>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C.
>> Susan Vita: Good evening and
welcome to the Library of Congress.
I'm Susan Vita, the Chief of the
Music Division, and we are delighted
to gather tonight for another
presentation in a series of lecture
that we co-sponsor with the
American Musicological Society.
The Music Divisions
collections include more
than 20 million items related
to music, theater and dance.
Collections that draw researchers
from all over the world in search
of rare and unique material.
This lecture series affords
society members the opportunity
to share research that
stems directly
from their own work
in our collections.
And since beginning the series
in 2008, we've been treated
to a fascinating -- to fascinating
papers on a wide array of topics
and composers from Beethoven
to Ruth Crawford Seeger
to Irving Berlin to Louis Armstrong.
Tonight we will here from
Dr. Banagale and learn more
about the ever popular Rhapsody in
Blue composed by George Gershwin
and arranged by Ferde Grofe.
The Music Division is fortunate to
hold the papers of both Gershwin
and Grofe together documenting
the creative process behind an
iconic work.
Again, I welcome those of you here
tonight to the Madison Building
as well as those of you who will
watch the lecture via the Library
of Congress Youtube channel.
The performing arts
reading room is home
to the Music Division located
just downstairs from us
on the first floor of
the Madison Building.
It is our great hope that these
lectures will inspire others
in the musicological community,
especially young scholars
beginning their studies and careers
to visit the Library of Congress
and explore the great riches
of our collections first hand.
Those of you who might be interested
in giving future lectures can either
see staff at the outside of the room
and out there or can
contact us directly,
and we can let you
know how you do that.
For your information, the
book being discussed tonight,
Arranging Gershwin, is on sale here
just outside the Montpelier Room
and a book signing will
follow the lecture.
And now before we hear
from Dr. Banagale,
I would like to introduce Dr.
Ellen T. Harris, Professor Emeritus
from Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and President
of the American Musicological
Society
who will offer greetings
from the Society.
Ellen.
[ Applause ]
>> Ellen T. Harris: Thank you, Sue.
For many members of the
American Musicological Society,
the Music Division of the Library of
Congress is a home away from home.
It is a privilege and
a pleasure for scholars
to work in these collections.
Music historians are
indebted to the Library
and the Music Division not only
for making their rare materials
available for study but also
as co-sponsors with the
AMS of this lecture series,
which provides the opportunity
for us to share the riches
of these collections
with a wider public.
Tonight's lecture, the
first to be scheduled
in the lovely Montpelier Room -- and
I do hope if you've not been here
that you look out the
window before you go
where they haven't
drawn the curtains
yet of the Madison Building.
This is the 16th in the
ongoing sequence of lectures.
Our speaker tonight is Ryan
Banagale, an Assistant Professor
of Music at Colorado College
where he offers classes
on American music topics
including musical theater, jazz,
popular music and media studies.
He received his Ph.D. at
Harvard University in 2011
with a dissertation
on the arrangements
of George Gershwin's
Rhabsody in Blue.
This research was supported
by the American Musicological
Society's AMS 50
and Howard Mayer Brown fellowships.
In the fall of 2014,
Oxford University Press
published his first book titled,
Arranging Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue
and the Creation of an American Icon
with support from AMS 75 PAYS
Publication [inaudible] award.
His scholarly articles appear in
such journals as Jazz Perspectives,
and the Journal of the
Society for American Music.
He currently sits on
the editorial board
of the George Gershwin
Critical Edition
and is almost finished
editing the first
of four separate arrangements
of Rhapsody in Blue.
In his spare time -- I just love
that -- that was his phrase.
In his spare time, he is co-host
of the monthly radio program,
Critical Karaoke, a show about music
and the ideas it inspires as well
as a regular contributor to Critical
Karaoke's daily two minute modules,
a day in the life.
Both programs can be accessed
at criticalkaraoke.com
or as a podcast from iTunes.
Tonight, Professor
Banagale will talk to us
about the compositional
history of Gerswhin's Rhapsody
in Blue using documents from the
Music Division of the Library
of Congress to discuss the
musical genesis of the composition
and it's continuing adaptations
and arrangements while
illuminating the significant role
of musicians beyond Gershwin
in the lifespan of this work.
His paper is entitled The Ongoing
Composition of Rhapsody in Blue.
Please help me welcome
Ryan Banagale.
[ Applause ]
>> Ryan Raul Banagale:
Thank you very much.
It is really wonderful to
be back here in Washington,
D.C. as President Harris mentioned.
The Library of Congress really is
a home away from home for a lot
of us musicologists, especially the
ones that work in the holdings here.
This is actually part of what's
almost become an annual pilgrimage
to Library of Congress.
So thank you all so much for joining
me here this evening for the talk.
Before I begin my remarks, I'd like
to offer a few acknowledgements.
First, thank you President
Ellen Harris
and the American Musicological
Society
for not only making
this lecture possible
but for supporting this
research in numerous forms,
much of which you heard about
during her introduction.
None of this research
would have happened
without the incredible staff of
the Music Division in the Library
of Congress over the course of many,
many years and it's nice to see
so many faces out here that I've
worked with in the collecions.
Susan Vita became chief of the
vision just as it's research began.
And I'm particularly indebted
to the efforts and observations
and insights of Mark
Horowitz and Raymond White.
Thank you also to Kate
Miller and Nick Brown
for their assistance organizing
and producing tonight's event.
I'd also like to publicly
thank Colorado College,
my home institution, for
making additional research
in the Music Division possible.
I'd like to thank the Bernstein
office for granting me permission
to share some of the images and
music that you'll see tonight.
And also Alfred Publishing and
the state of George Gershwin
for additionally granting permission
for me to share these images
with you and for supporting
my scholarship as a whole.
Those of us that work with music
under copyright are particularly
aware of the potential pitfalls
of working with the states.
And I've been fortunate to have the
support of the George Gershwin heirs
who at no time challenged
my general thesis
or approach to Rhapsody in Blue.
And actually, I have to admit to
you, it isn't really my thesis
but rather one that I've
borrowed from Leonard Bernstein.
A little over 60 years ago in
1955, Bernstein published an essay
in the Atlantic titled,
A Nice Gershwin Tune."
Within this essay, he declares
that Rhapsody in Blue is
"not a composition at all."
Now, I'll explain in greater
detail what I think he meant
by that later in my talk.
But for the moment, I want
to also declare that Rhapsody
in Blue is not a composition.
It is an arrangement, and
as I hope to convince you,
it has been an arrangement
from it's origins
and it remains an arrangement
in the present day.
The version of Rhapsody in Blue
that you were listening to prior
to the start of my talk which
featured Leonard Bernstein
as pianist -- he was also
conducting the New York Philharmonic
from the piano -- this
is also an arrangement.
Well, technically it's an
arrangement of an arrangement.
But I'll explain that to you
a little bit later in my talk.
The point I want to make
clear here at the outside is
that I consider arrangement
to be a form of composition.
As such, the compositional history
of Rhapsody in Blue emerges only
over the course of time and
through the contributions
of a multitude of musicians.
Specifically, arrangers.
And it's through this
process of arrangement
that the Rhapsody has secured it's
iconic standing in American culture.
Without arrangers including first
and foremost a man named Ferde
Grofe, without arrangers,
whose to say that we would have ever
even heard about Rhapsody in Blue?
