Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Rhapsody in Blue


I was listening to George Gershwins' Rhapsody in Blue on the way to work. It blows my mind-- it seems such strange music to me, not really classical, not really jazz, just this long, crazy, frantic, beautiful ride. The first time I heard it, it completely baffled me, and I didn't like it, but now I really love it.

"It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer – I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise... And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind and tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite plot of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance." (George Gershwin)

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