"There had been so much chatter about the limitations of jazz, not to speak of the manifest misunderstandings of its function. Jazz, they said, had to be in strict time. It had to cling to dance rhythms. I resolved, if possible, to kill that misconception with one sturdy blow. Inspired by this aim, I set to work composing with unwonted rapidity. No set plan was in my mind - no structure to which my music would conform. The rhapsody, as you see, began as a purpose, not a plan.. I tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America - of our vast melting-pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan madness." A proposito di Rapsodia in blu, 1924.

(George Jacob Gershwin, all'anagrafe Jacob Bruskin Gershowitz, compositore, pianista e direttore d'orchestra; New York, 26 settembre 1898 – Los Angeles, 11 luglio 1937)