The Hollywood Career of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody

Abstract

Abstract Around the time of its premiere in January 1932, George Gershwin's Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra was erroneously described as an “expanded” version of music that had been written specifically for a 1931 Fox film entitled Delicious, and for decades this misinformation has been echoed by Gershwin scholars. In fact, Gershwin put the finishing touches on the Second Rhapsody months before Delicious went into production, and his sketch for what in essence is the complete work was made when the screenplay was still in its embryonic stage. Relying on evidence that includes Gershwin manuscripts, various drafts of the screenplay, the conductor's score that was used for the film's recording sessions, and—importantly—the recently restored film itself, this article seeks to clarify both the chronological and the substantive relationship between the fifteen-minute Second Rhapsody and the film's seven-minute “New York Rhapsody.” Along with offering the first detailed account of the musico-narrative content of the film's “New York Rhapsody” sequence, the article shows that the “New York Rhapsody” is a truncation of the Second Rhapsody engineered not by Gershwin but, probably, by Fox employee Hugo Friedhofer.