Ever rode on an United Airlines flight and watched the opening safety video? Remember the hit movie from earlier this year The Great Gatsby? What the two have in common is a clip of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which can be heard in the grandiose scene where the audience meets Gatsby for the first time, starting at 0:32.
Leonardo DiCaprio's introduction in The Great Gatsby
The Rhapsody in Blue is a contemporary classical piece written in 1924 for piano and jazz band, later orchestrated for a full symphony. It was immensely popular right after it premiered in New York City, and solidified George Gershwin's reputation as a serious composer. It is a piano concerto (piano solo accompanied by full orchestra) with one major difference in that a Rhapsody is one continuous movement, whereas piano concertos typically have three separate movements. This piece has been interpreted as the 'musical portrait of NYC', and featured in several other movies such as Disney's Fantasia 2000 as well as performed at the 1984 Olympics opening ceremony in Los Angeles and the 50th Grammy awards.
Here it is now in it's full glory. Enjoy!
Rhapsody in Blue - composed by George Gershwin
Performed by Lang Lang
This may be a bit of a stretch, but this next piece is so wonderfully melodic and written for a full symphony that I thought I'd include it as my piece showcasing contemporary classical music. It is the theme from the movie Howl's Moving Castle, an animated picture following the adventures of a young girl cursed by a witch into an old lady, and the love story between her and Howl, the owner of the floating castle. The symphony suite is composed by Joe Hisaishi, and in the live recording below he is both the piano soloist and the conductor.
Howl's Moving Castle (Main Theme) - Composed by Joe Hisaishi
As a bonus, here is an amazing rearrangement for guitar performed by Sungha Jung. He mainly does rearrangements of pop music in US and Korea, but occasionally there will be a soundtrack gem. Enjoy!
Howl's Moving Castle (Main Theme) - Composed by Joe Hisaishi, arrangement by Sungha Jung
What is considered classical music? There's a wide array of definitions referencing style, genre, and historical period, but for a basic understanding, you can just think of it as music composed between the following 4 periods:
As you can see, some of the periods overlap, and contemporary is it's own animal. Obviously, hip hop is not considered classical music, even if it is composed in present day. What categorizes the first 3 periods are similarities in structure and style, which start to become more diversified during the contemporary era, so there are smaller movements within contemporary that have been grouped together.
Here is a taste of each era with a short and famous piano piece:
Baroque: Prelude No. 1 in C Major BWV 846 from The Well Tempered Clavier, composed by J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
This is from a famous book of Prelude and Fugues composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, who is a top contender for the title of "Father of Classical Music". Out of the entire collection, this piece is arguably the most famous because it is more simplistic and easier to enjoy. Some of the fugues become very complex in terms of multiple voices and will give you a headache!
Classical: Fur Elise, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Although the style is approaching romantic, I just couldn't resist because this is probably one of the most famous piano solo pieces of all time. You can commonly find this piece in movies, tv shows, and as background music for websites, elevators, waiting rooms, you name it! The title translates to "For Elise", and historians have argued who Elise actually is, the most famous being a former student who eventually turned down Beethoven's proposal of marriage.
Chopin (pronounced Sho-Pan, not like you're Choppin' vegetables) wrote a series of very famous compositions called Nocturnes, which are basically short piano pieces 'inspired by the night'. They demonstrate heavily the concept of Rubato, which is a swaying of the music by increasing and decreasing tempo in the performance to convey a sense of romance.
Contemporary: The Cat and the Mouse, composed by Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
This is one of my favorite contemporary piano pieces! I am a very girly girl, who is heavily biased towards romantic pieces, but this one was just so fun to play. If you close your eyes and picture Tom and Jerry, you can almost see the chase and the cat limping away at the end.
That's all for now, next week, we will explore some famous orchestral works used in movies. Stay tuned!
