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Why did Paul Whiteman ask George Gershwin to write Rhapsody in Blue?
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George Gershwin
American composer George Gershwin working on the score for Porgy and Bess, 1935.
Bandleader Paul Whiteman commissioned George Gershwin to compose Rhapsody in Blue for a 1924 concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music" at New York’s Aeolian Concert Hall.1
Whiteman and Gershwin shared a common goal: to bring respectability to jazz music, which at the time was frequently criticized and dismissed by many as "degrading" or "pathological" music. By commissioning a major new work from Gershwin, Whiteman sought to elevate the genre and demonstrate that jazz could be successfully integrated into a symphonic context, effectively challenging the prevailing misconceptions that jazz was limited to strict dance rhythms.1