When “Rhapsody in Blue” was first performed in New York exactly 100 years ago, it was a shot heard across the world that landed with a bold and spectacular stroke, signaling a revolution in music from the very first time it was performed.
The piece, commissioned by bandleader Paul Whiteman, was first performed at Aeolian Hall on February 12, 1924 in New York City, and has since become a motif of the nation’s creative spirit, and the opening notes came, decades later, to be the signifier of one of the world’s largest airlines, United.
At the piece’s premiere, Whiteman’s band performed rhapsody with the composer at the piano.
What makes “Rhapsody” such an important and pivotal piece in music history is that it singlehandedly inaugurated a new era in America’s musical heritage. At the same time, it cemented Gershwin’s reputation as an eminent composer.
Moreover, the famous opening clarinet glissando has become almost as recognizable to music lovers and concert goers as the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
United Airlines employees at the unveiling of the airline’s new livery. The dark blue swoop on the planes was named Rhapsody Blue.
The cacophonous proceedings of the piece carry with them a certain insolence, be it the delightful antics of the saxophones and clarinets or the offbeat rhythms. The harmonics, although very modern, are nonetheless rooted in the tonic dominant chords and the melodic line is long and flexible.
The piece was controversial from the beginning as it challenged contemporary notions regarding the great divide between classical and popular music. Its relatively free-form structure flew in the face of the great symphonic tradition and its uniqueness gave it an irresistible accessibility.
It’s important to keep in mind that jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition but drew on local, regional, and national musical cultures across the United States that gave rise to a variety of styles, starting with earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, beguine, ragtime, and blues, all with a polyphonic improvisation. Today it is perhaps the most popular American musical idiom, and the most-recorded American concert piece.
The piece catapulted the 25-year-old composer and virtuoso pianist, George Gershwin, to the vanguard of American music. Critics gushed about the piece and concertgoers swooned. The piece had a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain vitality that audiences had never encountered before. Today Gershwin is regarded as America’s greatest composer.
An August 1924 review in the publication Vanity Fair said that “Rhapsody in Blue” was “thus far the most successful attempt to ‘make an honest woman out of Jazz.’”
In the 1980s, United Airlines secured the rights to use “Rhapsody” for an annual fee of $300,000, a deal that the Washington Post referred to as “Rhapsody in Bucks!” on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s death, which was in 1987.
The commercial use of the piece was the first time “Rhapsody” had been licensed but those involved in the United Airlines commercial said that they treated the piece with respect and taste.
The initial one-minute commercial had no words, no slogans, but showed several United Airlines jets in flight, at first towards the rising sun, including a Boeing 747-400.
The relationship with the piece took off in 1987 and the airline never looked back.
Rhapsody is used during boarding, played in United Lounges and Polaris Lounges, and a special version of “Rhapsody” was recorded for the so-called rainbow tunnel linking B Gates and C Gates and Chicago’s O’Hare Airport that features the art installation the “Sky’s the Limit” by Canadian artist Michael Hayden. The “Sky’s the Limit” is a 744-foot (227-meter) lighting sculpture equipped with 466 neon tubes that is synchronized with “Rhapsody.” The neon tubes run down the center of the tunnel’s moving walkways, and are laid out in a rainbow pattern. They sequence on and off in a ripple pattern in concert with the Gershwin’s composition.
In the airline’s pre-flight safety video announcements, travelers hear Rhapsody played on an instrument to fit the country pictured on screen, be it bagpipes for Scotland or a sitar for India.
And finally, when United unveiled its brand new livery in 2019, the dark blue swoop on the planes was named Rhapsody Blue.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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