potent that it is universally recognised shorthand for prosperous America and particularly New York at the highpoint of the 1920s.

However, for all this, it is important to realise that, while Gershwin looked to create a representation of America and particularly his hometown of New York, he was an artist and not a sociologist. Thus his work, while strongly reflective of certain areas of American society, is also the product of an artist who is basing his work upon subjective experience. Rhapsody in Blue is therefore Gershwins personal interpretation of America and not a piece of accurate social research. I will examine how Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue is a musically reflects of the great themes of the 1920s that I have set out.

I.

Rhapsody in Blues relationship with emerging black culture

The writing of Rhapsody in Blue can be seen as part of Gershwins lifelong fascination with emulating and advancing the sophistication of African-American music. This is shown in the title quote by his desire for Rhapsody to express Americas blues and culminated in 1935, when he produced Porgy and Bess, the

Pollack, H, 2006, George Gershwin his life and works, University of California Press, p.309

first black opera. However, Rhapsody has a peculiar relationship with the black culture of its time because, although it was one of the most significant pieces in popularising jazz music, the new black sound of the 1920s, it has also been much derided for not doing this in a way that truly represented black culture. Writers such as Eileen Southern, in her book Music of Black Americans, attacked Gershwin for being the composer of such a well known jazz piece, (while he) Who had only superficial contacts with Negro music in his visits to Harlem and all black shows on Broadway.3

Gershwin describes his intentions to delve into black culture and push the limitations of its prevalent music, jazz, noted by his biographer Pollack:

Suddenly an idea occurred to me. There had been so much chatter about the limitations of jazzJazz, they said, had to be in strict time. It had to cling to dance rhythms. I resolved, if possible, to kill that misconception in one sturdy blow.4

This intention was well meant but was hampered by a significant obstacle. This was that Gershwin had never heard real black jazz. Black jazz at the time was being practised in New Orleans, Kansas City and Chicago by bands such as King Olivers Creole Jazz Band and Louis Armstrongs Hot Five. The music was raw, funky and spontaneous, with an emphasis on improvisation and a lack of formal scoring. The first of these groups came to New York in late 1924, several months after Rhapsody had been finished and thus Gershwin had had little access to this new source of black creativity. What he was aware of was the symphonic jazz of Paul Whitemans highly popular white band. This music was neither particularly jazz nor was it
3 4

Southern, E., 1983, Readings in Black American Music, New York, p. 460 Pollack, H, 2006, George Gershwin his life and works, University of California Press, p.297

symphonic5; rather it was a meshing together of bluesy popular tunes and the virtuosity of a classical band. It had little in common with the practise of black jazz music. Greenberg notes it was

Tightly organised, written out by ingenious arrangers and carefully rehearsedso the improvisatory spontaneity and invention of real jazz was largely absent.6

Far away from the Deep South, Whiteman was considered enough of an authority on real jazz to put on a concert at the Aeolian Hall, New York, which purported to establish the role of jazz music in American culture. For the event he asked Gershwin to compose a jazz concerto, which became Rhapsody in Blue.

While Gershwins exposure to jazz was limited to Whiteman and his contemporary composers such as Aaron Copland and Virgil Thompson, he did have a very solid knowledge of other areas of black culture and music in a manner of a quality that, although learned, was hardly superficial. Through traversing the length and breadth of New York City, Gershwin had become well acquainted with the African American, highly syncopated, piano styles that came to dominate post-war music. These were a set of post ragtime idioms7 such as stride and novelty piano practised principally in Harlem by African Americans. He had worked at Tin Pan Alley and had had exposure to many of the Negro songs that had been adapted by popular composers. He had a good knowledge of the foxtrots of bandleader James Reese Europe and the pricelessly useful work of W.C Handy, who was the first composer to bring the blues guitar style

5 6

Perrett, G, 1982, America in the Twenties, Simon and Schuster, p.236 Greenberg R., 1998, George Gershwin, London, Phaidon Press Limited, p.60 7 Schiff, D., 1997, Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p.34

to the piano and the stave. However, these sounds by now were somewhat outdated by the electric blues that had come to Chicago and the development of Negro jazz.