Now, if that question is a bit
dubious to you, don't worry.
You're in good company.
George Gershwin himself would
have been doubtful as well.
So in the board room of the American
Society of Authors, Composers
and Publishers which is more
commonly referred to as ASCAP,
hang framed letters from
it's notable members.
One of these letters from George
Gershwin to J. C. Rosenthall,
the general manager of ASCAP
is where my story begins.
In August of 1928, George
Gershwin wrote, "Mr. Jerome Kern
at lunch the other day
brought to my attention
that Ferde Grofe had listed among
his compositions The Rhapsody
in Blue.
Mr. Kern said he objected to this at
the last meeting and he advised me
to write to you about it.
Mr. Grofe made a very
fine orchestration
from my completed sketch
but certainly had no
hand in the composing."
And just above the
salutation, he adds,
"Hoping you will straighten
this out."
Now, over the course of the
last 80 years, various critics
and scholars have attempted
to straighten out the extent
of Grofe's contributions
to the piece.
We know that Gershwin did not
orchestrate Rhapsody in Blue due
to time constraints,
inexperience, convention
or some combination thereof.
Rather, the task felled to Ferde
Grofe who was the primary arranger
for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.
And the Paul Whiteman Orchestra,
of course, is the ensemble
that premiered Rhapsody in
Blue on February 12, 1924.
Whiteman's ensemble was neither a
typical symphonic orchestra nor a
standard jazz band.
Each of the three reed
players, for example,
doubled on a multitude
of instruments.
Ross Gorman who performed the
infamous opening clarinet glissando
and swoop also played
obo, base clarinet,
alto saxophone and
sopranino saxophone.
The other two reed players
rotated between baritone, tenor,
alto and soprano saxiphones.
Additionally, Whiteman's ensemble
featured two trumpets and trombones,
a tuba player that also
played the string bass.
There was a pianist,
a celeste player,
a banjo player and a percussionist.
For the premiere of
Rhapsody in Blue,
the ensemble also added four
additional violins as well
as two French horns and the
photo that you're seeing here
on the screen was taken
just prior to the premere
of Rhapsody in Blue in 1924.
Now given the complexity
of the Whiteman Orchestra,
it should not be surprising
that Gershwin did not
orchestrate the original version
of Rhapsody in Blue.
So when the American public
first experienced the Rhapsody,
it was through Ferde
Grofe's arrangement.
Although the role of Grofe in
the initial creative process
of the Rhapsody has
never been denied,
the extent of his contributions
to the origins and ongoing life
of the piece have been sidelined
due to his status as an arranger.
Grofe began arranging Gershwin's
so-called completed sketch
from a performance by the Whiteman
Orchestra before Gershwin had even
finished composing it.
As often repeated in historical
literature on the piece,
Grofe apparently traveled
daily to Gershwin's apartment
on West 110th Street in
New York City to pick
up newly composed pages
of the Rhapsody.
The original jazz band version
of Rhapsody in Blue came together
in this way page by page leading
up to it's much celebrated debut
at Paul Whiteman's
experiment in modern music.
The completed sketch to which
Gershwin refers in his letter
to ASCAP survives as a 56 page
two piano short score manuscript
in pencil.
And that's seen here on the screen.
As with all the manuscripts
incorporated into my talk tonight,
it is housed within the Music
Division's holdings here
at the Library of Congress.
This completed sketch contains 26
specific instrumental assignments
in a variety of hand and writing
implements that have resulted
in divided assessments on
Grofe's overall contributions
to the Rhapsody.
Some scholars such as Howard
Pollack concluded that Grofe
"scrupulously honored
Gershwin's intentions."
Others such as Jerome Schwartz
and Don Reno assigned
greater agency to Grofe.
However, scholars on both
sides of the divide arrived
at their conclusions under the
assumption that Grofe indeed worked
from this pencil document.
And I believe that he did not.
Rather, it appears that Grofe
worked from a fair copy manuscript,
a crucial third source document
that's previously unconsidered
in literature on Rhapsody in Blue.
Seen here, the manuscript is
compiled in ink by various copyists
as Gershwin completed portions
of this two piano pencil score.
As I will discuss, manuscript
evidence suggests that Grofe worked
from this fair copy ink manuscript
when he began his arrangement
of Rhapsody in Blue not
from the pencil manuscript
as previously believed.
This fair copy ink manuscript
bears only 13 specific instrumental
assignments and more than
half of these Grofe ignored.
And that is significant for a work
that contains more than 22,000 notes
over the course of 500 measures.
Accordingly, with respect to
the original sound of the piece,
it was seen that Grofe played
a significantly larger role
in the genesis of the Rhapsody
than previously acknowledged.
So there may indeed be merit
to arrange Ferde Grofe's
compositional claims.
As a means of exploring this
claim, I want to introduce
to you this evening this new fair
copy document and it's situated
between the two known Rhapsody
in Blue source manuscripts.
Gershwin's aforementioned two piano
pencil score and Grofe's arrangement
for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.
And from this point
forward, I'm going to refer
to these documents using
the nicknames given
in figure one of your handout.
That is, pencil for the
original pencil manuscripts
in George Gershwin's hand, ink
for this fair copy manuscript
and then Grofe Whiteman
for the orchestral score
that Grofe prepared.
The previously unconsidered
ink fair copy manuscript serves
as an intermediary document.
It provides a snapshot of the
Rhapsody in the midst of creation.
So considering these three documents
side by side sheds new light
on the complex and creative process
that ultimately brought Rhapsody
in Blue to the concert hall.
And before we delve into this any
further, I'd also like to mention
that I'm going to be referring
to different melodic themes found
within Rhapsody in Blue by the
names that are listed in figure two
of your handout and provided a
little [inaudible] different melodic
lines there.
As a refresher, should we
sing through those real quick?
Dare we? Let me get my copy.
So, the first them, the [inaudible]
theme, this is the opening theme.
[ Singing ]
Okay. The next theme
is the strive them.
It goes --
[ Singing ]
The train theme is --
[ Singing ]
That kind of sounds like a train.
The shuffle theme.
[ Singing ]
That was one of Bernstein's
favorites.
We'll get back to that.
Then there's the famous
andantino love theme.
[ Singing ]
And then of course the tag
which also sounds a little bit
like good evening friends.
[ Singing ]
So those are the main themes.
So we'll come back to those.
But you want to keep that
handy because I'll just refer
to these by their name here.
And these names are given by
David Schiff who wrote a handbook
on Rhapsody in Blue
in the late 1990's.
So over the course of
the past 20 to 30 years,
the ink fair copy manuscript
has been the most accessible
of the manuscripts located within
the Music Division archives.
Here we see a picture of the
manuscript in a publicity photo
of Ferde Grofe taken in 1967.
The document remained in Grofe's
possession until his death in 1972
and eventually arrived at the
Library of Congress in two stages.
And it can now be found in
the Ferde Grofe collection.
Most of the pages in ink
score have been separated.
However, they can be reconstructed
into distinct groupings as seen
on figure three of your
handout and for those of you not
in the musicological world,
groupings basically is a set
of nested pages of manuscript paper.
So we can take two or three
pages and put them together
and see how they line up.
We can see the groupings are the
size of the passages of music
that Gershwin was handing
off to Grofe
when he was passing music along.
