Most of the piece was composed during a three-week vacation in Palm Beach, and it was completed on January 6, 1934, after he returned to New York.
The piece starts off with the repetitions of four rising innocent clarinets notes on pentatonic scale, which opens the melody of the original song.
On September 22, 2013, it was announced that a musicological critical edition of the full orchestral score would eventually be released.
The critical score should restore the original orchestrations, but it is unknown if it will also include the subsequent reorchestration by William Schoenfeld to provide context to historical recordings of the work.
[2] The entire Gershwin project may take 30 to 40 years to complete, and it is unknown when the score to the I Got Rhythm Variations will be released.