Thus Rhapsody in Blue possesses a very bluesy sound without ever truly reflecting the black culture of its time. While Gershwin looks to use jazz to create the sound of his city, New York, he is unable to do so in a way that also reflects and advances authentic 1920s jazz, as he simply has not heard enough of it. To the people listening to Rhapsody played for the first time in the Aeolian hall there was no doubt that this was jazz because Gershwin showed off a set of idioms commonly thought of by his contemporaries as jazz. As Schiff notes, Gershwin used all of the devices identified by Thomson and Copland, mutes, glissandi, fox-trot rhythms, 3+3+2 (syncopated) rhythms, subdominant modulations and augmented-sixth chords- conspicuously and systematically in Rhapsody in Blue.8

What Rhapsody in Blue does, however, reflects is the white interpretation of jazz at the time. Gershwin knew that he wanted to write jazz, even before he knew how and although Rhapsody fails to reflect authentic black culture, what it does succeed in doing is showing the feeling of wonder that surrounded the ethic of jazz at the time and how it was ready to become an iconic sound amongst the white urban population.

II.

Rhapsodys relationship with American immigration

Schiff, D., 1997, Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p.32

In the year of Rhapsody in Blues composition, Roger Daniels notes that America was coming to the end of the century of immigration9. In this period the racial makeup of American had been hugely altered. There had been a vast influx of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe, amongst who was Gershwins father Morris Gershowitz. By 1920, 105 million American inhabitants, 14 million were foreign born, many of whom were settled in New York.

The extent to which immigration changed large parts of America cannot be overstated. Historian Perrett notes, There were eastern and mid-western cities where up to three-fourths of the population in 1920 were foreign born. Cleveland, for example, supported newspapers in twenty-one languages other than English.10

Rhapsody in Blue reflects the new American multi-cultural identity that had been forming since the turn of century. This would have been the desired effect of Gershwin as he refers to his wish for the piece to show, our vast melting pot11. The piece does so by containing a set of musical motifs that draw upon the traditional music of the key cultural groups who were making their presence felt in America at this time. It is the perfect capturing of what many people saw happening in America in the 1920s.

Much has been made of Gershwins Jewish heritage influencing the content of his music. However, while it certainly should be considered an influence it is not the only one. Greenberg notes of Gershwin and his brother Ira,

Daniels, R., 1991, Coming to America, New York, Harper Collins, contents page Perrett, G, 1982, America in the Twenties, Simon and Schuster, p.78 11 Greenberg R., 1998, George Gershwin, London, Phaidon Press Limited, p.66
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The two brothers roamed all over New York in their youth, absorbing the culture of Chinatown, Harlem and the West Side just as much as Italian, Irish and Jewish sources.12

The most powerful reflection of immigrant life in Rhapsody in Blue lies in how he so seamlessly mixes the music of different cultures together, not so much to authentically reflect their cultures, as to show just how closely these groups had to live with each other, in the poor neighbourhoods of Manhattan and Boston for example. He seems to suggest that such proximity and shared experience effectively melts the cultural barriers between disparate groups and creates community. I believe that Rhapsody most reflects the urban cultural influence of African Americans and the Jews and contrasts this to the traditional makeup of America, which is represented by Rhapsodys classical structure, into which he introduces and integrates the new sounds of these cultures.

He makes this point especially well through his blending of Jewish and African American cultural sources in such a way that he evokes both cultures with the same melodic phrase. An example of this is shown by Greenberg:

Simon Rattle has defined the rising scale (The legendary first bar of Rhapsody in Blue) as being stolen from one of Bessie Smiths trademark wails, but after it what you hear is pure Jewish cantor music.13

Later he notes,

Rattles underlying point is that only in America could such disparate elements- the yearning voice of blues-singer Bessie Smith and the Yiddish

12 13

Greenberg R., 1998, George Gershwin, London, Phaidon Press Limited, p.18 Greenberg R., 1998, George Gershwin, London, Phaidon Press Limited, p.70

folk tunes of Gershwins forebears in Old Russia- collide to define the sound of New York, as instantly as a Strauss waltz conjures up old Vienna.

One could argue that Gershwins appropriation of these forms is quite superficial and does not truly reflect the culture of the immigrants he observed. However, in a way this is entirely what he set out to achieve. Gershwin deliberately paints the picture of New York with a broad brush in order to present a simple but affecting statement of racial complicity and optimism rather than a detailed and gritty evocation of a time when immigrant life was highly dangerous.