From a compositional
standpoint, passing along a copy
of the score rather then an original
pencil manuscript makes a great deal
of sense.
It seems questionable
that Gershwin would want
to continue composing the
Rhapsody without being able
to reference what he
had already written.
But for some reason no one seems
to ever question this aspect
of the Rhapsody's creation
story until now.
One story that has been told about
the creation of the Rhapsody time
and time again is that
George Gershwin had forgotten
about his commission from
the Paul Whiteman Orchestra
until his older brother Ira
Gershwin pointed out a news item
about the supposed jazz concerto
that Gershwin was writing
in a New York Herald Tribune
article on January 4, 1924.
Now this article on January 4
apparently spurned George Gershwin
into action.
Based on this, most scholas
agree that the date at the top
of the pencil manuscript, January
7, 1924 indicates the start
of Gershwin's work on the Rhapsody
as opposed to his completion.
Since Grofe's full manuscript
for the Whiteman Orchestra bears
a February 4 date of completion,
received wisdom is that it took
slightly less than four weeks
to compose Rhapsody in Blue
once pen was put to paper.
The ink manuscript, however,
suggests an even more
compressed compositional timeline.
The first grouping of ink manuscript
seen here on the screen corresponds
to measures one through 29 or
the introduction of the Rhapsody
until just before the start
of the first piano cadenza.
Although many that are here tonight
are familiar with the Rhapsody,
here's what this first
grouping sounds
like in it's original
1924 arrangement.
It's a very different
sound world than that
of the more ubiquitous
symphonic arrangement.
[ Music ]
So that's the first grouping.
Now, if we look at
Gershwin's pencil score,
we see that this opening
passage is the most fully flushed
out of the entire manuscript.
There are instrumental assignments
for the melody, articulation
and accent markings throughout
and dynamic specified
for individual lines.
Gershwin dutifully wrote out staves
for the presence of both the piano
and the jazz band even though he
ultimately only employed the piano
in the -- I'm sorry, only
employed the jazz band
in the first three systems.
Such care suggests
greater attention paid
and perhaps greater time allotted
to these opening passages.
Accordingly, the ink score for these
first 29 measures appears almost
identical to the pencil score
from which it was copied.
Now if Gershwin did indeed begin to
notate Rhapsody in Blue on Monday,
January 7 as the pencil score
indicates, his progress appears
to have been interrupted just
a few days later by other work,
namely Sweet Little Devil,
a new musical for which
he had composed the score.
Now, Sweet Little Devil had
previously been named A Perfect Lady
and had completed it's out of
town tryout run in Boston later
that same week either on
the 10th or 11th of January.
Somewhere between that
show's Broadway run and --
I'm sorry, somewhere
between the show's Boston run
and ti's Broadway premiere some ten
days later the opening sequences
for the second and third acts were
rewritten, and Gershwin contributed
at least two new songs
to this effort
and possibly provided
additional dance material
for the dance sequences as well.
And we don't know exactly when
this additional music was written,
but if Gershwin did take time
away from Rhapsody in Blue to tend
to the opening preparations of his
musical even just for a few days,
upon his return to the
Rhapsody the pressure
to compose quickly would
have been even greater.
Such haste appears to be
documented in the pencil manuscript.
We see a clear shift in Gershwin's
notation between the careful outlay
of music in the first
grouping and that
which followed in the
second grouping.
When Gershwin returns to his
notation of Rhapsody in Blue,
he began with what became
the first piano cadenza.
It started out confidently
enough, and then Gershwin appears
to have struggled with
exactly how to proceed.
He notes a rapid chromatic ascent
in the right hand of the piano
over repeated pedal bass and
this dramatic segway leads
to the re-emergence of the
opening [inaudible] theme played
by a fortissimo marked
and jazzy full ensemble.
As you can see, Gershwin
crossed this out.
He opted for a more subtle
pianissimo conclusion
to the first piano credenza.
And this leads into the first piano
statement of the [inaudible] theme
so instead of having the jazz band
come in full on at the beginning
of the piece, he has a
piano introduce the theme
for the first time instead.
Now given that Gershwin
seems to have had little plan
as to what would be coming next,
it should come as no surprise
that Ferde Grofe was
in the same boat.
Grofe's full score manuscript of
the Rhapsody bears the markings
of an experienced and
methodical orchestrator even
at this relatively early
stage in his career.
Grofe laid out his
staff systems prior
to entering any music
on a given page.
Instruments and brackets
were done in ink first,
and then he added evenly
spaced measure lines in pencil.
And it was only after
taking these steps
that he began to enter the music.
As mentioned previously,
the first grouping
of the ink manuscript represents
the first 29 measures of Rhapsody
in Blue and Grofe likely scored
through these rather quickly.
On the screen here, we
see measures 23 through 28
of his full score a
little bit obscured
by the reflections off the
hermetically sealed plastic
enclosure that was put around
it during preservation process.
Now, eager to continue, you
can see on the next page
of Grofe's manuscripts that he had
prenotated systems and bar lines
for the continued presence
of the full ensemble.
And these have been erased.
You can see the erase
lines that are faded there
between the darker black lines.
The double bar line that you
see there, the two lines,
that represents the end of grouping
one and the start of grouping two.
So when Grofe received the
second grouping of the ink score
which began with the piano cadenza
instead of the continued presence
of the full orchestra, he had to
remeasure his page accordingly
to make room for the plethora
of arpeggios that unfolds
at the outside of that
first piano cadenza.
And this is not the only
such instance where Grofe had
to rebar a section of the Rhapsody
because of an unexpected change
between groups received
from Gershwin.
Another example can be found
at the end of grouping three
of the ink manuscript which
corresponds to page 25
of the Grofe Whiteman score.
Once again, we see the
erasure of prenoted bar lines
to accommodate the start
of a piano cadenza.
I'd like to turn my attention here
to a little bit closer examination
of this third grouping because it
holds a great deal of information
about the genesis of Rhapsody in
Blue including further evidence
that Grofe used this ink
manuscript as well as evidence
about the compressed
compositional timeline.
At least four different hands, at
least four different people writing
in the manuscript can be
found in this ink score.
And you can look at
figure four on your handout
or the slide on the screen.
Each scribal hand, each musician
who is copying this ink score
from the pencil manuscript
had a distinguishable method
of forming note heads, clefts,
accidentals and letters.
The first change in copy
[inaudible] directly
onto the first and second grouping.
The second copyist appears
on the start of grouping two
and it continues on to the
first page of grouping three.
Then all of a sudden at the bottom
of the first page of grouping three
in the middle of a new theme,
right there highlighted in blue,
music notated by Gershwin
suddenly appears.
The clearest indication we have
of this change is in addition
to the change of pen are the shapes
of the note heads and flat signs
as well as a loosening
of the vertical alignment
between and within the staffs.
Now, given the constraints under
which Gershwin composed Rhapsody
in Blue, it's curious that
he took time away to copy
out this portion of
the score on his own.
I believe that Gershwin did this
because he was under pressure
to deliver additional pages to Grofe
and he'd only just completed
composing this passage himself.
Gershwin's notation begins in
the middle of the appearance
of the stride theme
where the descending line
in the base cleft moves
it into the subdominant.
Assuming that the copyists
that have been working
with him had copied all available
music prior to taking a break,
this implies this particular
theme remained uncompleted
by Gershwin at the time.
