HARVARD UNIVERSITY Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

DISSERTATION ACCEPTANCE CERTIFICATE

The undersigned, appointed by the

Department of Music

have examined a dissertation entitled

Rhapsodies In Blue: New Narratives for an Iconic American "Composition "

presented by

Ryan Raul Banagale

candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and hereby certify that it is worthy of acceptance.

Signature_ V^tf^ tX \ Professor Carol J. Oja

rj^^-y' ^( /H\xJUsw ^h" Signature

Professor Kay Kaufman r.ri.

Signature _

Professor Ingrid Monson

Date- March 25, 2011

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Rhapsodies in Blue:

New Narratives for an Iconic American "Composition"

A dissertation presented

by

Ryan Raul Banagale

to

The Department of Music

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of

Music

Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts

May 2011

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© 2011 - Ryan Raul Banagale All rights reserved.

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Advisor: Professor Carol J. Oja Ryan Raul Bafiagale

Rhapsodies in Blue: New Narratives for an Iconic American "Composition"

Abstract

From the very beginning, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue has existed as

an arrangement, yet no one has considered the work in that light. Following the

case-study model, I explore a set of arrangements prepared and performed by a

suite of musicians who used the Rhapsody in the negotiation of their musical

identity: Ferde Grofe, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, and Larry Adler. Shifting

the emphasis away from a centralized text and from the sole agency of the composer

reveals a host of new narratives. When cast together these narratives reshape our

understanding of the Rhapsody, Gershwin, and music in America. This dissertation

expands on current approaches to the study of arrangements and challenges

existing and entrenched definitions of "composer" and "composition." In the

process of remapping the terrain of this iconic piece of American music, I shed new

light on familiar and little-known musicians. Examining a broader vision of the

Rhapsody presents possible future directions for Americanist studies in music as we

enter a new generation of scholarship in the field—a field that by the early twenty-

first century has a substantive body of musicological scholarship on which to stand.

At the same time, this dissertation prompts a reassessment of that scholarship,

particularly with respect to Gershwin's life and music.

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Contents

List of Illustrations vi

Style Considerations viii

Acknowledgments ix

Chapter 1. Setting the Stage for New Narratives 1

The Problem of Biography and the Study of Gershwin's Music 6

Situating the Rhapsody within "Arrangement Studies" 16

Remapping the Terrain: Arrangements as Plateaus 22

The Four Case Studies 24

Making a Molehill out of a Mountain 31

Chapter 2. Ferde Grofe: Arranging the Future of Rhapsody in Blue 49

Ferde Grofe: The Early Years 55

What the Sources Tell Us about Composing the Rhapsody 68

Gershwin's Two-Piano Manuscript in Pencil 69

Grofe's Full-Score Manuscript for the Whiteman Orchestra 76

Introducing the Fair-Copy Ink Score 80

Assessing Grofe's Contributions to the Rhapsody 93

After the Experiment: Grofe's Ongoing Development of the Rhapsody 112

Conclusion: Arranger, Composer, or Both? 116

Chapter 3. Affectionate Ambivalence: Leonard Bernstein's "Nice Gershwin Tune" 119

A Boston Boy Meets Rhapsody in Blue 121

"We got the things we came here for": Bernstein's Camp Onota

Arrangement 129

Bernstein's Rhapsody in Blue 143

Conclusion: More than Just a "Nice Gershwin Tune" 152

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Chapter 4. Rewriting the Narrative One Arrangement at a Time: Duke Ellington and Rhapsody in Blue 157

