What is a Rhapsody and what makes this one Blue? A rhapsody is a piece of music with rapidly changing moods and tempos and often has a somewhat improvisatory feeling. Usually there is a single idea or emotion that the composer wants to convey to the listener in a carefree and thoughtful manner without the constraints of structure. It is very like free verse poetry in this way, a sort of musical daydream. George Gershwin titled his musical daydream Rhapsody in Blue for a very good reason. Can your students guess why? Mr. Gershwin was mostly known as a jazz and pop music composer before he became interested in classical music. In this piece he incorporated a jazz style, “the blues”, with classical symphony music to create this “blues” rhapsody.
Combining musical styles
George Gershwin combined jazz and classical styles to create Rhapsody in Blue . Although these two styles seem very different, the combination produced a rich new sound for the symphony orchestra. Ask your students to think up some other styles that could be combined with classical symphony orchestra music. [hiphop; country; Brazilian; etc.] How might these combinations sound unique? How might the two styles influence each other? [different rhythms; unique instruments; other styles might seem more “organized” or less improvised when combined with classical; etc.]
Try an activity!
Creating a classroom rhapsody
Ask your students to select an easy tune familiar to the whole class. [Happy Birthday; etc.] Next ask them to choose a contrasting musical style to combine with their song. List the unique qualities of this style on the board. Encourage your students to be as detailed as possible with their responses. Split your class into a three or four groups, asking each group to come up with a portion of what will be the classroom rhapsody. Students should somehow combine the familiar tune with elements of the chosen style. [Remember a rhapsody changes moods and tempos (and in this case styles!) often, so it’s okay for each group to have different ideas about how to present their combination.] When your students are ready to perform their portion, order the groups and ask them to try going from group to group without a break so that it makes one long piece of music. This may take some practice but the result is worth the effort! What do your students think about their finished rhapsody? Should the order be changed? Why or why not? Which portions were more in the new style? The style of the song? What musical clues led your students to these evaluations?