And so Gershwin appears himself to
have taken a break in the middle
of writing the stride theme.
The pencil score supports
this supposition as well.
You can see in there a slight yet
visible shift in the pencil notation
that suggests Gershwin
indeed returned
to complete the stride
theme at a later point.
Now, Gershwin appears to have
crafted portions of Rhapsody in Blue
to avoid cliches of typical
jazz band arrangements.
Such cliches from this time period
include the standard unfolding
of verse and refrain with
minimal development of the themes.
And it attempts to break this kind
of -- and attempt to put in rather,
a set of compositional variations
occurs at this very moment
where Gershwin took a break from
completing the stride theme.
Up to this point throughout
the first eight measures
or so of the theme, it resembles
a standard what we call an AABA
[inaudible] song form.
That is, we have the
first four measures
and then the next four measures
are repeated so it's kind
of the same thing, A
then A and then this is
where he takes the break right
at the end of that red box there.
He begins sort of what
becomes the B theme.
Now, instead of repeating
the A theme after the B theme
as we would expect
in an AABA song form,
Gershwin takes a little
bit of a detour.
The rhythmic post and block
chord melody that's heard
in this A theme evaporates into
a thrice repeating linking theme.
See that here.
One, two and three.
And then this is punctuated by
four chords and a simple crash.
I'm going to play this
for you in a minute
so you can hear what
I'm talking about.
But the most important point here is
that these compositional choices
result in an ellision, an avoidance,
of standard [inaudible] song form
and they move the piece forward
with a rhapsodic finesse
so to speak.
So here's what this
passage sounds like.
[ Music ]
Here's the B section.
[ Music ]
And then a cymbal crash there is
where you would take the
78 rpm record and flip it
over for the second
half of the recording.
Now, a small yet revealing
moment in this portion
of the third gathering provides an
important piece of written evidence
in support of my argument
that Grofe depended
on the ink score rather
then the pencil score.
In the midst of transferring
music from the pencil
to the ink manuscript for this
portion of Rhapsody in Blue,
Gershwin introduced
various revisions.
Other copyists involved
in the preparation
of the ink score did
not revise such.
So consider for example
a modification
that occurs at measure 145.
This measure links
the A and B sections
of the so-called shuffle theme and
in pencil manuscript you see here,
the transition consists only
of a D7, a dominant 7 D chord
and the treble cleft on the first
beat, and it's followed by this kind
of ascending eighth note
scale on the base cleft.
If you look at the ink manuscript,
you can see that Gershwin added
three ascending eighth note diads
to the treble cleft.
These notes subsequently become
a brief trumpet [inaudible]
in the Grofe Whiteman score.
Had Grofe been working from the
pencil manuscript rather then the
fair copy ink manuscript
at this point,
no such [inaudible] would have
appeared in his final score
for the Whiteman Orchestra.
Additionally, Grofe mentions in
an interview from the early 1960's
that such a fair copy
manuscript was in use.
Grofe stated that at some point
in the process the preparation
of his fair copy manuscript
became impractical because
"time was getting short."
I'd like to pause over
Grofe's observation
that time was getting short and
return to my proposal that Rhapsody
in Blue was composed even more
rapidly then previously considered.
Although we cannot conclusively
align particular passages
or groupings with specific dates,
a comparison between the pencil,
ink in Grofe Whiteman scores
makes clear that Gershwin
and as a result Grofe encountered
a lot of starts and stops
in the process of setting
Rhapsody in Blue down on paper.
I've already suggested that after
Gershwin began notating Rhapsody
in Blue on January 7 that he got
as far as page 3 before attending
to the premiere of
Sweet Little Devil.
Assuming a return to work after
his Broadway premiere on the night
of January 21, Gershwin would
have had only seven days
to work before traveling to Boston
for a recital with Eva Gauthier
on the evening of Tuesday,
January 29.
Now, it's possible that Gershwin's
impending departure prompted the
appearance of his hand
in that ink manuscript
in that section that
I just showed you.
And this also might coincide
with Grofe's subsequent demand
that he stop waisting time
with a fair copy manuscript.
Irregardless of what point
on the timeline Grofe began
to use the pencil manuscript
instead of the ink manuscript,
they were both clearly feeling
pressure to compose the Rhapsody
in Blue and complete it
before it's premiere.
The third and final public
rehearsal for Whiteman's experiment
in modern music took place on
February 5, exactly one week
after Gershwin's recital in Boston.
So by my estimation, Rhapsody
in Blue was created in less
than 14 days, about half as
long as we previously assumed.
If Grofe's recollection is correct,
then copying out the ink
score became impractical.
It would explain the sudden
end of Gershwin's notation
in the ink score of measure 174.
The blue box here on
the screen shows you
where the new copyist takes over and
Gershwin's hand leaves the document.
It seems that whenever Gershwin was
feeling particularly short on time
that he inserted a piano
solo or a piano cadenza.
We see this every single time
there's a break in the groupings
or a break in the compositional
process
where he gets stuck,
he starts a piano solo.
So the next time you
listen to Rhapsody in Blue
and you hear a piano cadenza
begin, you can think, "Oh,
I know why Gershwin did that.
He was pressed for time."
Now, this cadenza marks the onset of
142 consecutive bars of piano solo
with little instrumental
accompaniment for Grofe to score.
Clearly, it became more
practical for Grofe just to work
from the pencil manuscript as the
premiere date drew ever closer.
So contrary to previous assumptions
for at least the first 175 measures
of Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin worked
from the ink score rather
then the pencil manuscript.
Given that only 13 instrumental
indications appear in these measures
and that Grofe chose
to ignore half of them,
manuscript evidence suggests that
he was responsible for a majority
of the scoring choices made in
the first third of his piece.
This level of independence
persists even after measure 175,
the point at which Grofe
began to use the pencil score.
With the exception of a
single solo horn line,
Gershwin provided no
further indication
of instruments from
this point forward.
So, why does all this matter?
If Grofe indeed scored the Rhapsody
with a significantly greater degree
of independence then
previously assumed,
we can more directly address how a
selection of specific instruments
and the implementation of other
jazz band arranging techniques
transformed Gershwin's
so-called completed sketch
into a fully fledged
musically engaging composition.
In his landmark study
on Fletcher Henderson,
musicologist Jeffrey McGee
states that "like a composer,
an arranger gives original shape
to a piece of music creating unity
and contrast through a
variety of musical elements
like an improvising
soloist," McGee continues,
"an arranger takes existing material
and uses it as the framework
for a fresh new inception."
One reality of the
Rhapsody and indeed one
of his most frequent criticisms is
that large passages
offer little more
than AABA [inaudible] style tunes.
The decisions that Grofe made
in transitioning the Rhapsody
from Gershwin's two
piano pencil score
to the Whiteman arrangement
lends a piece and necessary level
of coherence and unit for
tectural and tamboral variety.
Thinking back to Gershwin's letter
to the general manager of ASCAP,
can we define Grofe's role
as akin to that of Gershwin?
Gershwin's first biographer,
Isaac Goldberg suggested
that he might, that we might.
He said, "The contribution of
Grofe was of prime importance.
It is strange indeed that
he was not represented
on Whiteman's program
as a composer."
Gershwin, of course, strongly
disagreed with such a notion.
