HARVARD UNIVERSITY Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

DISSERTATION ACCEPTANCE CERTIFICATE The undersigned, appointed by the Department of Music have examined a dissertation entitled

Rhapsodies In Blue: New Narratives for an Iconic American "Composition "

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candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and hereby certify that it is worthy of acceptance.

Professor Carol J. Oja Signature rj^^-y'

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Ryan Raul Banagale

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Professor Kay Kaufman

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Rhapsodies in Blue: New Narratives for an Iconic American "Composition"

Ryan Raul Banagale

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in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Music

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The Department of Music

Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2011

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A dissertation presented

UMI Number: 3462434

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 2011 - Ryan Raul Banagale All rights reserved.

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Advisor: Professor Carol J. Oja

Ryan Raul Bafiagale

Rhapsodies in Blue: New Narratives for an Iconic American "Composition" Abstract From the very beginning, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue has existed as an arrangement, yet no one has considered the work in that light. Following the case-study model, I explore a set of arrangements prepared and performed by a

identity: Ferde Grofe, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, and Larry Adler. Shifting the emphasis away from a centralized text and from the sole agency of the composer reveals a host of new narratives. When cast together these narratives reshape our understanding of the Rhapsody, Gershwin, and music in America. This dissertation expands on current approaches to the study of arrangements and challenges existing and entrenched definitions of "composer" and "composition." In the process of remapping the terrain of this iconic piece of American music, I shed new light on familiar and little-known musicians. Examining a broader vision of the Rhapsody presents possible future directions for Americanist studies in music as we enter a new generation of scholarship in the fielda field that by the early twentyfirst century has a substantive body of musicological scholarship on which to stand. At the same time, this dissertation prompts a reassessment of that scholarship, particularly with respect to Gershwin's life and music.

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suite of musicians who used the Rhapsody in the negotiation of their musical

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Contents
List of Illustrations Style Considerations Acknowledgments vi viii ix

Chapter 1. Setting the Stage for New Narratives The Problem of Biography and the Study of Gershwin's Music Situating the Rhapsody within "Arrangement Studies"

1 6 16 22 24 31 49 55 68 69 76 80 93 112 116

The Four Case Studies Making a Molehill out of a Mountain

Chapter 2. Ferde Grofe: Arranging the Future of Rhapsody in Blue Ferde Grofe: The Early Years

What the Sources Tell Us about Composing the Rhapsody Gershwin's Two-Piano Manuscript in Pencil

Assessing Grofe's Contributions to the Rhapsody After the Experiment: Grofe's Ongoing Development of the Rhapsody Conclusion: Arranger, Composer, or Both? Chapter 3. Affectionate Ambivalence: Leonard Bernstein's "Nice Gershwin Tune" A Boston Boy Meets Rhapsody in Blue "We got the things we came here for": Bernstein's Camp Onota Arrangement Bernstein's Rhapsody in Blue Conclusion: More than Just a "Nice Gershwin Tune"

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Grofe's Full-Score Manuscript for the Whiteman Orchestra Introducing the Fair-Copy Ink Score

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Remapping the Terrain: Arrangements as Plateaus

119 121

129 143 152 iv

Chapter 4. Rewriting the Narrative One Arrangement at a Time: Duke Ellington and Rhapsody in Blue The Early Ellington Arrangements of Rhapsody in Blue Rewriting the Rhapsody for the 1960s Conclusion: Arranging the Past to Make Room in the Present Chapter 5. "It Ain't Necessarily So": Larry Adler and Rhapsody in Blue Larry Adler's Career before Rhapsody in Blue Engaging the Rhapsody through Performance and Recording Achieving Symphonic Aspirations The Blacklisting of Larry Adler

157 162 179 190 193 199 206 218

237 241 253 255

Rebuilding a Career with Rhapsody in Blue

Conclusion: Adding up Adler's Arrangements and Anecdotes Epilogue. Arranging on Multiple Levels

