Monday, September 15, 2014

[vfolndjd] Dancing to Rhapsody in Blue

Perform Rhapsody in Blue so that it is danceable for social partner dancing.  Inspired by this quote from Wikipedia: "Gershwin's own intentions were to correct the belief that jazz had to be played strictly in time so that one could dance to it." (Citing Schiff, David (1997). Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue. Cambridge University Press.)

This idea seemingly goes directly against Gershwin's intentions.  But rubatos are fine, so long as they make musical sense, if they are telegraphed in advance so the dancers know to expect it.  It is the ridiculously fast sections that need to be slowed down.  I wonder if the tradition of ridiculously fast stems from this: "In order to get the whole piece onto two sides of a 12" record it had to be played at a faster speed than it would usually have in concert, which gave it a hurried feel and some rubato was lost." (also Wikipedia)

We might also add more repeats so that the song seems to have more structure and less a conglomeration of disparate ideas.

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