Letters to the Editor: Appropriating Black music? Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is beloved by all listeners

To the editor: Thanks to Gustavo Arellano for the tribute to George Gershwin and his “messy” masterpiece, “Rhapsody in Blue.” Despite criticism of this work, performers will play and audiences will cheer this fusion of jazz and classical romanticism 100 years from now.

To the snobs who say it is loose, unstructured and haphazard, admirers of Gershwin and his music say this: We don’t care. “Rhapsody” moves us.

To the cultural critics who claim that Gershwin “appropriated” Black music, this is what Black listeners and performers for years have said: What utter nonsense.

Gershwin always credited his sources of inspiration. His “Rhapsody,” songs and his great opera, “Porgy and Bess,” are all homages to music that come from specific cultural roots but are gifts to humanity to treasure and receive as sources of inspiration. No group “owns” its artistic creations and holds exclusive claims to understanding them or performing them well.

Ella Fitzgerald, one of the great singers of the 20th century, recorded all of Gershwin’s songs. She was Black, and so am I, united in our love of a great composer who shattered barriers and touched our hearts.

Sidney Morrison, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Arellano is so right to call attention to the very American “Rhapsody in Blue.” I was among the audience that found joy in the piece when Leonard Bernstein conducted it from the piano one beautiful summer night at New York’s Lewisohn Stadium in the early 1960s.

Part classical and part jazz, it is a piece easy for everyone to enjoy, even to hum or whistle along with.

One wonders, though, why it took so long for Arellano to get through the whole piece. The recording with Bernstein conducting the Columbia Orchestra from the piano is barely more than 16 minutes long.

And, of course, in Bradley Cooper’s brilliant film “Maestro,” Bernstein is much more well represented by his own compositions, such as “Make Our Garden Grow,” and his composer idol Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony” finale.

Madeline Porter, Costa Mesa