An Experiment in Modern Music

New York: Aeolian Hall, 1924. Original program for Paul Whiteman's experimental concert on February 12, 1924, featuring the premiere of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Whiteman intended the event at New York's Aeolian Hall "to be purely educational," showcasing "the tremendous strides which have been made in popular music." Through new arrangements and original material, most notably Gershwin's bold rhapsody, Whiteman hoped to legitimize a scored version of "modern Jazz" in the context of the classical concert hall. In the program's opening section, titled "The Why of This Experiment," Whiteman elevates jazz into the sphere of high culture while remaining pointedly silent on the African-American roots of that controversial genre, "which sprang into existence about ten years ago from nowhere in particular." The program provides biographies of Whiteman's musical collaborators and extensive notes on the featured compositions. Whiteman reserves his highest praise for George Gershwin: "He is capable of everything. . . . Gershwin's sense of variation in rhythm, of shifting accents, of emphasis and color is faultless." Prominent musicians and critics, including Jascha Heifetz, Leopold Stokowski, Gilbert Seldes, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Carl Van Vechten, are listed among the sold-out concert's acknowledged "patrons and patronesses." By February 1924, George Gershwin was already well known for his work on Broadway, but this commissioned "jazz concerto" would be his first concert hall performance as a composer. An unmitigated triumph at Aeolian Hall, "Rhapsody in Blue" would become world-famous, far surpassing Whiteman's hopes for his "experiment." Given that enough concert programs were printed for the 1100-seat hall, it is remarkable that so few examples survive. We find no records at auction, and three institutional holdings only, at the New York Public Library, the George and Ira Gershwin Collection at the Library of Congress, and the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University. An extraordinarily rare document of a landmark in American musical history, offered one hundred years after the premiere of "Rhapsody in Blue.". Concert program, measuring 9.5 x 6.25 inches: 12. Original textured grey wrappers formed from a single folded folio sheet, text printed on both end pages; upper wrapper printed in blue and gold, titled within ornate frame; side-stitched with original blue cord. Printed in deep blue ink; illustrated in text with circular portraits of Victor Herbert, George Gershwin, Zez Confrey, and Irving Berlin, and a photograph of Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. Lightest toning, cord ends frayed.