Is "Rhapsody in Blue" Awesome?

this is a good piece of music.

so good. I've been listening to it a lot lately.
it's interesting the way it's not really considered a cohesive composition as a whole, more like a juxtaposition of motives that could totally be played independently from one another and still be great.
bernstein wrote some things about that. and I totally agree. actually, there are moments when I would prefer to listen to only one of the parts over the others.
I love the way he mixes elements of american music (i.e jazz) and french contemporary classical (ravel, debussy) to great effects.
another funny thing is that there are some parts in the beach boys' "smile" that are so directly linked to this (especially in "heroes & villains").

brb just gonna listen to this

Uri Caine recorded his version a few years ago (which I haven't heard yet). Willem Breuker did a Gershwin project in the 80s, some of it is on youtube.

Nice work on the piano there, George!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Okcn34E1RY

Who will be the first to sample this now that it's in the public domain?

is it the composition that's in the public domain or the first recording?

The composition. So I guess that would still restrict sampling of recordings. But someone could freely perform or interpolate it (a la "My Favorite Things" for Ariana Grande's "7 Rings") without permission.

I was listening to La Creation du Monde by Darius Milhaud the other day and it's basically Rhapsody in Blue except made a few years earlier. You can really see the Milhaud influences on Gershwin with that one.

Haven't sampled or remixed it exactly, but this mix is intended to work as an expansion of Rhapsody In Blue

https://centuriesofsound.com/2020/05/04/1924/

(Sorry if this is excessive spamming of my mixes, I only do one a month, if that's any consolation)

I was listening to La Creation du Monde by Darius Milhaud the other day and it's basically Rhapsody in Blue except made a few years earlier. You can really see the Milhaud influences on Gershwin with that one.

Yikes, both things are new to me, despite having just spent a day reading about RiB. Will have to update my show notes.

Listening to La Creation do Monde now, can hear the similarities, think "basically the same" is overselling it a little though. Is there a particular arrangement / performance I should be checking out?

Copland's beautiful Piano Sonata is worth checking out too, similar in tonality and maybe in construction too.