The Early Ellington Arrangements of Rhapsody in Blue 162

Rewriting the Rhapsody for the 1960s 179

Conclusion: Arranging the Past to Make Room in the Present 190

Chapter 5. "It Ain't Necessarily So": Larry Adler and Rhapsody in Blue 193

Larry Adler's Career before Rhapsody in Blue 199

Engaging the Rhapsody through Performance and Recording 206

Achieving Symphonic Aspirations 218

The Blacklisting of Larry Adler 237

Rebuilding a Career with Rhapsody in Blue 241

Conclusion: Adding up Adler's Arrangements and Anecdotes 253

Epilogue. Arranging on Multiple Levels 255

Appendix A. Publication Royalties for Rhapsody in Blue 259

Appendix B. Mechanical Royalties for Rhapsody in Blue 266

Appendix C. Instrumental Indications in Gershwin's Pencil Manuscript 269

Bibliography 271

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Illustrations

Figures

1.1. Primary manuscripts conlusted 27

1.2. Domestic and Canadian sales for Whiteman's 1924 Rhapsody recording 35

1.3. Domestic and Canadian sales for Whiteman's 1927 Rhapsody recording 38

1.4. Commercially available recordings of Rhapsody (1924-27) 38

1.5. Sales of Rhapsody sheet music, two-piano version (1925-28) 43

1.6. Sales of Rhapsody orchestral part sets (1926-30) 44

1.7. Sales of Rhapsody sheet music, solo-piano version (1927-31) 46

2.1. Three manuscript sources for Rhapsody, with nicknames 53

2.2. Ferde Grofe with fair-copy ink manuscript of Rhapsody, 1967 82

2.3. Page groupings for fair-copy ink manuscript of Rhapsody 84

2.4. Copyist hands in fair-copy ink manuscript of Rhapsody 85

2.5. Instrumentation timeline for Grofe's Whiteman arrangement 96

2.6. Instrumentation timeline for second instance of ritornello theme 107

2.7. Instrumentation chart for three of Grofe's Rhapsody arrangements 116

3.1. Cover of Bernstein's solo-piano sheet music of Rhapsody 125

3.2. Final page of Bernstein's Camp Onota arrangement 133

3.3. Bernstein conducting the Camp Onota "Rhythm Band" 136

3.4. Page 9 of Bernstein's Camp Onota arrangement 139

3.5. Measure 197 of Bernstein's solo-piano sheet music of Rhapsody 151

4.1. Rhapsody in Blue arrangements in the Duke Ellington Collection 160

4.2. Proposed part assignments for Bob Sylvester's arrangement, 1925 166

4.3. Thematic organization of Bob Sylvester's arrangement, 1925 168

4.4. Part assignments for Ellington's 1932 arrangement 171

4.5. Thematic organization of Ellington's 1932 arrangement 174

4.6. Part assignments for Billy Staryhorn's 1963 arrangement 185

4.7. Thematic organization of Billy Strayhorn's 1963 arrangement 185

5.1. Recordings of Rhapsody in Blue made by Larry Adler 195

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5.2. The Empire Room at the Palmer House, circa 1940 207

5.3. Chart of possible pitches on first four holes of a chromatic harmonica 212

5.4. Chart of cuts in Adler's 1935 recording of Rhapsody in Blue 215

5.5. Larry Adler in action 217

5.6. Chart of cuts in Robert Russell Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 228

Examples

2.1. Gershwin's "Do It Again" melody with instrumental echo by Grofe 65

2.2. Excised measures (36A and B) from Gershwin's pencil manuscript 72

2.3. Page 1 of Rhapsody in Blue pencil manuscript 74

2.4. Page 2 of Rhapsody in Blue pencil manuscript 75

2.5. Measures 123-126 of "stride" theme in pencil and ink manuscripts 88

2.6. Measures 144-146 of "shuffle" theme in pencil and ink manuscripts 89

3.1. Gershwin's original transition into the "love" theme 142

3.2. Bernstein's transposition into the "love" theme 142

4.1. Introduction of Bob Sylvester arrangement, 1925 169

4.2. "Train" theme as written by Gershwin and reharmonized by Ellington 174

4.3. "Stride" theme as written by Gershwin and reharmonized by Ellington 175

4.4. "Love" theme as written by Gershwin and reharmonized by Ellington 176

4.5. Episodic parade of themes in Ellington's 1932 Rhapsody arrangement 178

4.6. Harry Carney's Rhapsody opening baritone saxophone solo, 1963 189

4.7. Paul Gonsalves's tenor saxophone over descending changes, 1963 189

4.8. Jimmy Hamilton's clarinet solo over descending changes, 1963 189

5.1. "Stride" theme in standard and harmonica tabular notation 213

5.2. Arpeggio fill in standard and chromatic harmonica tabular notation 216

5.3. Measures 229-38 of Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 229

5.4. Measures 63-65 of Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 229

5.5. "Love" theme/counter melody from Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 233

