Rhapsody in Blue eludes convenient classification. Is it classical music with pop elements, or jazz with serious pretensions?

Sometime in late 1923, the band leader Paul Whiteman asked George Gershwin to think about writing a jazz piece. Gershwin gave it some thought and sketched some possible themes. Nothing more came of this until January 4, 1924, when a newspaper announced that George Gershwin was “at work on a jazz concerto” to be premiered in New York. Despite the confusion, Whiteman evidently was able to persuade Gershwin to accept his commission and to proceed. Gershwin later recalled that he formed the concept of the piece on the way to Boston, inspired in part by the rhythmic noises of the train ride. Upon returning to New York, he generated a 2-piano score. Ferde Grofé, best remembered as the composer of the Grand Canyon Suite, completed the orchestration, barely a week before the scheduled premiere.

The wailing of the clarinet as the piece opens was contributed by first-chair clarinetist, Ross Gorman, as a joke on Gershwin during a particularly long and grueling rehearsal session. Due to the rushed circumstances and his other commitments, Gershwin reportedly had no time to write out the solo passages, which he played from memory (and, great improviser that he was, probably embellished considerably right on the spot). Gershwin’s understanding with Whiteman was that he would nod to him when his solos were over and the next orchestral portion was to begin.

Rhapsody in Blue was very American in its daring and its energy. And like America, it was a veritable “melting pot” of the influences that shaped Gershwin’s musical language – Scott Joplin’s tuneful piano rags, the rhythmic jazz of the African-American Harlem clubs, the folk music of the Yiddish theater, and the new post-Romantic music of Ravel, Schoenberg and Stravinsky.

The fame and impact of the piece inspired many other serious composers (including Stravinsky and Milhaud) to explore jazz and as many pop composers to dabble in classical forms. Perhaps its strongest, although indirect, influence was on Leonard Bernstein, who achieved great success in both musical worlds. But all of this lay well in the future, a future which Gershwin, who died at age 38 of a brain tumor, would not live to see.