Second Rhapsody

Second Rhapsody is a concert piece for orchestra with piano by American composer George Gershwin in 1931. Although having a similar title, Second Rhapsody has never matched the popularity of the composer's earlier Rhapsody in Blue.

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 but only to find that four songs (Blah, Blah, Blah; Delishious; Katinkitschka; Somebody from Somewhere), a "Dream Sequence" and one minute from a six-minute orchestral sequence named as 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 a few on it. He completed the a fourteen-minute piece by May. The new work was initially titled as Rhapsody in Rivets during his sketching, but later he could not decide between New York Rhapsody and Manhattan Rhapsody. The title was finally settled as Second Rhapsody.

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

The form most commonly heard today is a re-orchestrated version by Robert McBride, assigned by Frank Campbell-Watson, the music editor for Gershwin's publisher New World Music; most of Gershwin's orchestrations have been simplified. Also, eight measures not by the composer were added to the recapitulation. 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.

Although there is a 1941 animated cartoon by Friz Freleng entitled "Rhapsody in Rivets", its score is based on Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, not on Gershwin.

References

• Greenberg, Rodney (1998). George Gershwin. Phaidon Press. ISBN 0-7148-3504-8.
• O. Costello, Eric (1997). "Warner Brothers Cartoon Compilation". Retrieved 2006-06-15.: Freleng's "Rhapsody in Rivets" cartoon based on Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody