[Intro]

Good evening

This is George Gershwin speaking

The orchestra just played my song "Mine"

Tonight I'm going to play you my latest composition

Which I wrote a few months ago down in Palm Beach, Florida

This is a composition in the form of variations on a tune

And the tune is "I Got Rhythm"

I think you might be interested to hear about

A few of the variations we're going to play

After an introduction by the orchestra

The piano plays the theme rather simply

*Plays the piano*

Like that

The first variation is a very complicated rhythmic pattern

Played by the piano while the orchestra takes the theme

Against that the orchestra fits in the tune

The next variation is in waltz time, and the third is a Chinese variation

In which I imitate Chinese flutes played out of tune, as they always are

Like this

*Plays the piano*

Next, the piano plays a rhythmic variation

In which the left hand plays the melody upside down

While the right plays it straight

On the theory that you shouldn't let one hand know what the other is doing

Like this

*Plays the piano*

Then comes the finale

Now after all this information about "Variations on 'I Got Rhythm'"

How about hearing it?

[Instrumental]