5.6. Measures 134-137 of Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 235

5.7. Adler's "grand cadenza" in Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 236

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Style Considerations

Throughout the dissertation I refer to the various themes of the Rhapsody using

standardized names as assigned by David Schiff in Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (New

York: Cambridge University Press, 1997). A summary chart of these themes appears

in Evan Rapport, "Bill Finegan's Gershwin Arrangements and the American Concept

of Hybridity,"/ourna/ of the Society for American Music 2, no. 4 (2008). Some of

these terms are slightly anachronistic. "Shuffle," for example, did not become

common parlance until the swing era. I have chosen to use them here, however,

because they facilitate quick comparison between observations made within my

study and those found in other literature on Rhapsody in Blue.

Since few readers will have access to the arrangements that I describe and

analyze within the body of this dissertation, I routinely accompany all measure

number or rehearsal letter references with their corresponding location in the

readily available orchestral score (Warner Brothers M00013) and two-piano/four-

hands score (Warner Brothers PS0165). Take the following sentence, for example:

"In the 1927 solo-piano sheet music, a bracket has been added in pencil at the close

of measure 18 [R. 2+2]." Here, the "R. 2+2" refers to two bars after rehearsal

number 2.

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Acknowledgments

Like Rhapsody in Blue, the arrangement of this dissertation benefited significantly

from the contributions of many. First and foremost, I would like to thank my

dissertation committee, which offered helpful feedback at all stages: Carol Oja, Kay

Kaufman Shelemay, and Ingrid Monson. As my advisor, Carol provided mentorship

and encouragement from the moment I arrived on campus through my recent [and

successful!) job search. Furthermore, her American music dissertation support

group kept the process of writing both invigorating and on track. Thank you

especially to the following graduate-student members of that "diss'n group": Emily

Abrams-Ansari, Davide Ceriani, Elizabeth Craft, Glenda Goodman, Jack Hamilton,

Sheryl Kaskowitz, Drew Massey, and Matthew Mugmon.

One of the great joys of graduate work at Harvard has been the community of

faculty, students, and staff. Professors Thomas Kelly and Sindhu Revuluri played a

particularly active and important role in my development. Corinna Campbell,

Katherine Lee, and Anna Zayaruznaya, members of my entering class cohort,

provided invaluable perspectives and constructive feedback. Conducting the Dudley

House Big Band, Jean-Francois Charles led the first performance of Ellington's 1932

Rhapsody arrangement in nearly 80 years. The staff of the music library, especially

Sarah Adams and Liza Vick, always responded promptly and thoroughly to my

inquiries. It would be impossible to catalog all the ways that the music department

staff impacted this project. I hope a simple thank you will suffice: Lesley Bannatyne,

Kaye Denny, Mary Gerbi, Eva Kim, Jean Moncrieff, Karen Rynne, Nancy Shafman, and

Charles Stillman.

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Beyond Harvard, my dissertation benefited from a wide range of colleagues

and friends. Thank you to the Gershwin scholars who have been both welcoming

and supportive: Richard Crawford, Howard Pollack, David Schiff, Wayne Shirley,

Larry Starr, and James Wierzbicki. Conversations with Vilde Aaslid, Benjamin

Albritton, Gwynne Brown, Rachel Mundy, Susan Neimoyer, and Lincoln Ballard (all

alums of University of Washington] contributed greatly to my work. I also wish to

acknowledge the assistance of: Ayden Adler, Anthony Brown, Humphrey Burton,

Judith Clurman, Todd Decker, John Howland, George Ferencz, Tamara Roberts, and

Travis Stimeling. For their archival assistance and insights, I thank: Raymond White

and Mark Horowitz at the Library of Congress; Michael Owen at the Ira and Leonore

Gershwin Trusts; Shannon Bowen at the American Heritage Center; Barbara Haws

at the New York Philharmonic; and Barbara Perkel at the Boston Symphony

Orchestra.

