A term coined in the 1920s partly in connection with attempts, some of them sponsored by Paul Whiteman, to fuse jazz with classical forms, and therefore a predecessor of the term Third stream. The tendency emerged before jazz was identified as such, and there are a number of works such as Frederick Delius's Appalachia (1896, rev. 1903), subtitled ‘Variations on an old Slave Song’, which reveal a keen perception of specifically American song and dance idioms.
Perhaps symphonic jazz may be said to have begun with George Gershwin's one-act opera Blue Monday (1922), although a variety of comparable works appeared during the same period from both the classical and jazz camps, among them two ballets – Darius Milhaud's La création du monde (1923) and Cole Porter's Within the Quota (1923, revived as Times Past, 1970). It was Blue Monday, however, that led Whiteman to commission Rhapsody in Blue (1924), undoubtedly the most famous piece of symphonic jazz. Other pieces by Gershwin followed, such as the Piano Concerto (1925) and the folk opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which may be considered the movement's peak.
Whiteman meanwhile obtained a considerable number of other pieces from both classical and jazz composers, such as George Antheil's Jazz Symphony (1925, rev. 1955) and Ferde Grofés Metropolis (c1928). These in turn were a stimulus for a variety of other works, notably in England. Indeed, though associated primarily with the 1920s, the tendencies embodied in symphonic jazz remained until the arrival in the late 1950s of third stream music. Later commissions by Whiteman included The Blue Belles of Harlem from Duke Ellington (1942) and Scherzo à la russe from Igor Stravinsky (1944).
Ellington had always been aware of the endeavours of his predecessors, and began to step outside the normal time limits and functional purposes of much early jazz with such multi-sectional works as Creole Rhapsody (1931, two versions), Reminiscing in Tempo (1935), and a number of other pieces. Classical music continues to be affected by jazz, notable instances being Stefan Wolpe's Quartet for trumpet, tenor saxophone, piano and percussion (1950) and Michael Tippett's Symphony no.3 (1970–72). Jazz likewise remains influenced by the large forms of classical music, examples including Carla Bley's opera Escalator over the Hill (1968–71), a latter-day Porgy and Bess and Charlie Haden's Ballad of the Fallen (1982). None of this later music should be described as symphonic jazz, yet it would have been considerably different without that movement's earlier examples of cross-fertilization.
P. Whiteman and M.M. McBride: Jazz (New York, 1926)
J. Sypniewski: Ein Problem der Gegenwartsmusik: Jazz, under besonderer Berücksichtigung des symphonisches Jazz (George Gershwin) (diss., U. of Zurich, 1949)
M. Harrison: A Jazz Retrospect (Newton Abbot, England, 1976, 2/1977)
MAX HARRISON