Richibi’s Weblog

  “Rhapsody“ (1958) 

      Hans Hofmann

          _________

if a sonata is a piece of music with more

than one section, by definition a rhapsody

is not a sonata, a rhapsody has only one 

section, only one movement, all that is 

required, therefore, essentially, of a 

rhapsody, is that it be – a subjunctive 

here, incidentally, the mood of aspiration, 

high hopes, ideals – that it be, I reiterate, 

rhapsodic

in the spirit of juxtaposition, here are two

rhapsodies, the first, George Gershwin’s 

“Rhapsody in Blue“, the other 

Rachmaninov’s, his “Rhapsody on a 

Theme of Paganini“

how are they different, you tell me

I’ll just point out that the one seems, to 

my ears, steeped still in the Romantic 

Period, the early 19th Century, despite 

its publishing date, 1934, the other, 

earlier, composition, 1924, sounds like 

full blown, in comparison, 20th Century

America, the future 

Old Europe, in other words, meets the 

New World, however chronologically 

counterintuitively

listen, you can hear all of it, both are,

either era, extraordinary, time is what

eventually tells

R ! chard