New York, New York, Anthems to a City

• Street Layout: They decide on chaotic, jumbled streets in the lower part of the island, transitioning to a perfect, numbered grid system a few miles up. A major diagonal road (Broadway) would intersect everything, creating “random triangles” that they would call “squares,” such as “Time Square”.
• Central Park: They designate a large, central rectangular area for “all the nature,” including trees.
• Transportation: The plan includes independent train tunnels with routes that split and have undetermined destinations.
• Residents & Atmosphere: They envision the residents as generally unpleasant people who dislike each other and live in separate, problematic neighborhoods. The city is also predicted to smell like urine, especially during the summer.
• The Fourth Avenue Omission: A recurring joke involves one explorer trying to suggest “Fourth Ave,” only for the other to repeatedly reject the idea in favor of names like “Lexington” and “Park Ave”.

• Composer: George Gershwin
• Form: A rhapsody, meaning it is a single, extended movement with an irregular, free-flowing structure and improvisational passages, rather than a traditional multi-movement concerto.
• Instrumentation: Originally scored for solo piano and Paul Whiteman’s jazz band by arranger Ferde Grofé, it was later re-orchestrated by Grofé several times, most notably for a full symphony orchestra in 1942.
• Premiere: It premiered on February 12, 1924, at the “An Experiment in Modern Music” concert in Aeolian Hall, New York City, with Gershwin himself as the piano soloist. 

• Musical Style and Themes
  The piece is famous for its fusion of musical styles, incorporating jazz elements like blue notes, syncopated rhythms (ragtime and the Charleston beat), and “vernacular” instruments (saxophones, banjo) into a classical structure. 
  • Iconic Opening: The rhapsody famously opens with a solo clarinet trill that develops into a 17-note glissando (a continuous slide in pitch), an effect improvised during rehearsal by clarinetist Ross Gorman that Gershwin immediately decided to include.
  • Themes: The composition features five main musical themes that Gershwin described as a “musical kaleidoscope of America,” reflecting the country’s “vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness”. 
  Cultural Impact
  • Rhapsody in Blue was a major success at its premiere, helping to legitimize jazz as an art form in the classical music world.
  • It has since become a staple of concert repertoire and an enduring symbol of American musical innovation.
  • The piece has been used extensively in popular culture, including in Woody Allen’s film Manhattan, Disney’s Fantasia 2000, and United Airlines advertisements, making its opening bars instantly recognizable to a wide audience. 

East side, West side

“East Side, West Side, all around the town,
The tots sang ‘ring-around-rosie,’ ‘London Bridge is falling down;’
Boys and girls together, me and Mamie O’Rourke,
Tripped the light fantastic, on the sidewalks of New York.” 

https://genius.com/Ella-fitzgerald-manhattan-lyrics

by Rodgers and Hart

[Intro]
Summer journeys to Niagara
And to other places aggra-
Vate all our cares
We’ll save our fares!
I’ve a cozy little flat in
What is known as old Manhattan
We’ll settle down
Right here in town!

[Verse 1]
We’ll have Manhattan
The Bronx and Staten
Island too
It’s lovely going through
The zoo
It’s very fancy
On old Delancey
Street you know
The subway charms us so
When balmy breezes blow
To and fro
And tell me what street
Compares with Mott Street
In July?
Sweet pushcarts gently gli-
Ding by
The great big city’s a wondrous toy
Just made for a girl and boy
We’ll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy!

We’ll go to Yonkers
Where true love conquers
In the wild
And starve together dear
In Childs
We’ll go to Coney
And eat baloney
On a roll
In Central Park we’ll stroll
Where our first kiss we stole
Soul to soul

And “My Fair Lady”
Is a terrific show they say
We both may see it close
Some day
The city’s glamour can never spoil
The dreams of a boy and goil
We’ll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy!

Kander and Ebb!

Kander is 98 and still going!!! Till 120. BTW they also wrote the songs to Cabaret and Chicago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kander

An earlier song with the same name, music by Leonard Bernstein

Bernstein also wrote the music to West Side Story, all about NYC, the gangs, etc. Here is the song that says it all, or almost it all.

Bleecker Street – Paul Simon

Fog’s rollin’ in off the East River bank
Like a shroud it covers Bleecker Street
Fills the alleys where men sleep
Hides the shepherd from the sheep

Voices leaking from a sad cafe
Smiling faces try to understand
I saw a shadow touch a shadow’s hand
On Bleecker Street

The poet reads his crooked rhyme
Holy, holy is his sacrament
Thirty dollars pays your rent
On Bleecker Street

I head a church bell softly chime
In a melody sustainin’
It’s a long road to Canaan
On Bleecker Street

Bleecker Street

Mad Men, season 4 episode 7 the suitcase

New York? New York!

Billy Joel

New York in the movies

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls076190022/

but i pick this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Had_to_Be_You_(song)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne

Another town, another place, but the same song…

And more Billy Crystal

(from 1:21)

And I can’t help adding this one

and this one…

and almost finally, this one…

Tel Aviv, anyone?