Gershwin stated that, "The ability
to orchestrate is a
talent completely apart
from the ability to create.
The world is full of the most
competent orchestrators who cannot
for the life of them write
four bars of original music."
So for Gershwin then, it was the
themes rather then the overall sound
of the rhapsody that
counted as the "composition."
His perspective to conform to
his experience as a songwriter
and as a man of the theater.
In Gershwin's estimation,
it was seen that orchestrators
offer little more than a paint
by numbers approach, the
casual addition of color
to a fully outlined work.
However, as the ink manuscript
reveals, Grofe's contributions
to the Rhapsody were
anything but casual,
even given the time constraints
under which he worked.
So this prompts an
important question.
If Grofe had been a lesser arranger,
would the Rhapsody had become
the success that it did?
After all, this is a work that
not only became legendary during
Gershwin's lifetime
circulating as an arrangement
through life performance, recordings
and sheet music, but also as one
that maintains a standing as one
of the quintessential examples
of American concert music.
Both the original Whiteman
arrangement and the arrangement
for symphony orchestra that we are
perhaps more familiar with today,
both of these arrangements
were prepared by Ferde Grofe.
The decisions that Grofe made in
transitioning Rhapsody in Blue
from Gershwin's two
piano pencil score
to the Whiteman arrangement lent the
piece necessary level of consistency
through it's variety,
through it's novelty.
This variety and novelty is lost in
a subsequent arrangement of Rhapsody
in Blue for the symphony orchestra.
And some critics feel
that this arrangement,
that it makes Rhapsody
suffer because of the result
of it's smoothed over orchestration.
Musicologist, David Schiff, for
example, [inaudible] that it
"obscures the idiomatic colors of
the original Whiteman arrangement."
Although a degree of sonic
coherence is expected
of classical symphonic works,
it was the sonic novelty
of Grofe's scoring upon
which Gershwin relied
when he originally assembled the
various themes of the Rhapsody.
When the novel scoring for the
[inaudible] and [inaudible]
of the Whiteman ensemble
are removed,
the piece loses a great
deal of momentum,
particularly in the often
repeated [inaudible] passages.
This is lack of sonic interest that
is what encourages the introduction
of a lot of cuts into modern
performances of Rhapsody in Blue.
I'd like to use this phenomenon
of cutting and arranging Rhapsody
in Blue to turn my attention
to one of the most notorious
or notable interpreters of
Rhapsody in Blue depending
on your perspective,
Mr. Leonard Bernstein.
Now, Rhapsody in Blue owes
much of it's global popularity
and academic insecurity
to Leonard Bernstein.
He engaged with the work
continually over the course
of his multifaceted career
leaving his interpretive mark
through copious concerts,
broadcasts, recordings and writings.
His 1959 recording of the piece
with the New York Philharmonic
remains one
of if not the best known
recordings of the piece.
Yet, it is also an arrangement.
Or rather it's an arrangement
of an arrangement.
It takes Ferde Grofe's
symphonic setting of the Rhapsody
and introduces various
cuts and tempo alterations.
We heard Bernstein's
recording of the Rhapsody
in the background prior
to the start of my talk.
But as a means of putting that
performance back in our ears,
I'd like to contrast this with
George Gershwin's own performance.
So we're going to hear
two brief audio examples.
Both excerpts are of the
same solo piano passage,
the blues derived shuffle theme
which is located midway
through the Rhapsody.
First you will hear George
Gershwin's piano role performance
which he recorded in 1927.
This is followed by Bernstein's
own interpretation of passage
as played on this 1959 recording.
So first here's Gershwin.
[ Music ]
As you can hear from this example,
Bernstein interpretation relieves
much of the jazz age energy
of the Rhapsody as originally
performed by George Gershwin.
Ironically, much of what makes
Bernstein's 1959 recording well
liked are the very same features
that critics find problematic.
Bernstein's exaggerated
piano performance is sudden
and dramatic transitions
between passages is elongation
of particular melodic motifs.
He has constant tempo fluctuations.
Despite the fact that Bernstein
introduces various cuts
which have also been criticized,
his recording of Rhapsody
in Blue lasts four to five minutes
longer than the version of Rhapsody
in Blue heard at it's premiere
and indeed his recording is one
of the longer ones on record.
When considering Bernstein
or Rhapsody in Blue, critics
and scholars typically invoke
the same two documents.
This well known recording as
well as his 1955 essay titled,
Hey Nice Gershwin Tune,
which I mentioned very briefly
at the start of my talk.
In this essay, Bernstein [inaudible]
on the similarities and differences
between himself and Gershwin.
It takes the form of
an imaginary dialogue,
conversation between Bernstein
and his professional manager,
though both voices are
ultimately Bernstein's.
Professional managers
refer to as PM for short.
In the course of their discussion,
they consider Gershwin's
compositional abilities vis-à-vis
Rhapsody in Blue.
PM tells Bernstein that Gershwin
was "every inch a serious composer."
But Bernstein cuts him off,
responding in a passage
that has since become infamous.
"Now PM, you know as well as I do
that Rhapsody is not
a composition at all.
It's a string of separate
paragraphs stuck together
with a thin paste of
flour and water.
Composing is a very different thing
from writing tunes after all."
Gershwin aficionados
are quick to point
out that Bernstein's subsequent
influence on the reception
of Rhapsody in Blue and of Gershwin,
biographer, Howard Pollack,
suggests that a nice Gershwin
tune is solely the reputation
of the work particularly since
it directly informed performance
decisions made by Bernstein's
1959 recording.
In spite of it's tremendous
popularity,
David Schiff calls this
recording a "crisis
in the performance
history of the piece."
As musicologist, Larry
Starr observes,
such considerations
typically "function as a kind
of received wisdom or even
party line on Gershwin
in academically critical circles."
Upholding this doctrine, however,
assigns a degree of indifference
to Bernstein where
one does not exist.
It also ignores the more complex
relationship that ultimately existed
between Bernstein, Gershwin
and Rhapsody in Blue.
Bernstein's essay did not simply
beget Bernstein's recording nor did
either represent a hasty
interpretation of the Rhapsody.
They both resulted from his
multidecade relationship with piece,
a relationship that emerges from
arrangements of Rhapsody in Blue.
From an early age, Bernstein
had a fervent attraction
to the music of George Gershwin.
He purchased Gershwin's scores.
He staged his musicals with friends.
He even attended the 1935
pre-Broadway tryout production
of Porgy and Bess in Boston
when he was 17 years old.
Throughout it all,
Rhapsody in Blue stands out.
It's unclear when he first heard
the Rhapsody, but at the age
of 13 Bernstein begged
his father for money
to buy a copy of the sheet music.
Lifelong friend and colleague,
Syd Raymond [assumed spelling] was
with the 13-year-old, Lennie, the
day that he purchased the $2 score.
Syd Raymond who grew
up with Bernstein
to become a successful Broadway
arranger on his own right,
he worked with Bernstein
on Westside Story as well
as several other Bernstein
works including The Mask.
Recalling the day that his friend,
Lennie, purchased the sheet music
for Rhapsody in Blue,
Raymond stated,
"We went back to Lennie's
place, and he opened it.
And at sight, he started
to play it because he was
as you know a prodigious
sight reader.
He could read almost
anything immediately."