In Gershwins choice of both Tin Pan Alley and romantic classical styles, Rhapsody in Blue gives a sly nod to the prevalence of Jewish songwriters in the 1920s such as Hammerstein, Kern and Berlin who were shaping American popular song at this time, as well as the great American Jewish classical pianist, Rubenstein. It can be argued that Gershwins choice of a piano style during the ritornello theme that was principally used by American comedians is a reference to the styles most famous user, Chico Marx. In this way Rhapsody in Blue can be seen as reflecting the manner in which immigrant culture was influencing American comedy. His use of stride piano acknowledges the Harlem pianists and he evokes a Hispanic presence in the pieces final agitato movement.14

III. Rhapsodys relationship with economic prosperity and leisure

By 1924 America was undergoing a period of previously unknown economic optimism and prosperity. If it is nothing else I believe that Rhapsody in Blue is a

14

Schiff, D., 1997, Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p.34

reflection of the spirit prevalent in America created by this set of affairs. It reflects a series of key themes that were the products of Americas outlook and economic standing by the early 1920s. To return to the original quotation, when Gershwin described, our incomparable pepour metropolitan madness15, he was referring to the manner in which he felt every urban American at that time thought nothing could go wrong. Rhapsodys entire sound reflects that of New York City reaching the height of its financial and cultural powers. The piece is busy to the point of a joyous frenzy with contrary movement as if to state how one mind cannot contain all the facets of such a hectic place. Rhapsody also shares the roughness of its inspiration, as remarked by Gershwin: its vulgar. Its full of vulgarisms. Thats what gives it weight.16

Rhapsody in Blue reflects how Americas large cities became ever more the centre of the countrys economy as more people moved into urban areas and the stock market took off. It also shows how there was a greater move in popular consciousness towards the actual notion of America. Only a few years previously Gershwin had entered an unsuccessful piece for a competition to find the American anthem. In 1924, greater levels of communication and corporate syndication meant that the country was being joined up from coast to coast. As a piece that reflects the whole of America, Rhapsody has become a sort of national anthem in its own right. The strength of its unified sentiment led writer William Saroyan to imagine it as some sort of American dream: The Rhapsody in Blue is an American in New York City; at the same time it is an American in any city in the United States. It is also an American in a small town, on a farm, at work in a factory, in a mine or mill, a forest or a field, working on the railroad or on the building of a highway.17
15 16

Greenberg R., 1998, George Gershwin, London, Phaidon Press Limited, p.66 Pollack, H, 2006, George Gershwin his life and works, University of California Press, p.309 17 Pollack, H, 2006, George Gershwin his life and works, University of California Press, p.306

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Rhapsody in Blue is also a strong reflection of the manner in which youth came to the forefront of large cities in the 1920s. The aftermath of the First World War had wiped out a generation of Europes young men. In America, while loss of troops had been relatively light, the sentiment that youth was something to be valued far above what it had been previously became lodged in popular consciousness. Rhapsodys musical content is strongly influenced by the styles popular with the youth of the day. These were largely the highly syncopated African American stylings of stride, the foxtrot and the moves of the Harlem cabaret, all of which can readily be identified in the third theme of Rhapsody (the stride theme). The music references areas of ethnic culture that were being commonly visited by middle class white youth in the early 1920s (of which Gershwin was one). In this the piece is an indication of how for the first time this group of people had the financial security and spare time to indulge in following leisure pursuits that were markedly different to the restrained tastes of their parents. From this came the first evidence of explicit youth counter culture and one at that very strongly orientated towards dance.

This reflection of the pursuits of well off youth in Rhapsody is part of its greater reflection of the golden age of American leisure. Perrett notes that in this time spending on amusement and recreation rose by 300%.18 This was the result of prices stabilising in the post-war economy. Increased disposable income led to a vast number of people attending concerts, theatre and the cinema. Rhapsody in Blue strongly reflects this trend in more way than one. Most obviously the reason it was commissioned (to look at jazz within a wider culture) was a reflection of an age in which the public could give themselves to serious cultural contemplation in a manner

18

Perrett, G, 1982, America in the Twenties, Simon and Schuster, p.224

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that would have been highly unlikely a decade before. With economic stability came willingness from the urban public to expand its cultural horizons.