My research and writing was underwritten by several funding organizations

within Harvard, including the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Charles

Warren Center, and the Music Department. I am extremely grateful to the American

Musicological Society, which provided two full years of support by way of the

Howard Mayer Brown and Alvin H. Johnson AMS-50 fellowships.

Much like Leonard Bernstein, I received my first copy of the sheet music for

Rhapsody in Blue as teenager. Similarly, I begged my mother to buy me the score.

She agreed under the condition that I commit myself to learn the piece. I hope this

dissertation suffices! Thank you, mom. Along with her, my father, brother, sister,

and brother-in-law have each provided constant encouragement and levity.

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Likewise, I am grateful for the personal assistance (especially in the form of

babysitting) and professional advice provided my mother- and father-in-law. In the

final stages of this project, my fourteen-month-old son figured out which button on

the computer put it into sleep mode, effectively communicating: "Dad, it is time for a

break." Thank you, buddy. Finally: eternal gratitude, love, and appreciation to my

wife, Katie. You have been supportive and patient over the course of this long

process. From your willingness to make multiple cross-country moves down to the

witty doodles that accompany your meticulous edits of my prose, you have kept

everything in perspective and maintained a healthy dose of humor. I am excited to

begin the next leg of our adventure—the start of our tenth year of marriage—with

our son Felix in Colorado.

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To Zorro and The Bean

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Chapter 1

Setting the Stage for New Narratives

Music HAS A MARVELOUS FACULTY OF RECORDING A PICTURE IN

SOMEONE ELSE'S MIND. IN MY OWN CASE, EVERYBODY WHO HAS

EVER LISTENED TO RHAPSODY IN BLUE—AND THAT EMBRACES

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE—HAS A STORY FOR IT BUT MYSELF.

—GEORGE GERSHWIN, 19301

The iconic status of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue [1924) in the

history of American music results not only from its continued presence

in the orchestral repertory but, perhaps more importantly, from a

cultural fascination with what the work represents. When the Rhapsody was

performed at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles,

the introduction heard over the loudspeaker summed up this sentiment: "Jazz made

its way from the streets of New Orleans to the finest concert halls in New York, and

inspired George Gershwin to write this American classic."2 This vision of the piece's

upwardly mobile fusion of distinct musical traditions conveys an experience not

unlike its composer's own "rags to riches" story—Rhapsody in Blue is the American

dream incarnate. I am by no means the first to make such observations about the

1 Gershwin, "Composer in the Machine Age," reprinted in Wyatt and Johnson, eds., Gershwin Reader, 120.

2 Opening Ceremonies of the Games of the 23rd Olympiad, ABC National Broadcast, 28 July 1984. John Williams conducted the performance featuring eighty-four male pianists in blue tuxedoes with tails, each seated at a grand piano.

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Rhapsody—in fact, this view is well rehearsed. It took root during World War II,

most prominently in the Hollywood biopic released by Warner Brothers in 1945.3

However dominant this narrative may be, it remains only one story for a

work "embraced" by several hundred million more people than the "thousands" that

Gershwin wrote of in 1930. Over the course of the past eighty-five years, the

Rhapsody transitioned from a symphonic "pops" novelty to a subscription offering,

one frequently presented by the most prestigious conductors and pianists.4 At the

same time, it has had an important life beyond the concert hall. From the early days

of the recording industry to the 2008 Grammy Awards, from stadium concerts to the

Olympic Games, from hippie jam-bands to corporate advertising, the composition

has penetrated virtually all aspects of popular society.5

But what exactly is the "composition"? The overall aural effect of Rhapsody in

Blue at its 1924 premiere was due only in part to the compositional efforts of

Gershwin. The man responsible for what New York Tribune critic Lawrence Gilman

praised as the "saliency and vividness of the orchestral color" was Whiteman's

3 See Greenspan, "Rhapsody in Blue: A Study," 145-59.

4 Pollack, George Gershwin: His Life and Works, 311-12. In his chapter on Rhapsody in Blue, Pollack lists thirty-five famed conductor/pianist pairs in addition to four significant conductor-pianist individuals. See also Oja, ed., American Music Recordings, 122-26.

