The Worst Masterpiece: "Rhapsody in Blue" at 100, by Ethan Iverson

[Teasing the Korean]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/arts/music/george-gershwin-rhapsody-in-blue.html

By Ethan Iverson
 

[danasgoodstuff]

Iverson is a tool, this article is trolling thinly disguised as flyfishing.

[felser]

Silly me, I've always liked “Rhapsody in Blue” just fine. 

[jazzbo]

Yes, lots of interesting discussion of this article elsewhere but for me this article is. . . meh minus.

[JSngry]

I've never liked it and have never claimed otherwise. Ever. It's corny as fuck.i felt that way before I knew any better and the more better I knew the deeper my loathing for it. 

I've never been bashful about disagreeing with Iverson, but on this one, I totally concur. 

Gershwin in general...whatever. But Rhapsody In Blue...please die. Go away and never come back. 

[GA Russell]

Who are the people who love Rhapsody in Blue, and who are the people who play it?

Jazz fans?  Jazz orchestras?

I am reminded of the people who used to tell me, "I don't like jazz, but I like Brubeck."

Twenty-five years ago, an Atlanta jazz pianist (Carl something, maybe Carl Allen) told me that the attitude of jazz musicians toward smooth jazz was, "Don't blame us for that!"

I don't think the problem is the music.  I think it's with its fans.  They don't like jazz, they like this, and they think this is jazz.

Maybe the tip-off is that it was commissioned by Paul Whiteman.

[T.D.]

31 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I've never liked it and have never claimed otherwise. Ever. It's corny as fuck.i felt that way before I knew any better and the more better I knew the deeper my loathing for it. 

I've never been bashful about disagreeing with Iverson, but on this one, I totally concur. 

Gershwin in general...whatever. But Rhapsody In Blue...please die. Go away and never come back. 

I never liked the piece overly much and have pretty much heard it enough. I have a token recording (out of a sense of obligation) which I haven't played in years.

But I found the article irritating and pointless, abandoned it after a brief scan.

[Teasing the Korean]

1 minute ago, GA Russell said:

Maybe the tip-off is that it was commissioned by Paul Whiteman.

Yes, Whiteman's name is the seal of approval for me.  Whiteman also commissioned arrangements of a number of Raymond Scott tunes, and premiered Ferdi Grofe's "Trylon and Perisphere."  So there you go! 👍

[JSngry]

23 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Yes, Whiteman's name is the seal of approval for me.  Whiteman also commissioned arrangements of a number of Raymond Scott tunes, and premiered Ferdi Grofe's "Trylon and Perisphere."  So there you go! 👍

I'll bet you that Duke Ellington commissioned more Duke Ellington compositions than Paul Whiteman did Raymond Scott compositions.

Betcha. 

[Teasing the Korean]

29 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I'll bet you that Duke Ellington commissioned more Duke Ellington compositions than Paul Whiteman did Raymond Scott compositions.

Betcha. 

But Duke Ellington probably never commissioned a Raymond Scott arrangement.

[Mark Stryker]

Moderators -- cutting and pasting an entire article, as Teasing has done -- even with a link included -- is copyright infringement. It's stealing, adding one more nail into the coffin of the media and putting folks like me and my colleagues out of work. Please remedy. 

[JSngry]

33 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

But Duke Ellington probably never commissioned a Raymond Scott arrangement.

That was not his job. 

11 minutes ago, Mark Stryker said:

Moderators -- cutting and pasting an entire article, as Teasing has done -- even with a link included -- is copyright infringement. It's stealing, adding one more nail into the coffin of the media and putting folks like me and my colleagues out of work. Please remedy. 

Remedied.

But reading of the full article is strongly encouraged, and tips to get around the paywall are welcomed! 

[felser]

34 minutes ago, JSngry said:

tips to get around the paywall are welcomed! 

You can get the NYT for $1/week, which includes the excellent The Athletic, which is worth the price of admission by itself (and the WAPO for $30/year), so that's one way to go about it, and helps save journalism.  

[danasgoodstuff]

Also being discussed at SHF, FWIW.