Appendix A. Publication Royalties for Rhapsody in Blue Appendix B. Mechanical Royalties for Rhapsody in Blue Appendix C. Instrumental Indications in Gershwin's Pencil Manuscript Bibliography

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259 266 269 271

Illustrations
Figures
1.1. Primary manuscripts conlusted 1.2. Domestic and Canadian sales for Whiteman's 1924 Rhapsody recording 1.3. Domestic and Canadian sales for Whiteman's 1927 Rhapsody recording 1.4. Commercially available recordings of Rhapsody (1924-27) 1.5. Sales of Rhapsody sheet music, two-piano version (1925-28) 1.6. Sales of Rhapsody orchestral part sets (1926-30) 1.7. Sales of Rhapsody sheet music, solo-piano version (1927-31) 2.1. Three manuscript sources for Rhapsody, with nicknames 2.2. Ferde Grofe with fair-copy ink manuscript of Rhapsody, 1967 2.4. Copyist hands in fair-copy ink manuscript of Rhapsody 2.6. Instrumentation timeline for second instance of ritornello theme 2.7. Instrumentation chart for three of Grofe's Rhapsody arrangements 3.1. Cover of Bernstein's solo-piano sheet music of Rhapsody 3.2. Final page of Bernstein's Camp Onota arrangement 3.3. Bernstein conducting the Camp Onota "Rhythm Band" 3.4. Page 9 of Bernstein's Camp Onota arrangement 3.5. Measure 197 of Bernstein's solo-piano sheet music of Rhapsody 4.1. Rhapsody in Blue arrangements in the Duke Ellington Collection 4.2. Proposed part assignments for Bob Sylvester's arrangement, 1925 4.3. Thematic organization of Bob Sylvester's arrangement, 1925 4.4. Part assignments for Ellington's 1932 arrangement 4.5. Thematic organization of Ellington's 1932 arrangement 4.6. Part assignments for Billy Staryhorn's 1963 arrangement 4.7. Thematic organization of Billy Strayhorn's 1963 arrangement 5.1. Recordings of Rhapsody in Blue made by Larry Adler 2.3. Page groupings for fair-copy ink manuscript of Rhapsody 27 35 38 38 43 44 46 53 82 84 85 96 107 116 125 133 136 139 151 160 166 168 171 174 185 185 195 vi

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2.5. Instrumentation timeline for Grofe's Whiteman arrangement

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5.2. The Empire Room at the Palmer House, circa 1940 5.3. Chart of possible pitches on first four holes of a chromatic harmonica 5.4. Chart of cuts in Adler's 1935 recording of Rhapsody in Blue 5.5. Larry Adler in action 5.6. Chart of cuts in Robert Russell Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement

207 212 215 217 228

Examples
2.1. Gershwin's "Do It Again" melody with instrumental echo by Grofe 2.2. Excised measures (36A and B) from Gershwin's pencil manuscript 2.3. Page 1 of Rhapsody in Blue pencil manuscript 2.5. Measures 123-126 of "stride" theme in pencil and ink manuscripts 2.6. Measures 144-146 of "shuffle" theme in pencil and ink manuscripts 3.1. Gershwin's original transition into the "love" theme 3.2. Bernstein's transposition into the "love" theme 4.1. Introduction of Bob Sylvester arrangement, 1925 4.2. "Train" theme as written by Gershwin and reharmonized by Ellington 4.3. "Stride" theme as written by Gershwin and reharmonized by Ellington 4.4. "Love" theme as written by Gershwin and reharmonized by Ellington 4.5. Episodic parade of themes in Ellington's 1932 Rhapsody arrangement 4.6. Harry Carney's Rhapsody opening baritone saxophone solo, 1963 4.7. Paul Gonsalves's tenor saxophone over descending changes, 1963 4.8. Jimmy Hamilton's clarinet solo over descending changes, 1963 5.1. "Stride" theme in standard and harmonica tabular notation 5.2. Arpeggio fill in standard and chromatic harmonica tabular notation 5.3. Measures 229-38 of Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 5.4. Measures 63-65 of Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 5.5. "Love" theme/counter melody from Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 5.6. Measures 134-137 of Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 5.7. Adler's "grand cadenza" in Bennett's Rhapsody arrangement 2.4. Page 2 of Rhapsody in Blue pencil manuscript 65 72 74 75 88 89 142 142 169 174 175 176 178 189 189 189 213 216 229 229 233 235 236

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Style Considerations
Throughout the dissertation I refer to the various themes of the Rhapsody using standardized names as assigned by David Schiff in Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997). A summary chart of these themes appears in Evan Rapport, "Bill Finegan's Gershwin Arrangements and the American Concept of Hybridity,"/ourna/ of the Society for American Music 2, no. 4 (2008). Some of these terms are slightly anachronistic. "Shuffle," for example, did not become

because they facilitate quick comparison between observations made within my

Since few readers will have access to the arrangements that I describe and analyze within the body of this dissertation, I routinely accompany all measure number or rehearsal letter references with their corresponding location in the readily available orchestral score (Warner Brothers M00013) and two-piano/fourhands score (Warner Brothers PS0165). Take the following sentence, for example: "In the 1927 solo-piano sheet music, a bracket has been added in pencil at the close of measure 18 [R. 2+2]." Here, the "R. 2+2" refers to two bars after rehearsal number 2.

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study and those found in other literature on Rhapsody in Blue.

common parlance until the swing era. I have chosen to use them here, however,

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Acknowledgments
Like Rhapsody in Blue, the arrangement of this dissertation benefited significantly from the contributions of many. First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation committee, which offered helpful feedback at all stages: Carol Oja, Kay Kaufman Shelemay, and Ingrid Monson. As my advisor, Carol provided mentorship and encouragement from the moment I arrived on campus through my recent [and successful!) job search. Furthermore, her American music dissertation support group kept the process of writing both invigorating and on track. Thank you especially to the following graduate-student members of that "diss'n group": Emily

Sheryl Kaskowitz, Drew Massey, and Matthew Mugmon. One of the great joys of graduate work at Harvard has been the community of faculty, students, and staff. Professors Thomas Kelly and Sindhu Revuluri played a

Katherine Lee, and Anna Zayaruznaya, members of my entering class cohort, provided invaluable perspectives and constructive feedback. Conducting the Dudley House Big Band, Jean-Francois Charles led the first performance of Ellington's 1932 Rhapsody arrangement in nearly 80 years. The staff of the music library, especially Sarah Adams and Liza Vick, always responded promptly and thoroughly to my inquiries. It would be impossible to catalog all the ways that the music department staff impacted this project. I hope a simple thank you will suffice: Lesley Bannatyne, Kaye Denny, Mary Gerbi, Eva Kim, Jean Moncrieff, Karen Rynne, Nancy Shafman, and Charles Stillman.
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particularly active and important role in my development. Corinna Campbell,

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Abrams-Ansari, Davide Ceriani, Elizabeth Craft, Glenda Goodman, Jack Hamilton,

Beyond Harvard, my dissertation benefited from a wide range of colleagues and friends. Thank you to the Gershwin scholars who have been both welcoming and supportive: Richard Crawford, Howard Pollack, David Schiff, Wayne Shirley, Larry Starr, and James Wierzbicki. Conversations with Vilde Aaslid, Benjamin Albritton, Gwynne Brown, Rachel Mundy, Susan Neimoyer, and Lincoln Ballard (all alums of University of Washington] contributed greatly to my work. I also wish to acknowledge the assistance of: Ayden Adler, Anthony Brown, Humphrey Burton, Judith Clurman, Todd Decker, John Howland, George Ferencz, Tamara Roberts, and Travis Stimeling. For their archival assistance and insights, I thank: Raymond White

Gershwin Trusts; Shannon Bowen at the American Heritage Center; Barbara Haws

Orchestra.

My research and writing was underwritten by several funding organizations within Harvard, including the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Charles Warren Center, and the Music Department. I am extremely grateful to the American Musicological Society, which provided two full years of support by way of the Howard Mayer Brown and Alvin H. Johnson AMS-50 fellowships. Much like Leonard Bernstein, I received my first copy of the sheet music for Rhapsody in Blue as teenager. Similarly, I begged my mother to buy me the score. She agreed under the condition that I commit myself to learn the piece. I hope this dissertation suffices! Thank you, mom. Along with her, my father, brother, sister, and brother-in-law have each provided constant encouragement and levity.
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at the New York Philharmonic; and Barbara Perkel at the Boston Symphony

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and Mark Horowitz at the Library of Congress; Michael Owen at the Ira and Leonore

Likewise, I am grateful for the personal assistance (especially in the form of babysitting) and professional advice provided my mother- and father-in-law. In the final stages of this project, my fourteen-month-old son figured out which button on the computer put it into sleep mode, effectively communicating: "Dad, it is time for a break." Thank you, buddy. Finally: eternal gratitude, love, and appreciation to my wife, Katie. You have been supportive and patient over the course of this long process. From your willingness to make multiple cross-country moves down to the witty doodles that accompany your meticulous edits of my prose, you have kept everything in perspective and maintained a healthy dose of humor. I am excited to begin the next leg of our adventurethe start of our tenth year of marriagewith our son Felix in Colorado.

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To Zorro and The Bean
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Chapter 1 Setting the Stage for New Narratives

Music HAS A MARVELOUS FACULTY OF RECORDING A PICTURE IN
SOMEONE ELSE'S MIND. IN MY OWN CASE, EVERYBODY WHO HAS EVER LISTENED TO RHAPSODY IN BLUEAND THAT EMBRACES THOUSANDS OF PEOPLEHAS A STORY FOR IT BUT MYSELF. GEORGE GERSHWIN, 1930 1

history of American music results not only from its continued presence in the orchestral repertory but, perhaps more importantly, from a

cultural fascination with what the work represents. When the Rhapsody was performed at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the introduction heard over the loudspeaker summed up this sentiment: "Jazz made its way from the streets of New Orleans to the finest concert halls in New York, and inspired George Gershwin to write this American classic."2 This vision of the piece's upwardly mobile fusion of distinct musical traditions conveys an experience not unlike its composer's own "rags to riches" storyRhapsody in Blue is the American dream incarnate. I am by no means the first to make such observations about the

Gershwin, "Composer in the Machine Age," reprinted in Wyatt and Johnson, eds., Gershwin Reader, 120.

Opening Ceremonies of the Games of the 23rd Olympiad, ABC National Broadcast, 28 July 1984. John Williams conducted the performance featuring eighty-four male pianists in blue tuxedoes with tails, each seated at a grand piano.

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he iconic status of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue [1924) in the

Rhapsodyin fact, this view is well rehearsed. It took root during World War II, most prominently in the Hollywood biopic released by Warner Brothers in 1945.3 However dominant this narrative may be, it remains only one story for a work "embraced" by several hundred million more people than the "thousands" that Gershwin wrote of in 1930. Over the course of the past eighty-five years, the Rhapsody transitioned from a symphonic "pops" novelty to a subscription offering, one frequently presented by the most prestigious conductors and pianists.4 At the same time, it has had an important life beyond the concert hall. From the early days of the recording industry to the 2008 Grammy Awards, from stadium concerts to the

has penetrated virtually all aspects of popular society.5

Blue at its 1924 premiere was due only in part to the compositional efforts of

praised as the "saliency and vividness of the orchestral color" was Whiteman's

3 4

See Greenspan, "Rhapsody in Blue: A Study," 145-59.

Pollack, George Gershwin: His Life and Works, 311-12. In his chapter on Rhapsody in Blue, Pollack lists thirty-five famed conductor/pianist pairs in addition to four significant conductor-pianist individuals. See also Oja, ed., American Music Recordings, 122-26. Examples of each are, respectively: the pre- and post-electronic recordings with the Whiteman Orchestra (1924 and 1927); Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang's performance under the direction of John Mauceri (2008); the pre-concert music for Billy Joel's "Storm Front" tour at Yankee Stadium (1990); the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles summer games (1984); Phish's song "Bathtub Gin" (1990); and more than two decades of United Airlines television commercials (1987-2009). For more on the use of the Rhapsody as a marketing device, see Love-Tulloch, "Marketing American Identity."
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Gershwin. The man responsible for what New York Tribune critic Lawrence Gilman

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But what exactly is the "composition"? The overall aural effect of Rhapsody in

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Olympic Games, from hippie jam-bands to corporate advertising, the composition

arranger, Ferde Grofe.6 As Gershwin completed portions of his two-piano manuscript for the Rhapsody, he passed the pages along to Grofe, who subsequently orchestrated the work for the ensemble at hand. Doing so was accepted practice in the field of popular music at the time, yet it departs from traditional expectations of classical composition. The jazz-band version came to be replaced by an orchestral one, also arranged by Grofe and first published by Warner Brothers in 1942.7 This arrangement became the "standard" version of Rhapsody in Blue in terms of both performance and scholarship.8 Leonard Bernstein, for example, played this symphonic arrangement of the Rhapsody with numerous ensembles over

performed it with the New York Philharmonic on twenty-one occasions between

biographer Howard Pollack has identified as "perhaps the best-known performance

Gilman, "Paul Whiteman and the Palais Royalists Extend Their Kingdom: Jazz at Aeolian Hall," New York Tribune, 13 February 1924. George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue: Miniature Orchestra Score (Warner Brothers M00013).

7 8

Between 2000 and 2005, for example, 376 ensembles rented performance materials for the Rhapsody from European and American Music Distributers, which manages performance rights for the piece. Wierzbicki, "The Hollywood Career of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody," 134, note 3.
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Some of the various ensembles that Bernstein led in this fashion include the Israeli Philharmonic (20 November 1948), the Boston Symphony Orchestra (10 August 1951), and the National Symphony Orchestra (6-9 January 1976). He also served as conductor for performances of the Rhapsody by the Rochester Symphony (16 March 1946) and Czech Philharmonic (June 1946) with Eugene List as piano soloist. Data furnished by New York Philharmonic's online performance history search, http://history.nyphil.org/nypwcpub, accessed 3 April 2011. These dates include concerts from national and international tours but not Bernstein's presentation of the work on a 25 January 1959 television broadcast.
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1945 and 1976.10 With this orchestra, Bernstein recorded what Gershwin

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the course of his career, often conducting the orchestra from the piano.9 He

of the piece in the later twentieth century"a recording released on the Columbia label in 1959.11 Grofe's symphonic arrangement of the Rhapsody is the "frame of reference" for the only book-length study of the work, authored by David Schiff.12 From an analytical stance, taking this version as the "composition" makes sense because the symphonic arrangement offers a standardized version of the piece in its most frequently heard form. In doing so, however, Schiff reinscribes the authority of this particular arrangement. He is not alone. Every scholarly consideration of the work favors Grofe's symphonic arrangement of the Rhapsody despite the fact that it was

arrangement, which shifts the trajectory of the piece away from its symphonic-jazz

"American Dream" trope introduced previously. However, its dominance obscures

familiar and obscure names in American musichave emerged over the course of the past eighty-five years.

On the premise that from the very beginning Rhapsody in Blue exists as a variable idea and not a fixed text, this dissertation explores diverse formations of the work. Following the case-study model, I consider a set of arrangements
Pollack, George Gershwin, 314. Columbia ML-5413, recorded June 1959. This recording is discussed in greater detail in chapter 3.
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Schiff, Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, 6. See my discussion of each of these studies later in this chapter. 4

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the fact that hundreds of other arrangements of the pieceby some of the most

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roots, nicely conforms to the upwardly mobile interpretation suggested by the

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not commercially available until after Gershwin's death.13 This classicized

prepared and performed by several musicians who used the piece in the negotiation of their musical identity: Ferde Grofe, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, and Larry Adler. In the process of positing a broad vision of the Rhapsody, I shed new light on familiar musicians, introduce now-forgotten figures for musicological consideration, and remap the terrain of this iconic piece of American music. Shifting the emphasis away from a centralized text and from the sole agency of the composer reveals new narratives. When cast together these narratives reshape our conception of the Rhapsody, George Gershwin, and music in America. Through hybrid methodological and theoretical processes, I expand on existing

entrenched definitions of "composer" and "composition." By exploring the cultural

Americanist studies in music as we enter a new generation of scholarship in the

musicological scholarship on which to stand. At the same time, my study prompts a reassessment of that scholarship, particularly with respect to Gershwin's life and music. The goal of this introductory chapter is to set the stage for exploring new narratives for Rhapsody in Blue. In the first section I situate my project within existing biographical and musicological literature on Gershwin and the Rhapsody. I consider the ways in which biographical accounts of the Rhapsody, which are dominant in historical depictions of the piece, have overshadowed musicological 5

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fielda field that by the early twenty-first century has a substantive body of

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work of Rhapsody in Blue, I also hope to offer future possible directions for

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approaches to the study of arrangements as well as challenge existing and

scholarship, which remains scant and primarily analytical (as opposed to historical) in its approach. A brief consideration of arrangement studies clarifies my contributions to this intriguing field of musicological inquiry. I then introduce a conceptual background for my dissertation, an organizational model drawn from the work of French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. Summarized, I view each arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue as an individual plateau, an energized plane for investigation. New narratives emerge from the horizontal space occupied by each arrangement, offering a fresh approach to exploring America's musical past. An introduction of the four case studies that form the core of my study follows. I conclude by investigating how musicians and audiences experienced the Rhapsody in the years following its premiere. Royalty statements and copyright records reveal the many arranged forms of the Rhapsody from the outset, recasting the initial performance of the piece from a single historiographical peak to one of many

The Problem of Biography and the Study of Gershwin's Music

A multitude of biographical studies on Gershwin exists because of the broad-based popularity of his music and a general fascination with his all-too-short life. In the wake of Gershwin's untimely death at the age of thirty-eight in 1937, relatives, friends and associates quickly began to tell Gershwin's storyoften with their own interests at heart. Wayne Schneider is likely correct in his assumption that

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Gershwin "must be the most biographied composer of the twentieth century."14 Writing in 1999, Schneider identified sixteen books on Gershwin in English and eleven more in other languages.15 In the decade since his tally, an additional five English-language biographies have emerged.16 Schneider's concern with these biographical assessments is the same as mine: Problematic in this literature, especially the biographies, is the omission of frank, rigorous discussion of the thing that makes Gershwin matter: his music. The handful of famous songs, the instrumental works, and the operas receive attentionoften reduced in the biographies to points of historical reference for the telling of Gershwin's life storybut only recent scholarly research has begun to paint a fuller picture of the compositional thinking of this American master.17 Rather than focusing on aspects of musical analysis, biographical assessmentswhich continue to dominate the literature about Gershwinreiterate the same sets of stories, many of which emerged only after Gershwin's death. Because of the deeply personal connection that many felt with Gershwin, these
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Wayne Schneider, "Introduction," in Schneider, ed., Gershwin Style, xii.

