Variations on "I Got Rhythm"

"Variations on "I Got Rhythm"" is a set of variations for orchestra and piano solo composed by George Gershwin in 1933-34. It is Gershwin's last classical concert piece, also the first and only one dedicated "To my brother Ira".

Gershwin composed the new piece for his forthcoming concert tour with the Leo Reisman Orchestra, as an alternative to his "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Concerto in F". He took the melody of his hit song "I Got Rhythm" from musical "Girl Crazy" as the base of the piece. Most of the piece was composed during a three-week vacation in Palm Springs, and it was completed on 6 January 1934 after he returned to New York. It received its première in Boston at the Symphony on 14 January 1934 by the orchestra, conducted by Charles Previn.

The piece starts off with the repetitions of four rising innocent clarinets notes on pentatonic scale, which opens the melody of the original song. The orchestra joins in after a brief piano answer to the clarinet. The piano plays the complete chorus theme of the song then, followed by a series of variations in waltz, atonal, oriental and jazz styles.

References

*Greenberg, Rodney (1998). "George Gershwin", pp. 152-155. Phaidon Press. ISBN 0-7148-3504-8.