5 Examples of each are, respectively: the pre- and post-electronic recordings with the Whiteman Orchestra (1924 and 1927); Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang's performance under the direction of John Mauceri (2008); the pre-concert music for Billy Joel's "Storm Front" tour at Yankee Stadium (1990); the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles summer games (1984); Phish's song "Bathtub Gin" (1990); and more than two decades of United Airlines television commercials (1987-2009). For more on the use of the Rhapsody as a marketing device, see Love-Tulloch, "Marketing American Identity."

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arranger, Ferde Grofe.6 As Gershwin completed portions of his two-piano

manuscript for the Rhapsody, he passed the pages along to Grofe, who subsequently

orchestrated the work for the ensemble at hand. Doing so was accepted practice in

the field of popular music at the time, yet it departs from traditional expectations of

classical composition. The jazz-band version came to be replaced by an orchestral

one, also arranged by Grofe and first published by Warner Brothers in 1942.7

This arrangement became the "standard" version of Rhapsody in Blue in

terms of both performance and scholarship.8 Leonard Bernstein, for example,

played this symphonic arrangement of the Rhapsody with numerous ensembles over

the course of his career, often conducting the orchestra from the piano.9 He

performed it with the New York Philharmonic on twenty-one occasions between

1945 and 1976.10 With this orchestra, Bernstein recorded what Gershwin

biographer Howard Pollack has identified as "perhaps the best-known performance

6 Gilman, "Paul Whiteman and the Palais Royalists Extend Their Kingdom: Jazz at Aeolian Hall," New York Tribune, 13 February 1924.

7 George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue: Miniature Orchestra Score (Warner Brothers M00013).

8 Between 2000 and 2005, for example, 376 ensembles rented performance materials for the Rhapsody from European and American Music Distributers, which manages performance rights for the piece. Wierzbicki, "The Hollywood Career of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody," 134, note 3.

9 Some of the various ensembles that Bernstein led in this fashion include the Israeli Philharmonic (20 November 1948), the Boston Symphony Orchestra (10 August 1951), and the National Symphony Orchestra (6-9 January 1976). He also served as conductor for performances of the Rhapsody by the Rochester Symphony (16 March 1946) and Czech Philharmonic (June 1946) with Eugene List as piano soloist.

10 Data furnished by New York Philharmonic's online performance history search, http://history.nyphil.org/nypwcpub, accessed 3 April 2011. These dates include concerts from national and international tours but not Bernstein's presentation of the work on a 25 January 1959 television broadcast.

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of the piece in the later twentieth century"—a recording released on the Columbia

label in 1959.11

Grofe's symphonic arrangement of the Rhapsody is the "frame of reference"

for the only book-length study of the work, authored by David Schiff.12 From an

analytical stance, taking this version as the "composition" makes sense because the

symphonic arrangement offers a standardized version of the piece in its most

frequently heard form. In doing so, however, Schiff reinscribes the authority of this

particular arrangement. He is not alone. Every scholarly consideration of the work

favors Grofe's symphonic arrangement of the Rhapsody despite the fact that it was

not commercially available until after Gershwin's death.13 This classicized

arrangement, which shifts the trajectory of the piece away from its symphonic-jazz

roots, nicely conforms to the upwardly mobile interpretation suggested by the

"American Dream" trope introduced previously. However, its dominance obscures

the fact that hundreds of other arrangements of the piece—by some of the most

familiar and obscure names in American music—have emerged over the course of

the past eighty-five years.

