50 Fun Facts About Rhapsody in Blue

Who composed Rhapsody in Blue?

He also played the piano at the premiere, partly improvising his own solo.

In what year did Rhapsody in Blue premiere?

The concert was held on Lincoln's Birthday, February 12, on a snowy Tuesday afternoon.

Which bandleader commissioned Rhapsody in Blue?

He later made it his band's theme song, opening his radio shows with the slogan 'Everything new but the Rhapsody in Blue'.

Which instrument plays the famous opening glissando of Rhapsody in Blue?

One critic called the opening as instantly recognisable as the start of Beethoven's Fifth.

How did the opening glissando come about?

Ross Gorman's jazzy gag on the written 17-note scale delighted Gershwin, who asked him to keep it in.

At which New York venue was Rhapsody in Blue premiered?

The ventilation system broke down and some of the audience left before Gershwin walked on.

What was the title of the concert at which Rhapsody in Blue was first performed?

The program listed 26 separate movements in sections with titles like 'True Form of Jazz'.

How did Gershwin first learn that he was expected to write a concerto for Whiteman's concert?

The New-York Tribune piece of January 4 caught Ira's eye at the Ambassador Billiard Parlor on Broadway.

How much time did Gershwin have to compose the piece once he agreed?

He began on January 7, according to the date on the original two-piano manuscript.

On a train journey to which city did Gershwin say the thematic seeds of the piece began to germinate?

He credited the steely rhythms and 'rattle-ty bang' of the train for the plot of the piece.

What working title did Gershwin use for the piece while composing it?

Ira came up with the final title a few weeks later.

Ira Gershwin suggested the final title after visiting an exhibition of paintings by which artist?

Whistler's titles, such as Nocturne in Black and Gold and Arrangement in Grey and Black, gave him the idea.

Who orchestrated Rhapsody in Blue for the premiere and again in 1926 and 1942?

Whiteman's arranger finished the score on February 4, eight days before the premiere.

How many musicians were in Whiteman's band for the original scoring?

Ross Gorman alone covered oboe, heckelphone and a rack of reeds.

How did the orchestra know when the partly improvised piano solo was ending at the premiere?

He did not write the solo piano part down until after the concert, so nobody knows exactly what was played.

Which of these composers is recorded as being in the audience at the premiere?

Walter Damrosch, Carl Van Vechten and stride pianist Willie 'the Lion' Smith were there too.

Which critic called the piece 'derivative', 'stale' and 'inexpressive' in the New-York Tribune?

He was a Wagner devotee who later savaged Porgy and Bess; Olin Downes in the Times was far kinder.

Which critic conceded that the piece had 'made an honest woman out of jazz'?

Henrietta Strauss said Gershwin had added a new chapter to American musical history.

By the end of 1927, how many copies had Whiteman's recording of Rhapsody in Blue sold?

The band had performed the piece around 84 times by then.

Why does Gershwin's first recording with Whiteman's orchestra sound hurried?

The acoustic recording of June 10 that year runs 8 minutes 59 seconds with much of the rubato lost.

Which conductor and orchestra made the first unabridged recording of Rhapsody in Blue in 1935?

Puerto Rican pianist Jesus Maria Sanroma was the soloist and it ran nearly 14 minutes.

Which pianist and friend of Gershwin recorded the piece with Eugene Ormandy in 1945, sparking a revival?

He tried to replicate Gershwin's own idiomatic playing; the album was one of the year's best sellers.

Which conductor first recorded the original jazz-band version in 1976, using Gershwin's piano roll?

Until then the 1942 symphonic arrangement had been the concert-hall standard.

Which airline has used Rhapsody in Blue in its advertising and safety videos since 1987?

It also plays in the Terminal 1 underground walkway at Chicago O'Hare.

Which 1979 Woody Allen film opens with a montage of New York scenes set to Rhapsody in Blue?

The rendition was conducted by Zubin Mehta.

How many pianists played Rhapsody in Blue at once at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics opening?

