Second Rhapsody (Gershwin)

The Second Rhapsody is a concert piece for orchestra with piano by American composer George Gershwin, written in 1931. It is sometimes referred to by its original title, Rhapsody in Rivets.

The Second Rhapsody was seldom performed in the twentieth century, and only in recent years has critical and popular attention turned to the work.

Composition

In 1930, George Gershwin, together with his brother Ira Gershwin, was invited to go to Hollywood to provide the music for the film Delicious. He spent seven weeks on the score only to find that just four songs (Blah, Blah, Blah; Delishious; Katinkitschka; Somebody from Somewhere), a five-minute "Dream Sequence" and one minute from a six-minute orchestral sequence called New York Rhapsody would be incorporated in the film.

When he went back to New York in February 1931, he had decided to use the material from the six-minute sequence to work into a concert piece and had sketched some of it. Some of the material was jettisoned: the Manhattan Rhapsody opens (in the film) with lush strings playing unusual chords, followed by the main romantic theme in 6/8 time arranged for piano and solo cello and violin. The actual opening of the Second Rhapsody as it is heard today does not occur until two minutes into the Manhattan Rhapsody.

The rest of the film sequence was radically rearranged and rescored by Gershwin. He completed the fourteen-minute piece by May 1931. The new work was titled Rhapsody in Rivets during his sketching, but later he could not decide between Rhapsody in Rivets, New York Rhapsody, or Manhattan Rhapsody as a title, so eventually with a premiere coming due he settled on the understated title: Second Rhapsody.

Premiere

On June 26, 1931, Gershwin conducted New York musicians and played the piano solo in a run-through of the Rhapsody. He had the rehearsal professionally recorded, but it was never commercially issued. Years later, Ira Gershwin provided the recording so that it could be issued on LP. In 1991, the historic performance was issued on CD by Musicmasters. Orchestrations differ greatly in several areas from Gershwin's final version (and McBride's later reorchestration). Several piano solos and other parts of the Rhapsody that were later deleted by Gershwin can be heard on this recording.

The piece received its premiere in Boston Symphony Hall by Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Serge Koussevitzky on January 29, 1932, with the composer himself playing the piano part. The New York premiere was given a few days later.

Rescoring by Publisher

The form most commonly heard today is a re-orchestrated version by Robert McBride created fourteen years after Gershwin's death. McBride was assigned by Frank Campbell-Watson (the music editor for Gershwin's publisher New World Music) to completely rescore the piece. Since this version is the only one offered by the publisher, it has been almost impossible for orchestras to perform the piece as Gershwin envisioned it.

Most of Gershwin's orchestrations have been vastly simplified. For example, the string quartet portion of the adagio was inexplicably rescored for violin, clarinet, oboe, and cello. Many string passages were reassigned to other instruments, or instruments that formerly had solos now have other instruments doubling their passages. Also, eight measures excised by the composer were re-added to the recapitulation by the editor.

Michael Tilson Thomas has been a promulgator of Gershwin's original version, as he sought out the original manuscript in the library as the basis of his 1985 recording and for his later performances.

References

• Greenberg, Rodney (1998). George Gershwin. Phaidon Press. ISBN 0-7148-3504-8.