A Music Masters lesson
McFerran’s Monkeys
June 6, 2014
New York City, early1900s
Who is George Gershwin?
• Russian immigrant family
• Childhood
• 1st job as a song plugger for a song
publisher;
• Gifted pianist & composer
• Collaborated with brother Ira
Born Jacob Gershwine1898
New York City
Died 1937
Los Angeles, CA
“Rhapsody in Blue”
• Debuted in 1924
• Like a concerto?
• First Jazz work performed in
traditional concert hall
• Instance success!
What makes an orchestra?
What makes an orchestra?
Orchestration of Rhapsody in Blue
 A full symphony orchestra is scored for solo piano
 Woodwinds: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 B-flat clarinets, 2 bass
clarinets, 2 basoons, 2 alto saxophones (E-flat) and 2
tenor saxiophones (B-flat)
 Brass: 3 French horns in F, 3 trumpets in B-flat,
3 trombones, tuba;
 Percussion: timpani, crash cymbal, snare drum, bass
drum, gong, triangle, Glockenspiel, and cymbals;
 Strings: bango, violins, violas, cellos, double basses
Opening solo passage
• glissando
• What is the instrument?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynEOo28lsbc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_in_Blue
Gershwin, on the composition:
“It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattlety bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer –
I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise....
And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper –
the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from
beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I
worked on the thematic material already in my mind
and tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I
heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of
America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated
national pep, of our metropolitan madness. By the
time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece,
as distinguished from its actual substance.”
-1931, to his biographer
Listening for themes
 5 major themes plus a sixth “tag”
 Train theme?
 Virsuosic piano passages
 Improvision
 All of the themes rely on the blues scale
 How would you describe the music?
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLTManObB40