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“Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves”: Bernstein's Formative Relationship with Rhapsody in Blue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

RYAN RAUL BAÑAGALE
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Abstract

This paper examines Bernstein's early relationship with Rhapsody in Blue, including his first encounter with the sheet music at age thirteen; a recently discovered whimsical arrangement of the work (scored for accordion, ukulele, and voice, among other instruments), written in response to Gershwin's death in the summer of 1937; and Bernstein's performances of the piece with the Works Progress Administration's State Symphony Orchestra in Boston in 1938 and 1939. From an early age, not only did Bernstein have a particular vision of how the Rhapsody should operate; he also identified deeply with it. These findings provide important new insights into Bernstein's later, more polemical interpretations of the work in both recordings and the concert hall—interpretations that have had profound implications on the reception of the Rhapsody on the global stage.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 3 , Special Issue 1: Leonard Bernstein in Boston , February 2009 , pp. 47 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2009

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References

References

Leonard Bernstein Collection. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Leonard Bernstein Score Collection. New York Philharmonic, New York.

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Bernstein, Leonard . “My musical childhood.” Unpublished interview conducted by Humphrey Burton. 15 September 1986. Personal Papers of HumphreyBurton.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Leonard . Interview with unidentified interviewer. Transcript 1/LMAL 3787. Folder 89, Box 15, Leonard Bernstein Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Adler, Ayden . “‘Classical Music for People Who Hate Classical Music’: Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, 1930–1950.” Ph.D. diss., University of Rochester, 2007.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Leonard . “A Nice Gershwin Tune.” The Atlantic, April 1955, 39–42.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Leonard . “Why Don't You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?” In The Joy of Music, 52–62. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959.Google Scholar
Burton, Humphrey . Leonard Bernstein. New York: Doubleday, 1994.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Rodney . George Gershwin. London: Phaidon Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Johnson, John Andrew, and Wyatt, Robert, eds. The George Gershwin Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Neimoyer, Susan . “Rhapsody in Blue: A Culmination of George Gershwin's Early Musical Education.” Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 2003.Google Scholar
Pollack, Howard . George Gershwin: His Life and Works. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiff, David . Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue. Cambridge Music Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Starr, Larry . “Musings on ‘Nice Gershwin Tunes,’ Form, and Harmony in the Concert Music of Gershwin.” In The Gershwin Style: New Looks at the Music of George Gershwin, ed. Schneider, Wayne . New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Leonard . Columbia Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein. Columbia ML-5413, 1959.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Leonard . Los Angeles Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Deutsche Grammophon 410 025-2, 1982.Google Scholar
Gershwin, George . Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. Victor 55225-A, 1924.Google Scholar
Gershwin, George . Rhapsody in Blue. Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. Victor 35822, 1927.Google Scholar
Levant, Oscar . Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy. Columbia 12124–25D, 1948.Google Scholar
Sanromá, Jesús . Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler. Victor M-358, 1935.Google Scholar