But he got to a certain
point, and he said, "You know,
I wonder why Gershwin
wrote it in this key."
And then Lennie started
to play it in another key.
Bernstein purchased the solo piano
arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue
that was first published by
Hermes of New York in 1927.
Remarkably, Bernstein's own
copy of the sheet music survives
in the New York Philharmonic
archives.
The score shows signs of
frequent and animated use
through it's Scotch tape binding
repairs and smudged corners
from repeated page turning.
There's a taunting remark about
Bernstein's sisters scrawled
across the top of the front cover.
It says, "Sure B has a
crush on Clarke Gable."
Although such remarkings remind
us that this document is a product
of adolescence, annotations
within the sheet music reveal
that Bernstein's approach
to the Rhapsody was really
anything but juvenile.
Bernstein himself said of his first
experience with the sheet music.
He said, "We went home and we
played it with tears until dawn.
The excitement.
We made our own sort of arrangement
so that we could do it forehand
and try to sound like an orchestra."
So pencil markings found within
this manuscript record one
such possible arrangement.
There's 12 sets of brackets
that mark off the solo passages
from the orchestral passages
so that the two boys could have
traded the parts back and forth.
We also see in the score indications
such as [inaudible] where the piano
and the orchestra would
have been played together
in a forehand piano performance.
Significantly, solo piano sheet
music that was acquired by the boys
that fateful day contains a pair
of unique cuts that do not appear
in previous or subsequent
publications of the sheet music.
In fact, this 1927 score is
nearly 60 measures shorter
than the more common two
piano arrangement of Rhapsody
in Blue published by Hermes in 1925.
So when Leonard Bernstein first
learned to play the Rhapsody,
it was with these cuts
firmy in place.
So as a 13-year-old Bernstein
was already experimenting with
and arranging Rhapsody in
Blue, and this personal copy
of the sheet music documents many
of these musical explorations.
Five years later, during the summer
of 1937, instead of spending time
at the family's lakehouse
in Sharon, Massachusetts,
the 18-year-old Bernstein
took a job at Camp Onota,
a recently established all boys
Jewish camp in the Berkshires.
Bernstein was in charge of a cabin
of campers from New York City,
and he served as a
swimming counselor.
Not surprisingly, he also
organized all musical activities,
staging productions of Gilbert
and Sullivan's Parrots of Penzance
and Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing.
He formed small musical ensembles,
and he even wrote camp songs.
The text of one surviving example
reads as follows, "Onota Camp,
the end is near and soon we'll
have to say goodbye to you we fear.
Our hearts are sad.
Our eyes are damp because we have
to part with you, Onota Camp.
Adon, adieu, and au revoir.
Better time we never saw.
We got the things that
we came here for.
So adon, adieu, auf
wiederschen and au revoir."
Bernstein's lighthearted ditty takes
on a more poignant tune, however,
when considered in the context
of George Gershwin's sudden
death that very same summer.
Gershwin died following
emergency surgery
on an undiagnosed brain
tumor on July 11, 1937.
The event had a profound
and permanent effect
upon the young Bernstein.
He later divulged, "The great
tragedy for me, the musical tragedy
of my life is that I never met him."
And as a side note, today
actually marks the 25th anniversary
of the passing of Leonard
Bernstein in 1990."
In what appears to be a
tribute to his musical idol,
Bernstein created his own
arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue,
which is located here in the
archives of the Library of Congress.
This is the cover of the
Schomer's Harmony Tablet
in which the arrangement
was located.
And here are the first and
last pages of the manuscript.
Bernstein completed this arrangement
on August 10, 1937, almost one month
to the day after Gershwin's death.
The instrumentation of this
whimsical interpretation
of the Rhapsody is notable.
In addition to the
expected piano and clarinet,
it calls for a recorder,
accordion, three male voices
which also must whistle, two
ukuleles, and a percussion ensemble
that he refers to as rhythm band.
Bernstein's choices appear
to be largely delineated
by the availability of
particular performers.
If not performers then
at least instruments
that we would find in
a camp environment.
And while there's no record
that this arrangement was
or was not performed, it does
appear to have been written
with performers from
Camp Onota in mind.
The clearest suggestion of this
appears in a photograph taken
at camp that very same summer.
This is the first known image
of Leonard Bernstein conducting.
The caption reads, "Onota Rhythm
Band and Leonard Bernstein 1937."
And this is the same
Rhythm Band called
for in his Rhapsody arrangement.
Dressed in his camp Onota tank
top, Bernstein directs a group
of seven young musicians
who are playing a battery
of percussion instruments including
two triangles, [inaudible], chimes,
cymbals, a tamborine
and even what appears
to be a kalimba or a thumb piano.
Bernstein's camp arrangement
of the Rhapsody includes some
of these very same instruments.
So it's possible that
some of the boys seen
in this photograph took part
in a performance of the piece.
I had the pleasure of
editing a performing edition
of this arrangement and with the
permission of both the Gershwin
and Bernstein estates, the work had
it's world concert premiere during
Harvard's Leonard Bernstein Boston
to Broadway festival back in 2006.
It has not been heard
publicly since that time.
So I'm particularly excited
to be able to share an excerpt
from that performance
with you this evening.
The clip that I'm going to play
begins at rehearsal letter J. It's
on the second system
of this manuscript just
after the second piano cadenza which
is notated simply as piano cadenza.
Earlier, I played contrasting
versions of the Rhapsody
by Gershwin and Bernstein.
This is the same solo piano
passage but here it's scored
out for camp instruments and
should provide you with a sense
of the 18-year-old Leonard
Bernstein's overall approach
to Rhapsody in Blue
in this arrangement.
[ Music ]
Feel free to sing along
if you'd like.
We move into the piano cadenza,
which again is not notated
because he would have
had it memorized.
Now it's important to reiterate
that Bernstein's instrumentation
in this passage replaces what would
have otherwise been an extended
piano solo passage.
That is, instead of just playing
these measures on the piano,
he arranged them to be
played by his campers.
The choices made here reflect
Bernstein's emerging theatricality.
The drama of the largo clarinet solo
sets up the playful reinterpration
of the standard campfire
sing along, which is offered
by disembodied textless
voices and ukuleles.
In addition to the introduction
of imitative color combinations,
we have this substitution
of the accordion
for what would have otherwise been
rapid 16th note piano [inaudible].
What this does is it
intensifies the dramatic arch
of Gershwin's modulating melody to
which Bernstein adds a triumphant
and newly composed clarinet solo.
Such decisions foreshadow
the centrality of showmanship
in Bernstein's future
presentations of Rhapsody in Blue.
This excerpt from Camp Onota --
this excerpt from the Camp Onota
arrangement demonstrates Bernstein's
continued compartmentalization
of Gershwin's themes.
Much in the same way as the
annotative brackets function
in Bernstein's 1927
solo piano sheet music,
Bernstein here demarcates
transitions
by [inaudible] grand
pauses, dramatic shifts
in dynamic and instrumentation.
And in one particularly striking
instance, he adds a transposition.
This transposition occurs at
the entrance of the love theme.
In Gershwin's original
Rhapsody, this theme is preceded
by a B dominant seven
chord which sets
up a dominant [inaudible] five seven
to one transition into
the key of E major.
Now, when Bernstein resets it,
letter N in his manuscript,
instead of moving to E major,
he transcribes the love theme
up a third higher in
the key of G major.
