All in his head

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 9th, 2024.

This is WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you’ve joined us today. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Rediscovering a classic piece of music.

Next month marks the 100th anniversary of what is considered one of America’s most iconic pieces of music.

EICHER: Here with the story is WORLD reporter Bonnie Pritchett.

BONNIE PRITCHETT: It’s the evening of February 12th, 1924. The Aeolian Hall, New York City. On the program? An Experiment in Modern Music produced and promoted by popular jazz band conductor Paul Whiteman and his band that shares his name.

Whiteman wants to showcase the history of Jazz. His band will perform existing works plus two pieces commissioned for the program.

Curious musical notables pack the hall. Into the program’s fourth hour they become restless. Then the composer of one of the commissioned pieces takes the stage and sits at the piano.

Pianist Kevin Cole describes what happened next.

KEVIN COLE: When he came out, and people were starting to fidget, and some were starting to leave, and that clarinet let go of that glissando, that whoop, at the beginning. It was, you know, like, Zeus threw a lightning bolt into the hall, because all of a sudden, what is this?

MUSIC: [1924 RHAPSODY IN BLUE]

COLE: So, they had to stay. And George, you know, gave the performance of his life…

George is George Gershwin. The performance: “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Until that evening, the 25-year-old Gershwin was known as little more than a musical theater songwriter, a Tin Pan Alley hack to his detractors.

He lacked formal training.

He never studied in Europe.

But, one hundred years ago, the Brooklyn-born son of Jewish Russian immigrants gave American music its voice.

Gershwin scored “Rhapsody in Blue” in a matter of weeks because—depending on who you ask—he had forgotten about the commission. So, he hastily scored a piano line and gave it to the band’s orchestrater Ferde Grofé who assigned instrumentalists their parts.

David Miller is music director and conductor for the Albany, New York Symphony. He describes what conductor Paul Whiteman saw on the solo piano line.

DAVID MILLER: So, there's this one very big blank page. And at the bottom, it says, “Wait for nod,” because George was at the end of that page would be like done with his solo thing. And then he nodded, and Whiteman came back in. It's an amazing moment in music history to think that this guy is premiering this piece and nobody knows on a whole big page of solo piano, what's going to come out except for him? He's got it in his head.

“Rhapsody in Blue” was first recorded in 1924, and then three years later Gershwin and the Paul Whiteman Band recorded it again. What you just heard was from the earliest recording.

The band’s orchestrator Ferde Grofé collaborated with Gershwin to orchestrate symphonic and theatrical versions from the original jazz band score.

Those manuscripts and recordings are vital evidence to musicologists today. Because, shortly after his death from a brain tumor at age 38, critics began “improving” Gershwin’s rhapsody.

MUSIC: [“RHAPSODY IN BLUE”—Royal Philharmonic]

MILLER: Gershwin orchestrated the pieces. And he orchestrated them beautifully. And then Mr. Campbell Watson came and changed them up and made them not as authentic, sort of more orchestral. He added instruments to make them sound thicker or whatever. He thought he was improving them.

MUSIC: [“RHAPSODY IN BLUE”—BERSTEIN]

The so-called improvements exasperate Kevin Cole who is considered one of the premier Gershwin interpreters.

COLE: Lenny Bernstein said, “Well, it's just a bunch of tunes strung together. It's not really a piece, you know.” And I thought, well, what tunes? You should be so lucky…

Unfortunately, those editions represent most published scores. So, for the past 80 years audiences have rarely heard “Rhapsody in Blue” as Gershwin intended.

For 20 years Cole and Miller have collaborated on stage and off to restore Gershwin’s mark on his signature work. Also contributing to that effort is The University of Michigan’s Gershwin Institute.

Andrew Kohler serves as the Institute’s managing editor of the George and Ira Gershwin critical edition. 

ANDREW KOHLER: We are going through the works of George and Ira Gershwin—both what they wrote together and what they wrote independently or wrote with other collaborators, and we are preparing scholarly editions that reflect the original texts. Because particularly in the case of George, there have been a lot of tampering over the years…

And, just in time for Rhapsody in Blue’s centennial celebration, the institute completed restoration of the jazz band and symphonic orchestrations.

Last year Cole, Miller, and the National Orchestral Institute Orchestra recorded this symphonic version. NAXOS Records provided this audio from the album due out in February.

Despite tampering, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” endures. But why?

For pianist Kevin Cole, it’s the unforgettable melodies.

Andrew Kohler says it’s Gershwin’s successful blending of piano concerto and jazz orchestra, starting with that solo clarinet, that created a surprising new sound.

Miller says “Rhapsody in Blue” continues to inspire American composers. Its strains still echoing from the stage of the Aeolian Hall.

MILLER: This piece is so iconic, not only related to Gershwin, but related to the course of the 20th century and of American music after Gershwin. And the combination of Gershwin's extraordinary pianism, with his melodic gifts, with this unbelievably fresh amalgam of the grand tradition and of the new world of Tin Pan Alley and jazz and Broadway and New York. It's just a moment in history that's really worth celebrating.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Bonnie Pritchett.

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