On the premise that from the very beginning Rhapsody in Blue exists as a

variable idea and not a fixed text, this dissertation explores diverse formations of

the work. Following the case-study model, I consider a set of arrangements

11 Pollack, George Gershwin, 314. Columbia ML-5413, recorded June 1959. This recording is discussed in greater detail in chapter 3.

12 Schiff, Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, 6.

13 See my discussion of each of these studies later in this chapter.

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prepared and performed by several musicians who used the piece in the negotiation

of their musical identity: Ferde Grofe, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, and Larry

Adler. In the process of positing a broad vision of the Rhapsody, I shed new light on

familiar musicians, introduce now-forgotten figures for musicological consideration,

and remap the terrain of this iconic piece of American music.

Shifting the emphasis away from a centralized text and from the sole agency

of the composer reveals new narratives. When cast together these narratives

reshape our conception of the Rhapsody, George Gershwin, and music in America.

Through hybrid methodological and theoretical processes, I expand on existing

approaches to the study of arrangements as well as challenge existing and

entrenched definitions of "composer" and "composition." By exploring the cultural

work of Rhapsody in Blue, I also hope to offer future possible directions for

Americanist studies in music as we enter a new generation of scholarship in the

field—a field that by the early twenty-first century has a substantive body of

musicological scholarship on which to stand. At the same time, my study prompts a

reassessment of that scholarship, particularly with respect to Gershwin's life and

music.

The goal of this introductory chapter is to set the stage for exploring new

narratives for Rhapsody in Blue. In the first section I situate my project within

existing biographical and musicological literature on Gershwin and the Rhapsody. I

consider the ways in which biographical accounts of the Rhapsody, which are

dominant in historical depictions of the piece, have overshadowed musicological

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scholarship, which remains scant and primarily analytical (as opposed to historical)

in its approach. A brief consideration of arrangement studies clarifies my

contributions to this intriguing field of musicological inquiry. I then introduce a

conceptual background for my dissertation, an organizational model drawn from

the work of French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Summarized, I

view each arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue as an individual plateau, an energized

plane for investigation. New narratives emerge from the horizontal space occupied

by each arrangement, offering a fresh approach to exploring America's musical past.

An introduction of the four case studies that form the core of my study follows. I

conclude by investigating how musicians and audiences experienced the Rhapsody

in the years following its premiere. Royalty statements and copyright records

reveal the many arranged forms of the Rhapsody from the outset, recasting the

initial performance of the piece from a single historiographical peak to one of many

plateaus.

The Problem of Biography and the Study of Gershwin's Music

A multitude of biographical studies on Gershwin exists because of the broad-based

popularity of his music and a general fascination with his all-too-short life. In the

wake of Gershwin's untimely death at the age of thirty-eight in 1937, relatives,

friends and associates quickly began to tell Gershwin's story—often with their own

interests at heart. Wayne Schneider is likely correct in his assumption that

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Gershwin "must be the most biographied composer of the twentieth century."14

Writing in 1999, Schneider identified sixteen books on Gershwin in English and

eleven more in other languages.15 In the decade since his tally, an additional five

English-language biographies have emerged.16

Schneider's concern with these biographical assessments is the same as

mine:

Problematic in this literature, especially the biographies, is the omission of frank, rigorous discussion of the thing that makes Gershwin matter: his music. The handful of famous songs, the instrumental works, and the operas receive attention—often reduced in the biographies to points of historical reference for the telling of Gershwin's life story—but only recent scholarly research has begun to paint a fuller picture of the compositional thinking of this American master.17

Rather than focusing on aspects of musical analysis, biographical

assessments—which continue to dominate the literature about Gershwin—reiterate

the same sets of stories, many of which emerged only after Gershwin's death.