The number matched the year, on a stadium floor full of grand pianos.

Which Disney film set Rhapsody in Blue to a New York segment drawn in Al Hirschfeld's style?

The 1999 film revisited the concept of the 1940 original with new pieces.

On what date did Rhapsody in Blue enter the public domain in the United States?

Individual recordings may still be under copyright; the earliest recordings followed in 2025.

Which Brazilian jazz-rock artist's 1973 reinterpretation hit No. 41 despite critics calling it 'mangled'?

Richard Clayderman recorded a similarly abridged disco arrangement in 1978.

Which two pianists performed Rhapsody in Blue together at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008?

Lang Lang has said the piece makes him see the Empire State Building.

Where did the first British performance of Rhapsody in Blue take place, in June 1925?

Debroy Somers conducted the Savoy Orpheans with Gershwin himself at the piano.

Which pianist's 2006 recording of Rhapsody in Blue won a Latin Grammy Award?

Grofe also arranged the piece for Whiteman's 1930 film King of Jazz.

Which 1955 Atlantic Monthly essayist adored the piece but called it 'not a real composition'?

His complaint was that nothing in it seems inevitable, the classic charge that it is a string of tunes.

Which Ben Folds Five song samples Rhapsody in Blue?

K-pop group Red Velvet's 'Birthday' samples it too.

Which earlier Gershwin 'jazz opera' impressed Whiteman and led him to commission Rhapsody in Blue?

They had worked together on The Scandals of 1922.

In which New York borough was Gershwin born in 1898?

He was born Jacob Gershwine in a Snediker Avenue apartment in East New York.

How old was Gershwin when he died of a brain tumour in 1937?

John O'Hara wrote that he did not have to believe it if he did not want to.

Which Gershwin song, with words by Irving Caesar, became his first big hit in 1919 after Al Jolson took it up?

Jolson heard Gershwin play it at a party and put it into one of his shows.

Which Paris-based teacher refused Gershwin as a pupil, fearing classical study would ruin his jazz style?

Ravel turned him down for the same reason, reportedly asking why he would want to be a second-rate Ravel.

Which Gershwin show of 1931 was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama?

As composer he was left out of the award; a special Pulitzer came posthumously in 1998.

Who played the composer in the 1945 film biography titled Rhapsody in Blue?

His son Alan Alda later became far more famous.

At what age did Gershwin leave school to work as a 'song plugger' on Tin Pan Alley?

He worked for Jerome H. Remick and Company, a Detroit publisher with a New York branch.

Whiteman's 1924 concert was held in honour of which occasion?

It followed an experimental classical-jazz concert with Canadian singer Éva Gauthier the previous November.

Which Whiteman clarinetist created the famous opening glissando during rehearsals?

The written opening is a trill followed by a 17-note scale; Gershwin heard the trombone-like slide and insisted it stay.

Per biographer Isaac Goldberg, in how many days did Ferde Grofé score the Rhapsody for the premiere?

Gershwin lacked orchestration skills in 1924, so Grofé's arrangement for 23 musicians was crucial to the triumph.

Which New York Times critic hailed the premiere as a 'new talent finding its voice'?

Henrietta Strauss of The Nation agreed that Gershwin had added a new chapter to American musical history.

How long was Gershwin and Whiteman's abridged acoustic recording of June 10, 1924?

Issued by the Victor Talking Machine Company, it ran 8 minutes 59 seconds; an electrical remake in 1927 added two seconds.

Grofé arranged the piece for which 1930 film starring Paul Whiteman?

His 1942 full-symphony version later became the standard concert orchestration.

In which state was Grofé's original 1924 arrangement first revived, on a campus in February 1973?

Conductor Kenneth Kiesler and pianist Paul Verrette revived it; Michael Tilson Thomas recorded it in 1976.

Musicologist David Schiff identified how many major themes in Rhapsody in Blue, plus a sixth 'tag'?

Two of them appear within the first 14 measures, and the tag arrives at measure 19.