So let me play these [inaudible]
so you can hear the difference.
[ Music ]
This is the original.
[ Music ]
And this is Bernstein's.
[ Music ]
So why might Bernstein
have done this.
You can hear, this
is very much in kind
of a Broadway show
tunes style modulation,
the kind that further heightens
the drama of the melody.
But it also echoes Syd
Raymond's recollection
about Bernstein's first
reading of the sheet music
where Bernstein questioned why
Gershwin wrote it in one key
and then proceeded to
play it in another key.
I suspect that this transposition
here reflects that initial impulse.
These earlier arrangements of the
piece, the solo piano sheet music
and the Camp Onota arrangement,
these effected Bernstein's mature
interpretations of the Rhapsody.
As I mentioned, the
solo piano sheet music
that Bernstein acquired
contains a number of unique cuts.
According to an unpublished 1986
interview, this is the version
that Bernstein preferred.
He stated, "I have
to confess to you,
and even if this is a public
confession, this is the way
that I've always played it so that
when I do play it with orchestras,
and I've played it with many
orchestras, I have to redo the score
to fit the way that I learned it
because that is the
way that I love it.
That is the way I know it,
and I think it works better."
And in fact with the
exception of two measures,
Bernstein's famous
recording of Rhapsody in Blue
with the New York Philharmonic
follows the cuts taken
in this 1927 solo piano
sheet music note for note.
Now it's been said that the
cuts located in this recording
"arguably undermine the
work's structural integrity."
However, if we return to Bernstein's
essay [inaudible] Gershwin tune,
we see that Bernstein relished in
structural flexibility of the work.
Bernstein states that with the
Rhapsody, "You can cut out parts
of it without affecting the whole in
any way except to make it shorter.
You can remove any of these
stuck together sections
and the piece still goes
on as bravely as before.
You can even interchange
these sections
with one another and
no harm is done.
You can make cuts within a section
or add new cadenzas or play it
with any combination of
instruments or on the piano alone.
It can be a five minute piece
or a six minute piece
or a 12 minute piece.
And in fact, all of these things
are being done to it every day.
It's still a Rhapsody in Blue."
The considerations advanced
in this 1955 essay, however,
were not recent validations.
Considerations advanced in
this 1955 essay, however,
were not recent revelations
to Bernstein.
Rather, they were observations
formed while growing up,
observations delineated in his camp
arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue.
It makes various cuts,
connects separate sections
and alters the orchestration.
It even goes so far as
to change the key of one
of the works most famous themes,
something he discovered was a
possibility as early as 1931.
As a recording of his camp
arrangement demonstrates,
Bernstein's later remarks are true.
Regardless of the alterations
made to the piece,
it remains Rhapsody in Blue.
So on paper, the composite record
made up by the copyright registry,
published editions of the sheet
music and even the program
for the work's premiere, on paper
George Gershwin remains the sole
composer for Rhapsody in Blue.
The piece will forever remain
George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
But the creation and maintenance
of his iconicity results only
from the arrangement
of the piece by a host
of other musicians over
the course of time.
In this sense, it's a work in
movement to borrow a phrase
from [inaudible] and
philosopher, Umberto Eco.
The Rhapsody remains an open
text for musical interpretation
in large part because of
it's inherent flexibility.
The notion that anyone can
make something of the piece
in whatever way they choose to do
so is what has made it so attractive
to countless musicians over the
course of the past 90 years.
Now my remarks this evening
have been limited to the roles
of Ferde Grofe and Leonard
Bernstein, but a multitude
of prominent and little known
musicians have also taken the
Rhapsody on in their
own unique ways.
In the jazz world, this includes
figures such as Duke Ellington,
Ella Fitzgerald and Marcus Roberts.
In the popular world, we see
arrangements by [inaudible],
and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
We also encounter arrangements
of Rhapsody
in Blue on the silver screen.
You see it in Woody Allen's
Manhattan, Disney's Fantasia 2000
and Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatspy.
Let's also not forget
about United Airlines.
Like a Rhapsody itself,
the story of Rhapsody
in Blue unfolds continually.
It moves from one musician,
venue or conception to the next
without formal design or intent all
the while revealing new perspectives
on that which has come before
and providing a platform
for understanding future
encounters with the work.
Arrangements of Rhapsody
in Blue tell the tale
of it's owngoing composition.
Both with respect to
the music itself
and the history that surrounds it.
The different collection
of arrangements
and those considered here tonight
would result in different themes,
raise different concerns and
provide alternate narratives
about the past and the present.
Nonetheless, the ultimate point
of approaching the Rhapsody
through arrangements would
remain much the same.
Shifting the emphasis away
from a centralized composer
and text does not rescend
the iconic status
of either George Gershwin
or Rhapsody in Blue.
Rather, it provides insight into
why their elevated standing persists
in American culture today.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
Thank you very much.
I believe there's some time for
questions if anyone has any.
I think there's a microphone
as well.
>> Not being too personal,
but what year were you born?
>> Ryan Raul Banagale:
What year was I born?
The late 1970's.
>> Okay. I met Lennie
Bernstein in '72 in college,
Trinity College, went to Harvard.
He had a good friend
named Dr. Clarence Barber.
Barber went off into
[inaudible], and as he used
to say Lennie just went
off and did theatricality.
Lennie used to come by the college
at least two to three times a year.
The time I met him, I was listening
to his performance
of the [inaudible].
He banged on the door
of the music room.
I thought it was one of my
friends trying to annoy me.
I couldn't see his face.
I opened the door about to punch him
in the face and there's my chairman
of the music department and Lennie.
And he says, "Walter Thompson,
this is Lennie Bernstein.
Lennie Bernstein, this
is Walter Thompson."
We became good friends because I
criticized him on his [inaudible]
in the first movement
of the [inaudible].
So he knew that I could
criticize him and be good buddies.
Met him many, many times.
I can't believe that this lecture
that you've given is so accurate,
so well representative
of Lennie's personality.
I assure you.
Everything you said about
Rhapsody is what we used
to talk about, used to argue about.
And I want to thank you for
giving me his personality again.
I can't believe it's
been over 25 years
since I used to argue with him.
>> Ryan Raul Banagale:
It's hard to believe.
>> The one major argument, the
[inaudible] tenth symphony.
He refused to play
beyond the first movement.
I would say, "Lennie, who else but
you and I arguing about this music?
Why aren't you going to do it?"
And he refused because he could not
accept [inaudible] interpretation
of the [inaudible].
Okay? I mean, I used
to almost beat him up.
One time he did the [inaudible]
fifth symphony, the [inaudible].
I was there in the
front row on the left.
He closed his eyes while performing.
I conducted with my eyes
closed in the audience.
Later when I ran up to
argue with him again
about [inaudible], his
daughter was there.
And she says, "Oh my God.
He's the guy who conducted
just like you!"
She swore that our motions were
exactly the same even though our
eyes were closed.
Then finally, last major time I ran
into Lennie was at the [inaudible]
by the great [inaudible].
[ Inaudible ]
Right. And we met during
intermission.
I had two glasses of
champagne in my hand.
I was about to put one in because
I'm double fisting really quick,
and somebody bumps into
the back of me real hard.
I turn around with my fist.
He turns around with his fist.
