By the early 20th century, jazz and ragtime were reshaping music around the world. Their syncopated rhythms, “blue” notes, and improvisatory spirit captivated European and American composers alike. What followed was a creative fusion: musical works that attempted to take the best elements from the newly formed American genre and combined them with the old-world classical DNA of Europe. Today in Classical Considerations we’ll explore four pieces that showcase the best of this dynamic and fascinating time in classical music history!

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Darius Milhaud – La Création du monde (1923)

One of the earliest and most striking examples of the budding influence of jazz on classical music is Darius Milhaud’s ballet La Création du monde.

After hearing live jazz in Harlem during a 1922 visit to New York, Milhaud returned to France determined to bring that sound into his own music. The ballet, which Milhaud scored for a jazz ensemble (saxophone, clarinets, trumpet, trombone, piano, and drum kit), opens with a fugue spun from a bluesy saxophone theme and shifts between jazz dances and classical structures.

Audiences were shocked and delighted by Milhaud’s work, calling it a “succès de scandale,” and in time it became one of the composer’s most popular works. Upon reflection, what’s remarkable about La Création du monde is the synthesis it delivers: Milhaud shows jazz can animate classical forms, living alongside mainstays of the genre and lending them fresh vitality without feeling vestigial.

TheClassicalStation.org Recommendation: Charles Munch & The Boston Symphony Orchestra (1958)

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George Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue (1924)

Far and away the most famous piece on this list, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premiered at Paul Whiteman’s “Experiment in Modern Music” concert in New York. Its opening clarinet glissando remains one of the most recognizable gestures in all music to this day.

Part concerto, part fantasia, the work effortlessly combines stride-piano riffs, Charleston syncopations, and blues harmonies within the sweep of a classical rhapsody. Gershwin’s genius lay in giving jazz idioms the scale and drama of the concert tradition, lending the sobriety and scope of a symphony to the spirit and vigor of the dancehall. Audiences were electrified in 1924, and even in the 21st century the piece is synonymous with the Jazz Age.

TheClassicalStation.org Recommends: Leonard Bernstein & The Columbia Symphony Orchestra (1959)

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Maurice Ravel – Piano Concerto in G major (1931)

Jazz’s influence on classical music was not restricted to emerging talents like Gershwin, the old masters of Europe embraced the bold new tradition as well. After touring the U.S. in 1928 and hearing Duke Ellington in Harlem, Maurice Ravel brought his impressions home. The result: his Piano Concerto in G major.

Ravel opens the concerto with a sharp crack that quickly gives way to jazz-tinged rhythms and bright orchestral colors. Clarinet and trumpet exchange lines, the strings lean into a walking bass, and the piano nods to stride style. Even in the slow movement, whose long melody recalls Mozart, the harmony is steeped in modern jazz inflections.

The concerto stands as a dialogue between traditions; classical form infused with the pulse of American jazz, refined through Ravel’s distinctive craftsmanship.

TheClassicalStation.org Recommends: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli & The Philharmonia Orchestra Ettore Gracis (2000)

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Igor Stravinsky – Ebony Concerto (1945)

By the mid-1940s, jazz had evolved into swing and bebop, and its influence on the broader musical world was undeniable. Against this background Igor Stravinsky, at the urging of clarinetist Woody Herman, set out to write a “jazz-based concerto grosso.”

Scored for big band with solo clarinet, the Ebony Concerto includes an explicit blues as its slow movement. Stravinsky’s fingerprints are everywhere: sharp rhythms, shifting meters, and a modernist edge that resists straightforward swing. Rather than imitating jazz, he recast it in his distinctive neoclassical language.

The premiere puzzled some jazz players with its irregular phrases, but it has since earned a reputation as one of the most ambitious classical-jazz fusions of the time.

TheClasicalStation.org Recommends: Stravinsky w/ Benny Goodman & The Columbia Jazz Ensemble (1965)

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These pieces serve to remind us that the history of classical music is not static, it thrives on absorbing fresh influences. In the first half of the 20th century, that influence was jazz, and the results remain as compelling today as when they first shocked audiences nearly a century ago.

—Matthew Young

Works by Igor Stranvinsky, Maurice Ravel, and George Gershwin feature regularly on The Classical Station. Check our Summer 2025 Highlights to hear when they’re on the air, or request your favourites via our Request Programs.