George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for Piano and Orchestra (1924) is one of the best segments of the Disney film Fantasia 2000. About life in New York City, it's an amusing, stylistic animation. Seeing this also helps reclaim the work from the grasp of being used as the theme for United Airlines.
September 11, 2003
Why me? was playing Rhapsody in Blue for Piano and Orchestra during a public radio pledge drive when the first 9/11 attack occurred.
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning. Nothing eventful ever happens on a Tuesday. Nothing eventful should ever happen on a Tuesday.
My public radio station was approaching the midpoint of our fall fund drive. I was hosting the morning classical music show. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was on. Beautiful. Thrilling. That would get the phones ringing, I thought.
It was 8:51 am. Workers in New York City had already died.