We shout, "Lennie!"
"Walter!" "Ah!"
We hugged each other.
We're both totally
drenched with champagne,
and his daughter says,
"Wow, it's Walter!"
And everybody [inaudible],
"Who's this Walter?"
And she has to explain to him the
weirdness of our relationship.
I just want to say
thank you so very much.
You brought Lennie
back into this room.
>> Ryan Raul Banagale: My pleasure.
>> And everything you've said
about the Rhapsody he said
to me, I swear it is true.
He called it an arrangement,
and you can stick this way
or that way and pop around with it.
When you sit with Lennie, if he's
at a piano, he has at least three
to five cigarettes going
on at the same time.
So I breathed in his smoke so
many times I can't stand it
when I think about what he did.
It's like he didn't even
know he was doing it.
So that's one thing missing
from your talk [inaudible]
with the cigarette.
>> Ryan Raul Banagale: I'll make
sure to bring cigarettes next time.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
>> Great talk.
I don't know if you can give
a concise answer to this
but in the midst of this sort
of view of Rhapsody in Blue
as an arrangement, what does --
you're working somehow
on the critical edition
which I see as sort of [inaudible].
So how does the notion of a
critical edition fit into this?
>> Ryan Raul Banagale: It's
a really good question.
So, those of you that don't know,
the George Gershwin Initiative is
taking place out at the University
of Michigan as an attempt
to put together the first
full critical edition
of George Gershwin's work.
The critical edition is basically
known historically as kind
of an [inaudible], the definitive
version of a composition.
And that seems to go a little
bit against what I'm talking
about here tonight, which is a
really fair observation question.
And so when the chief editor of the
edition approached me about working
on the Rhapsody in Blue edition and
actually I'm on the editorial board
as well, I said, "Well, you know
that I don't think there
should be a single version
of Rhapsody in Blue, don't you?"
And he said, "Absolutely.
That's exactly why we
want him to do it."
Because who better than the person
who doesn't think there
should be one to do it?
Anyway, so we are doing
as [inaudible] four
separate arrangements
of Rhapsody in Blue for the edition.
The first arrangement is going
to be as close to as possible
as the way the Rhapsody
in Blue was performed
at the premiere performance in 1924.
That's the edition that will be
published hopefully this next year.
And that will be the
first edition published
in the whole critical
edition series.
We're also doing an edition that is
going to be the two piano version,
which will just be the version
that is probably most familiar
that has the solo piano part as well
as the secondary jazz
band part built into it.
That one's going to be
key as closely as possible
to existing manuscripts, probably
a combination of the three
that I've been discussing
here tonight.
The other edition is the symphonic
version because one of the big goals
of this critical edition is to have
clean set of new performing parts,
orchestras to use around the world.
So they'll do the symphonic version
and then the version of the Rhapsody
and arrangement that I didn't talk
about tonight which is another one
by Ferde Grofe is the
theater orchester arrangement.
And this I think is the
most flexible of all
of the arrangements that were done.
Grofe completed the theater
orchestra arrangement some time
in 1926 and the score
also is in the Library
of Congress archives here
in the Music Division.
And what that one does is it
allows for ensembles and orchestras
or jazz bands to play the piece
if you're not the Paul
Whiteman Orchestra.
If you don't have someone who can
play five instruments and alternate
between them which most orchestras
wouldn't, most jazz bands wouldn't,
you can just choose which
parts you want to play.
It's a very flexible arrangement.
So if you don't have someone --
if you don't have a saxophone
or even know what a
[inaudible] saxophone is,
then you can substitute that out
with someone who plays the flute.
So that arrangement itself
will be very flexible.
What I envision, and I don't know
if this is going to be possible,
is to create digital arrangements so
it's not just a printed bound volume
by itself, but what I would
love to see as happen some time
in the next 30 to 40 years as
we're working on this project is
that you can say, "You know what?
I want to play the version of --
the symphonic version the
way that Lennie played it."
And you hit a button, and it
puts all the tempo markings in,
it changes the arrangement.
It makes all the cuts and then
you've got those digital versions
of the scores that
you can play them.
So what I'm envisioning for
this edition of Rhapsody in Blue
and for the Gershwin edition as a
whole is a great deal of flexibility
so it is not just one text.
I think Gershwin would have
probably hated the idea
that we had just one text or one
version of any of these works.
Almost everything we hear or we know
of George Gershwin
is an arrangement.
Any song that you hear performed,
you're not hearing performed just
as it was published
in the sheet music.
We're not hearing it as it was
performed in the original premiere
in the Broadway theaters.
It's all been arranged.
Even more recently the
new Porgy and Bess version
on Broadway is another arrangement.
It's a whole new orchestration,
the same work.
And I think in that spirit
that is something I hope
that George Gershwin would
enjoy and relish seeing.
Thank you.
Yes.
>> Thank you so much.
That was -- I have to
say I'm a musicologist.
That was the most fascinating
musicology lecture
that I've ever heard.
>> Ryan Raul Banagale: Thank you.
>> It was wonderful.
Anyway, I just was thinking of other
Gershwin tunes like Summertime,
which is interpreted 5,000 different
ways by every single band nightly.
And there's just this -- I just
wanted to make this comment
about Gershwin being
in Paris studying
with [inaudible] -- is that correct?
And then bringing that training.
She was a stickler for technique.
Bringing that European classical
music training back and integrating
that with jazz and creating this
whole style is just fascinating.
And just this improvisatory
style of the jazz component.
I think it makes me think
that perhaps composition
as defined is more of a
classical music [inaudible]
and arrangement is more in jazz.
>> Ryan Raul Banagale: Right.
and Gershwin certainly was working
within both of those, those mileus.
And as far as Gershwin
goes with [inaudible],
it was more in a passing
relationship then an actual duration
of study time.
I think his encounter with
[inaudible] is similar
to his encounter with [inaudible] I
think the story goes where he said,
"I'd like to study with
you, Mr. [inaudible]."
And [inaudible] apparently
said, "Well,
how much money did
you make last year."
Gershwin said, oh, something,
150,000 something like that.
And he said, "Well then I should
be taking lessons from you."
Well, that story is
probably [inaudible].
It's also been assigned
to Stravinsky
and I think also to Schoenberg.
A lot of people apparently had this
same conversation with Gershwin.
Nonetheless, he really did absorb
influences wherever he could
find them.
He certainly did spend
a lot of time in Paris.
America and Paris is
probably the most famous --
kind of compositional
result of that as well.
The primary parts that he
studied was the composition
after the Rhapsody in Blue
later on is Joseph Schillinger.
And really if you look at -- there's
been some wonderful studies on Porgy
and Bess and the effect
of Schillinger and kind
of the rotational compositional
aspects that Schillinger introduced
to Gershwin that we can certainly
see in play in Porgy and Bess.
1924, Gershwin still really
hadn't left the country
with Rhapsody in Blue.
This is not too long after
he'd had his first big hit
with the [inaudible].
1924 is the same year that
Lady Be Good was on stage
and his first hit musical.
Things really do take off in
1924, and he does start traveling
around the world and meeting
and having a lot of
different influences.
I think we need to cut off
the questions for time,
but I'm happy to answer questions
as they emerge afterwards.
Please do sign -- join me outside
for the book signing if you'd like
and thank you so much for coming.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.