An Analysis of George Gershwin’s Three Preludes And the Influence of his Post-Rhapsody in Blue Music On the Merging of the Classical and Jazz Genres

The compositional career of George Gershwin is extraordinarily multifaceted in terms of the various styles in which he composed. A song writer, Broadway theater composer and concert hall composer, Gershwin is a figure whose music is relevant to both the classical and jazz musical genres, and is thus difficult to summarize with accuracy. The difficulty of placing him in a single stylistic group, however, is precisely what makes the discussion of Gershwin so fascinating. His career as a composer can more or less be divided by the success of Rhapsody in Blue (1924), a useful indicator of the beginning of his major work in concert hall music (prior to the success of this piece, his primary musical output is characterized by his theater works (Bordman, New grove)). Gershwin’s Three Preludes (1926), a collection of piano preludes introduced at a recital for Marguerite d’Alvarez, is an excellent example of his concert music after the success of Rhapsody in Blue. It is one of several pieces (in addition to Concerto in F (1925) and An American in Paris (1928) which reflect his increasing interest in classically oriented jazz composition after the success of his Rhapsody in Blue. This paper will take closer look at the first of the three, simply titled “Prelude I”, and discuss the appearance of this interest in classical music as it is evident in his Three Preludes. I will more closely analyze the first of his Three Preludes to show how this merge of opposing genres is created not only via melodic and rhythmic contour, but through the use of form as well, with particular emphasis on the piece’s resemblance to the Head Arrangement form commonly found in the jazz music of the Swing and Bebop era. Finally, I will conclude on a broader perspective how Gershwin’s “merge of classical and jazz” music played a role in shaping the definitive qualities of 20^th century Western music after World War I, with focus on American music in particular Head Arrangement.

According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, “the composition of Rhapsody in Blue reaffirmed Gershwin’s devotion to the merging of classical music and jazz (Bordman, New Grove).” An apparent trend thus presents itself in Gershwin’s music at this point in his career: already established as a prominent Tin Pan Alley songwriter and pianist, Gershwin began to study formal harmony and counterpoint as early as 1915, and even more extensively later in his career with composition teachers including Rubin Goldmark, Wallington Riegger and Henry Cowell Head Arrangement. His Three Preludes, written between the two major concert compositions of Gershwin’s post-Rhapsody in Blue phase (Concerto in F and American in Paris) is a definitive reflection of this increased involvement with formal compositional training (contrasting against the “naïveté or clumsiness of construction” which is seen in his Rhapsody (Taruskin, Oxford)).

Though it is difficult to compare Gershwin’s short solo piano compositions with his much longer Rhapsody in Blue, the “clumsy” form structure which Taruskin speaks of concerning the Rhapsody is certainly not apparent in the first of his Three Preludes. Written in ternary form, the composition of this prelude clearly employs a tactic of the Classical era to aid in the structural clarity of the piece as a whole. Through the use of this form, Gershwin is able to evoke the “away and back” trajectory which is so characteristically seen in 18^th-century music. As a result, though the thematic substance which he employs is certainly not Classical era material, the means by which it is presented, elaborated upon, and restated is clearly reflective of his formal training in harmony and counterpoint.

Observe, in measures 7-8 (figure 1), Gershwin presents the theme of the piece for the first time in its rhythmic context (he originally presents the theme in the first two bars out of rhythmic context, though this will be discussed later in the paper). The rhythm of the figure is its most notable quality; its syncopated nature is crucial in unifying the three recurrences of the theme (a discussion of syncopation as an element of jazz genre will also take place later in this paper as well). In measures 42-45 (figure 2), thus, Gershwin presents the same rhythmic figure as the original theme, but with melodic variation employed to create the trajectory of ternary form. Though the notes have changed, the syncopated rhythm of the new figure is still quite familiar. Measure 42 is an exact rhythmic imitation of the original theme which previously occurred in measures 7-8, and is then followed by a similar rhythmic replication in the first beat of measure 43. The original theme is then sequenced up an octave in measures 44 and 45 to conclude the thematic development. Although further abstraction of the theme then follows both melodically and rhythmically, it only contributes to the trajectory of Gershwin’s ternary form.

Next, observe the presentation of the original theme in measures 50-51 (figure 3), in which the theme here is melodically and rhythmically identical to the theme originally portrayed in measure 7-8, with a doubling at the octave. By returning back to this original theme, Gershwin completes the “away and back” trajectory of ternary form, first through the presentation of his thematic material in measures 7-8, then via its abstraction in measures 42-45, and finally through its recurrence in measures 50-51. What Gershwin has used here in his prelude is a treatment of thematic material in a fashion that is reminiscent of the Classical era ternary form. As a result, his use of form in the prelude is a reflection of the formal harmony and counterpoint training which Gershwin sought out at this point in his career, demonstrating sophistication in form which his earlier works had lacked.

The form of Gershwin’s first prelude, however, is not exclusive to the influences of the Classical era, but is additionally reflective of his roots in jazz composition as well. His treatment of thematic material in the piece clearly takes influence from the Head Arrangement form of the jazz Swing era (in which a “head” riff is presented first by the whole band, and then elaborated upon in each individual instrumental section via both orchestrated as well as improvised solos and solis (McMullen, Music 130B)). The first two measures of Gershwin’s Three Preludes are quite reminiscent of the role which a “head” riff plays. He mimics the contrast of timbre created by the rhythmic unison of an entire swing band performing a “head” riff by featuring the theme as a single, unaccompanied line, marked “con licenzia” (indicating a free interpretation of the figure, much in the style of jazz improvisation (figure 4)). The succeeding development of his theme in ternary form (discussed earlier in this paper) is then used as a tool to mimic the orchestrated and improvised solos and solis which were additionally characteristic of the Head Arrangement form. What Gershwin has created, thus, is a merge of the Head Arrangement form of the Swing era and the Classical era ternary form. As a result, Gershwin achieves the “merging of classical music and jazz” that so readily accompanies his reputation by borrowing the tools of composition from both the jazz genre as well as those which he acquired through formal classical instruction, and applied them where their purposes seemed to overlap (in this case, the use of ternary form to achieve the thematic elaboration of Head Arrangement form.)

Gershwin also employs this tool of merging genres melodically and rhythmically throughout the entire piece as well. Although I briefly mentioned the rhythmic significance of the syncopated accents found in the piece’s thematic material, the more immediately relevant appearance of syncopation is its constant presence in the left hand accompaniment of the piece. In measures 3-6 (figure 5), Gershwin presents a syncopated rhythm in which the style of the theme is quite characteristically drawing influence from Ragtime music and the “Stride Piano” technique founded by James P Johnson. In this technique, the illusion of multiple voices is created in the left hand by the extreme octave separation of the bass note and the chord (McMullen, Music 130B). In this case, the chord occurs each time on an off beat sixteenth note subdivision, generating the syncopated rhythm which drives through the whole piece. The thematic figure is then varied upon extensively throughout the piece, later showing qualities of the tango as well (figures 6) (Goldberg). It is quite clear, thus, that stylistically the left hand accompaniment of Gershwin’s first prelude is deliberately alluding to the qualities of Ragtime music and the jazz genre.

This allusion to Ragtime music in the accompaniment of the piece, contrasts against its function as a quality of classical music and the “rhythmic ostinato” (Schnapper, New Grove). According to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the rhythmic ostinato features a “repetition of a musical pattern many times in succession while other musical elements are generally changing (Schnapper, New Grove).” This, of course, is a quality which occurs in much of the music from the jazz genre as well as the classical genre, and is not exclusive to Gershwin’s music, but is nevertheless a crossover quality of the classical and jazz genres made apparent in the first of Gershwin’s Three Preludes. By presenting the rhythmic elements of the Tango and the Stride Piano in the context of an ostinato rhythm, he merges the two opposing genres into a single stylistic element. The result is a stylistically ambiguous accompaniment line which cannot be definitively placed in any genre at all. This, notice, is a quality which very much parallels the ambiguity of the prelude’s form as a genre defining quality as well.

In the course of my analysis, I have come to two distinct conclusions concerning the intention which Gershwin had in his “merging of classical music and jazz,” the first being that the great majority of Gershwin’s post-Rhapsody in Blue music is a reflection of his devotion to his own public popularity. As opposed to many of his Russian peers such as Arnold Schoenberg or Anton Webern, Gershwin had a great desire for public acceptance, and is a direct correlation to his great financial success (Taruskin, Music 77). The appearance of Head Arrangement form in his first prelude, for example, was quite likely a result of the form’s rise in popularity at the time of the piece’s conception (that is, the late 1920s.) As a result, it is apparent even in the analysis of a single one of his preludes, that Gershwin’s music was largely influenced by public opinion.

The second conclusion I have come to is one of a much more broad perspective. It seems that the role which Gershwin’s “merge of classical and jazz music” plays with respect to the overall development of twentieth century Western music largely coincides with the role which Paul Whiteman had on twentieth century music. “To make a lady of jazz,” as Whiteman’s Aeolian Concert hall performance was described by, is a more or less accurate description of Gershwin’s Three Preludes (Taruskin, Music 77). This figurative “lady” is reflective of his music in its imitation, but not replication of jazz music. In other words, Gershwin’s first prelude is a classical piano prelude with idioms from the jazz genre (as opposed to vice versa). By using freely expressive markings like “con licenzia,” as opposed to an improvised melodic cadenza, or by using ternary form, instead of a Head Arrangement form, Gershwin’s music is more accurately described as a “cleaned up” version of jazz, a very common description of the twentieth century Western music that combined the two genres, as Gershwin does (McMullen, Music 130B). As a result, I would conclude that, although his intentions in his genre merging compositions were financially based (Gershwin did not seem to write with the intention to get his name into the history books, as Schoenberg did), he did seem to have a profound impact on the appearance of jazz idioms in the classically oriented music of his time (Taruskin, Music 77). Thus, although Gershwin is often discredited as a “sellout” composer because of interest in public acceptance, his music, particularly that which occurred in the years after the success of Rhapsody in Blue, had a profound influence on twentieth century Western music, particularly in the sphere of American jazz music, and has thus found its way into the history books nonetheless.