[JSngry]

9 hours ago, felser said:

You can get the NYT for $1/week, which includes the excellent The Athletic, which is worth the price of admission by itself (and the WAPO for $30/year), so that's one way to go about it, and helps save journalism.  

Got any other ideas? 

[T.D.]

NYT has serious paywalls.

For many sites you can view paywalled links in "incognito" (Chrome) or "InPrivate" (Bing), etc. tabs. That generally doesn't work (well, maybe once) in NYT and others of that nature.

I already shell out serious $ for 2 journalistic news sources: Bloomberg (financial and intl news) and The Economist (intl news), plus a pittance for local journalism...sympathise with the Times but the budget is not unlimited and I don't care about The Athletic.

Edited January 29, 2024 by T.D.

[Dan Gould]

10 hours ago, felser said:

You can get the NYT for $1/week, which includes the excellent The Athletic, which is worth the price of admission by itself (and the WAPO for $30/year), so that's one way to go about it, and helps save journalism.  

I've also discovered that after your term at the discount price, when you go in to cancel rather than pay 4 or 8 times more, they'll keep cutting their price to entice you to stay, with the end result that I have extended the $1 a week for another year, twice. And without talking to a person. 

The modern age does have its advantages.

 

[Peter Friedman]

I read the Iverson article on my subscription to the NY Times. Basically I agreed with him. In the comments section following the article in the Times, there were many strong disagreements with the article. It was clear to me that those who likes Rhapsody in Blue and expressed their disagreement with Iverson were overwhelming not really true jazz fans.  

[Dan Gould]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Got any other ideas? 

Yes, that eliminating the copyright infringement while requesting ways around paywalls doesn't exactly ease the problem that Mark was complaining about.

[Stompin at the Savoy]

The article sets up a straw man argument that Gershwin is more highly regarded than Ellington.  Apples and oranges!  Rhapsody in Blue is a symphonic piece with elements and motifs from black music.  It's not jazz.  There is no conflict here.  You can like Rhapsody in Blue and like jazz too.

Just subscribe to the NYT already!  It's worth it and important to support journalism.

Edited January 29, 2024 by Stompin at the Savoy

[Teasing the Korean]

7 minutes ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

The article sets up a straw man argument that Gershwin is more highly regarded than Ellington.  Apples and oranges!  Rhapsody in Blue is a symphonic piece with elements and motifs from black music.  It's not jazz.  There is no conflict here.  You can like Rhapsody in Blue and like jazz too.

This. 👍

[JSngry]

6 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Yes, that eliminating the copyright infringement while requesting ways around paywalls doesn't exactly ease the problem that Mark was complaining about.

I'm happy to pay for Mark's writing.

Iverson's, not so much.

Even when he's right. 

8 minutes ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

The article sets up a straw man argument that Gershwin is more highly regarded than Ellington.  Apples and oranges!  Rhapsody in Blue is a symphonic piece with elements and motifs from black music.  It's not jazz.  There is no conflict here.  You can like Rhapsody in Blue and like jazz too.

This too is a straw man argument. Rhapsody In Blue is not a good symphonic piece, not at all. It's tripe, pure and simple. 

[Brad]

I posted the article at SHF and it seems to have raised strong reactions. I used to listen to Gershwin as a kid and used to love his compositions but have barely listened since then, except when I board a United flight. I’ve never considered it jazz although GG may have been influenced by jazz. It’s no fault of GG I suppose but I consider it pop. 

[ghost of miles]

NY Times subscribers are permitted 10 "gift articles" a month that can be shared with others.  I'm fortunate to have a subscription through my employer, so here you go:

The Worst Masterpiece: Rhapsody in Blue

[Stompin at the Savoy]

7 minutes ago, JSngry said:

 

This too is a straw man argument. Rhapsody In Blue is not a good symphonic piece, not at all. It's tripe, pure and simple. 

I sympathize with you insofar as I have heard Rhapsody several times and have no need to hear it again.  And from a contemporary musical perspective maybe it isn't that interesting.  In its time the piece was rather startling, even revolutionary, and had reverberations.