The Classical Music Book

258

LIFE IS A LOT

LIKE JAZZ ...

IT’S BETTER WHEN

YOU IMPROVISE

RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1924),

GEORGE GERSHWIN

T

he start of the 20th century

brought new genres and

ideas to American music.

Many of them came from African

Americans, recently freed from

enslavement, whose dances

contained infectious and lively

rhythms that would grow into

ragtime piano and marches.

African American ideas combined

with Caribbean influences to

evolve into various forms of jazz.

As jazz spread to Europe,

classical composers were drawn

to it, but the improvisational nature

of this new type of music was not

a natural match for the carefully

notated and rehearsed world of the

concert hall. In the United States,

George Gershwin managed to

bridge the gap and incorporate

jazz on an orchestral scale with

Rhapsody in Blue. Others followed,

including composers who have

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Ragtime and jazz

influences

BEFORE

1895 Ernest Hogan publishes

“La Pas Ma La,” the first

ragtime sheet music.

1908 Debussy publishes the

ragtime-inspired piano piece

Golliwogg’s Cakewalk.

AFTER

1927 Maurice Ravel completes

his jazz-inspired Violin Sonata

No. 2, which includes a second

movement called “Blues.”

1971 Polish composer

Krzysztof Penderecki and

American jazz trumpeter Don

Cherry perform the scoreless

Actions for Free Jazz orchestra.

US_258-261_Gershwin.indd 258 26/03/18 1:01 PM