Because of the deeply personal connection that many felt with Gershwin, these

14 Wayne Schneider, "Introduction," in Schneider, ed., Gershwin Style, xii.

15 The English-language biographies he identifies are (in chronological order): Goldberg, George Gershwin: A Study in American Music (1931); Armitage, George Gershwin (1938; reprint, 1995); Ewen, The Story of George Gershwin (1946) and A Journey to Greatness (1956); Armitage, George Gershwin: Man and Legend (1958); Jablonski and Stewart, The Gershwin Years (1958); Payne, Gershwin (1960); Rushmore, The Life of George Gershwin (1966); Kimball and Simon, The Gershwins (1973); Schwartz, Gershwin: His Life and Music (1973); DeSantis, Portraits of Greatness: Gershwin (1987); Jablonski, Gershwin: A Biography (1987); Kendall, George Gershwin: A Biography; Rosenberg, Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin (1991); Jablonski, Gershwin Remembered (1992); and Peyser, The Memory of All That (1993).

16 Hyland, George Gershwin: A New Biography; Rimler, George Gershwin: An Intimate Portrait; Leon, Gershwin; Greenberg, George Gershwin; Pollack, George Gershwin. See also Banagale, "Review of George Gershwin: His Life and Work."

17 Schneider, ed. Gershwin Style, xiii.

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anecdotes offer compelling visions of the composer. However, such portrayals

emerge from a hazy lens, especially when it comes to specific discussion of music.

For example, most narrative accounts of Gershwin's compositional process provide

little inspiration for further investigation. Although similar issues arise in virtually

all composer biographies, in Gershwin's case the results have significantly affected

scholarly interest in his music. James Wierzbicki, for example, writes about the

"genesis myth" for Gershwin's other rhapsody: "The idea that the Second Rhapsody

is a derivative work likely owes to a misleading statement that appeared in Isaac

Goldberg's 1931 George Gershwin: A Study in American Music and subsequently was

echoed in press reports surrounding the Second Rhapsody's premiere."18 Much of

the mythologizing of Gershwin and his compositional process can be traced to

Goldberg's foundational account.

It is worth dwelling on Goldberg's biographical assessment of Gershwin

because it continues to govern both scholarship and reception of Rhapsody in Blue.19

"Perhaps more than any other single source," note the editors of a recently

published Gershwin reader, "[Goldberg's] biography provides a timeless glimpse of

Gershwin during his lifetime, a uniquely valuable document given its dependence on

the composer's own thoughts about his life and music that are contained in the

18 Wierzbicki, "The Hollywood Career of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody," 134. The Second Rhapsody premiered in January 1932 in Boston. Gershwin played the solo-piano part with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky. The piece received its New York premiere the following month.

19 Goldberg, George Gershwin.

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letters exchanged between the author and composer."20 All subsequent biographers

have drawn on Goldberg's contemporary account, from its narratives of Gershwin's

childhood to the roughly twenty pages of quotations attributed to Gershwin himself.

As I have written elsewhere, Goldberg shaped his portrayal of Gershwin in ways that

advanced his own personal agenda for American music.21 Goldberg maintained a

"ground-up" vision of American music: only someone versed in the popular music of

the day would successfully integrate it into classical forms. All parts of Goldberg's

narrative promote this vision, from his depiction of Gershwin's childhood to the

analysis of his music.

In the process of crafting an image of Gershwin, Goldberg appears to have

altered quotations attributed to Gershwin himself. Prior to the publication of his

biography, Goldberg issued a series of articles about Gershwin in Ladies Home

Journal.22 Quotations attributed to Gershwin in the magazine were changed, some

slightly and some extensively, when they appeared in the subsequent book. Some

amendments affected biographical data. For example, Gershwin's narrative account

of how he discovered music with little Maxie Rosenzweig (later virtuoso violinist

Max Rosen) expands from a paragraph in the pages of Ladies Home Journal to a page

in Goldberg's book, introducing treacherous truancy and torrential downpours.

20 Wya t t and Johnson, eds., Gershwin Reader, 14.

21 Bafiagale, "Isaac Goldberg."

22 Goldberg, "Music by Gershwin," February-April 1931. These three essays are a combination of condensed chapters and passages that would become altered and expanded in the completed book. Whereas the February article excerpts completed passages from the first two chapters of the biography (pp. 4-68), the material featured in the March and April essays appears still very much in progress.

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