Music Analysis Rhapsody in Blue, Creative Essay Example

The acclaimed George Gershwin composed Rhapsody in Blue. The work is famous for its huge contrasts in style, tonal, color, and musical texture. It is truly original in its sound and contains non-danceable, jazz-like elements. The information that follows provides a time-line of the piece and offers the highlights of it, describing these in musical language wherever applicable. I have divided the work into three sections, because I feel that there are three, radical mood changes contained within this truly original American masterpiece.

Section 1

0:00 First is the famous clarinet trill and subsequent glissando at the beginning and its overall, bluesy introduction to the piece. This is one of the most recognizable moments in all orchestral literature and travels the complete registers of the instrument. The listener is not aware at this time that the work will feature the piano.

0:50 Muted trumpets takes over the Theme I. The piano makes its initial entrance.

1:05 Then the entire orchestra restates the theme without piano.

1:20 The piano enters as a solo instrument (the work is a piano rhapsody instead of a concerto because it has only one movement). The piano carries a wonderful cadenza and a brief fantasy on the main theme. It builds in speed, dynamics, and intensity.

2:45 The entire orchestra and piano restate the theme at a brick tempo. The low brass are featured.

3:30 The solo clarinet and muted trumpets come back again in reprise. The whole orchestra chimes in for the final voicing of Theme I.

Section 2

4:10 Trombones introduce Theme II.

4:35 Trumpets have the theme, with piano interspersed.

4:55 The piano takes over as solo in slow and playful restatement of Theme II.

6:35 Woodwinds combine with the piano making dissonant, car-horn sounds.

7:00 The piano takes the theme as solo once more.

Section 3

8:30 The orchestra, without piano, introduces Theme III. Light bells (Celeste?) are heard as accompaniment. Violins are featured.

9:35 The piano creeps in, almost in perceptively, with the orchestra as the theme builds in intensity.

10:00 Light bells sound again, with pizzicato from the stings.

10:10 The piano solos again. This time it is soft and slow, yet deliberate.

10:30 The piano continues its solo, but now it adds flourishes of high notes that embellish Theme III.

11:10 The piano lingers with its solo, playing in staccato style and lightly. There are many short, repeated notes that sound like shimmering waters, cascading downward.

11:55 Trombones make their entrance to break the solo piano mood. Next, the tutti brass blast forth with the piano shimmering in the background.

12:30 We hear loud, dissonant chords throughout this portion of the work.

12:50 The low brass have a downward run that sets in motion the final minute of the rhapsody, where everything seems to all come together.

13:20 The ominous sounds of a gong are heard for the piano’s final statement of Theme III, and  the orchestral issues one, final stinger.

13:45 end

The melodies are glorious. The harmonic structures are rich. Modulations occur at several places throughout. The mutes of the trumpets give them a particularly bright and interesting timbre that stands in sharp contrast to the sonorous clarinet. The piano sounds at times playful, at other times soulful, at other times serious and majestic. It shows the various roles that pianos can play in clubs, theatres, and concert halls. Whether this was intentional on the part of Gershwin, I do not know, but he succeeded in showing the versatility of the instrument in an ingenious manner. The meter seems to be in four throughout, but I do not know for sure without looking at the score. Accents are placed at unexpected places to make the main ideas more energetic.