The English-language biographies he identifies are (in chronological order): Goldberg, George Gershwin: A Study in American Music (1931); Armitage, George Gershwin (1938; reprint, 1995); Ewen, The Story of George Gershwin (1946) and A Journey to Greatness (1956); Armitage, George Gershwin: Man and Legend (1958); Jablonski and Stewart, The Gershwin Years (1958); Payne, Gershwin (1960); Rushmore, The Life of George Gershwin (1966); Kimball and Simon, The Gershwins (1973); Schwartz, Gershwin: His Life and Music (1973); DeSantis, Portraits of Greatness: Gershwin (1987); Jablonski, Gershwin: A Biography (1987); Kendall, George Gershwin: A Biography; Rosenberg, Fascinating Rhythm: The Collaboration of George and Ira Gershwin (1991); Jablonski, Gershwin Remembered (1992); and Peyser, The Memory ofAll That (1993). Hyland, George Gershwin: A New Biography; Rimler, George Gershwin: An Intimate Portrait; Leon, Gershwin; Greenberg, George Gershwin; Pollack, George Gershwin. See also Banagale, "Review of George Gershwin: His Life and Work."
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Schneider, ed. Gershwin Style, xiii.

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anecdotes offer compelling visions of the composer. However, such portrayals emerge from a hazy lens, especially when it comes to specific discussion of music. For example, most narrative accounts of Gershwin's compositional process provide little inspiration for further investigation. Although similar issues arise in virtually all composer biographies, in Gershwin's case the results have significantly affected scholarly interest in his music. James Wierzbicki, for example, writes about the "genesis myth" for Gershwin's other rhapsody: "The idea that the Second Rhapsody is a derivative work likely owes to a misleading statement that appeared in Isaac Goldberg's 1931 George Gershwin: A Study in American Music and subsequently was

the mythologizing of Gershwin and his compositional process can be traced to

It is worth dwelling on Goldberg's biographical assessment of Gershwin

"Perhaps more than any other single source," note the editors of a recently published Gershwin reader, "[Goldberg's] biography provides a timeless glimpse of Gershwin during his lifetime, a uniquely valuable document given its dependence on the composer's own thoughts about his life and music that are contained in the

Wierzbicki, "The Hollywood Career of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody," 134. The Second Rhapsody premiered in January 1932 in Boston. Gershwin played the solo-piano part with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky. The piece received its New York premiere the following month.
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Goldberg, George Gershwin.

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because it continues to govern both scholarship and reception of Rhapsody in Blue.19

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Goldberg's foundational account.

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echoed in press reports surrounding the Second Rhapsody's premiere."18 Much of

letters exchanged between the author and composer."20 All subsequent biographers have drawn on Goldberg's contemporary account, from its narratives of Gershwin's childhood to the roughly twenty pages of quotations attributed to Gershwin himself. As I have written elsewhere, Goldberg shaped his portrayal of Gershwin in ways that advanced his own personal agenda for American music.21 Goldberg maintained a "ground-up" vision of American music: only someone versed in the popular music of the day would successfully integrate it into classical forms. All parts of Goldberg's narrative promote this vision, from his depiction of Gershwin's childhood to the analysis of his music.

altered quotations attributed to Gershwin himself. Prior to the publication of his

Journal.22 Quotations attributed to Gershwin in the magazine were changed, some slightly and some extensively, when they appeared in the subsequent book. Some amendments affected biographical data. For example, Gershwin's narrative account of how he discovered music with little Maxie Rosenzweig (later virtuoso violinist Max Rosen) expands from a paragraph in the pages of Ladies Home Journal to a page in Goldberg's book, introducing treacherous truancy and torrential downpours.
20 W y a t t a n d Johnson, eds., Gershwin Reader, 14.
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Bafiagale, "Isaac Goldberg."

Goldberg, "Music by Gershwin," February-April 1931. These three essays are a combination of condensed chapters and passages that would become altered and expanded in the completed book. Whereas the February article excerpts completed passages from the first two chapters of the biography (pp. 4-68), the material featured in the March and April essays appears still very much in progress.

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biography, Goldberg issued a series of articles about Gershwin in Ladies Home

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In the process of crafting an image of Gershwin, Goldberg appears to have