Musically, Rhapsody strongly reflects the two major popular exports of New York, then the popular culture powerhouse of America, which were the Tin Pan Alley song and the Broadway musical. Gershwin was intimately familiar with both of these areas at the time of composing Rhapsody as he had plied his trade in the making of both. A good explanation as to why Rhapsody is such a strong reflection of the culture of its age is because Gershwin had been involved with many important cultural areas for years before. The Tin Pan Alley style is reflected in numerous pianistic devices in Rhapsody, the most obvious part of which would be the pronounced staccato and highly dynamic playing of the solo piano sections, which was used by Gershwin to create the impression of a whole orchestra playing when he tried to sell his songs to publishers. One can also argue that Rhapsodys harmonic content shows a debt to the music of Tin Pan Alley more so than conventional classical sources, Schiff notes,

Critics, bewildered by the many key changes of the work, have blamed the rambling modulations of Gershwins lowly experience as a song plugger, where transposition was a necessary trick of the trade.19

Reflection of the Broadway musical is evidenced in the romantic, string laden E major Love section of Rhapsodys slow movement, evocative of Gershwins earlier Broadway works such as 1922s Scandals. Furthermore it is of interest that, as it reflected the comedy prevalent in America, so too did Rhapsody in Blue provide a reflection of the growth of American art in its title. This was inspired by the paintings of James McNeill Whistler, on show in New York in 1923, possessed titles such as
19

Schiff, D., 1997, Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p.28

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Nocturne in Black and Gold. It was an inspired idea to title Rhapsody in Blue as though it were written in the key of blue and one that is slightly reflective of how musical growth was accompanied by an increasing and complimentary development of American visual art.

Conclusion
There is much of 1920s America that is reflected in Rhapsody in Blue, however, it is important to realise that this is a piece of art and not sociology. This means that Rhapsody in Blues reflection of America has been shaped by the subjective bias of Gershwins personal experience and thus cannot be considered in the same way as a well-conducted piece of research. It has been noted by Gershwin himself that, as much as Rhapsody in Blue is a piece that reflects its age, it could mean almost anything to anybody.20 Thus one must be careful not to read too much into the piece.

I do not believe that it was the aim of Gershwin to tell a definitive tale of America through his music, but to show America as he saw it. To paraphrase Greil Marcus, Rhapsody in Blue is not about America in the 1920s as it is about the way each American carries a version of that period within himself.21 This means that Rhapsody is at its heart based upon how Gershwin subjectively viewed this period.

I think that evidence of this is shown in the fact that Gershwin consistently returned to the themes and sounds that he found in his hometown and inspiration, New York City. He did not attempt to portray Rhapsody from the point of view of everyone in the country, but from the place that he felt most strongly about. It was the case that at this

20

Gershwin, G, 1930, Letter to Rosamand Walling, GCLC; Gershwin Plays His Rhapsody, New York Sun, 1930 21 Marcus, G, 1975, Mystery Train, Omnibus Press, p.55

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time New York could be seen as at the forefront of many new developments in American society, which made it a good choice of subject for a reflection on American life. However while the themes of New York, as captured in Rhapsody, have come in retrospect to define the era, they were not necessarily present in the rest of America at the time.

Rhapsody in Blue reflected the broad changes sweeping America and yet in many places in the south and mid-west these changes never truly came, as these areas continued to be dominated by old-time religion and pioneer society values well into the 1960s. Clearly here Rhapsodys broad themes did not apply. Additionally Gershwins background actively hindered him accurately reflecting areas of American life that he sought to. I have shown this in how he attempted to reflect black culture through his appropriation of jazz and failed to do so because he lacked proper experiential knowledge of the subject.

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Bibliography
Books Daniels, R., 1991, Coming to America, New York, Harper Collins Greenberg R., 1998, George Gershwin, London, Phaidon Press Limited Marcus, G, 1975, Mystery Train, Omnibus Press Perrett, G, 1982, America in the Twenties, Simon and Schuster Pollack, H, 2006, George Gershwin his life and works, University of California Press Schiff, D., 1997, Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press Southern, E., 1983, Readings in Black American Music, New York

Articles Gershwin, G, 1930, Letter to Rosamand Walling, GCLC; Gershwin Plays His Rhapsody, New York Sun, 1930

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