7 - Influence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2010
Summary
Rhapsody in Blue was a hard act to follow, even for Gershwin. Its only successful progeny were Gershwin's Concerto in F and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G; more problematic offspring - if we limit the field to works that would not have been written without the example of the Rhapsody - are James P. Johnson's Yamekraw and Gershwin's two later piano and orchestra works, the Second Rhapsody and the “I Got Rhythm” Variations. The twenties produced many jazz symphonies both before and after the Rhapsody, most of them independent of Gershwin's example. Satie's Parade, Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat, Hindemith's Suite 1922 and Milhaud's La création du monde all preceded the Rhapsody. Honegger's Concertino (which Rosenfeld praised at the expense of Gershwin's Concerto) and Krenek's Jonny spielt auf are continuations of Euro-jazz. Kurt Weill's version of symphonic jazz would only show the strong influence of Gershwin after he emigrated to the United States. In America a number of jazz symphonies made an initial impact almost equal to the Rhapsody's: John Alden Carpenter's Krazy Kat (1921) and Skyscrapers (1926); Louis Gruenberg's Daniel Jazz (1925), Jazzettes (1926) and The Emperor Jones (1933); George Antheil's Jazz Symphony (1925) and Transatlantic (1930). Jazz also permeated works written in the 1920s by Virgil Thomson (Sonata da chiesa), Sessions (Symphony no. 1) and Copland (Music for the Theater, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra).
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- Information
- Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue , pp. 71 - 81Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997