Grand Canyon Suite

• Grofé worked as an arranger for Paul Whiteman, whose dance orchestra was among the most popular of the 20s and 30s. Grofé joined Whiteman when the band was based at the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles, and came along while they moved to various other home bases, culminating in a residence at the Palais Royal in New York.¹
• Grofé achieved fame when he made the orchestral arrangement for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which Whiteman had commissioned, and which his orchestra premiered in 1924. Subsequently, Whiteman asked Grofé to compose jazz-influenced concert works for his orchestra: the Grand Canyon Suite (1931) became the most famous.²
• In a radio interview later in life, Grofé described driving out to visit the Grand Canyon when he was in his twenties, and experience that inspired the Grand Canyon Suite.³

“I first saw the dawn because we got there the night before and camped. I was spellbound in the silence, you know, because as it got lighter and brighter then you could hear the birds chirping and nature coming to life. All of a sudden, bingo! There it was, the sun. I couldn’t hardly describe it in words because words would be inadequate.”

Ferde Grofé⁴

• Listen for: In the Grand Canyon Suite, Grofé imitates some of the nature sounds he heard during his visit to the Grand Canyon. Listen for woodwinds as birds and trumpets as crickets.⁵

1.  Jim Farrington, “Grofé, Ferde [Ferdinand],” Grove Music Online (October 16, 2013), accessed March 4, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002249674.
2. Ibid.
3.  Theresa Schiavone, “Grand Canyon Suite,” NPR: All Things Considered (October 29, 2000), accessed March 4, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2000/10/29/1113160/grand-canyon-suite. 
4. Quoted in Ibid.
5. Ibid.