Relating Music and Art
Curated by Becky Reilly

World War I was a turning point in modern warfare and international relations that shook both Europe and the United States.  The end of empire loomed and international tensions increased.  But a world a "Jazz age," as F. Scott Fitzgerald would have it, of opulence and new industry followed the war's conclusion.  Countries were forced to undergo rapid scientific change during the war years, rapidly constructing new industries that would dominate the postwar world.  Some, famously Fitzgerald himself and T.S. Eliot, despaired at the modern world, watching traditions die and lower moral standards form around a factory-based society.  But others, like Gershwin, seemed to look toward the future with hope in the face of economic prosperity.  The microcosm displaying both views was in New York City, which had both an active art scene and a geographically close industrial district.  To interpret New York was to interpret the era.

Edward Hopper's Manhattan Bridge Loop shows a lonely figure walking past a building complex, nearly blending into the wall behind him.  The windows on the buildings look empty and dark, and the buildings themselves are either violently red or cast into shadow.  The result is an unrealistic, uncomfortable color palate that increases the painting's tension.  Its conflict is in its isolation.  The person, probably a surrogate for Hopper himself, lives in a populous, thriving city and yet cannot find a single companion.  He suggests that this new postwar New York of material wealth estranges people from one another.

George Gershwin offers praise to this changed city and world.  He thought up every theme for his "Rhapsody in Blue" while on a train ride, hearing the wheels click and turn.  He finished most of the piece except for the piano line, instead writing a note for the conductor to nod to him.  During the premiere, he improvised throughout the missing section and, after the audience applauded, proceeded to write what he had just played.  The music itself shows a mix of classical concepts and jazz infusions.  It modulates through the circle of fifths but in reverse order and is littered with blue notes.  It has passages of both structured ragtime (3:25) and playful rubato (7:11).  Gershwin creates a graceful if not a bit rag-tag transition from classical themes to modern ones and still draws inspiration from the industrial world and New York City.  Hopper and Gershwin differ about whether humanity is preserved in this bold new consumer society.