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Latest Argument About the Jazz Age F. Scott Fitzgerald, > the Jazz Novelist, ,Thinks That Jazz Died in 1929, hut George Gershwin, ■ Composer, Thinks Jazz HasJustßegun to Get Going and It Will Go On for IYears to Come, and Here Are His Reasons Why. BY HYMAN SANDOIT. IS the reign of Queen Jazz at an end? In the opinion of George Gershwin, famous composer of the “Rhapaody in Blue" and nationally recognized King of Jasz. there Is still plenty of vitality in the gay lady, and her throne has not yet even begun to totter. Thus did young Mr. Gershwin recently refute the statement of F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of “This Side of Paradise" and other stories de picting the jasz era, that the age of jazz had ended with the stock market crash of 1929. It seems to me that we are too close to Queen Jazz and her lively era," says Mr. OerslWin, “for any one to know definitely whether her throne is already on Its last legs or to forecast how long she will continue to rule. If the end has not yet arrived. Musically ype«uring at least, I don’t aee—perhaps I should aay bear —any Indications that the jazz age has already sounded its last notes or is likely to do so in the near future. “If I may hazard a guess simply as a musi cian, I shouldn’t be surprised if many years from now American music is still influenced by the syncopated spirit which gives our songs and orchestral pieces whatever individuality they possess today “I can perhaps best explain why I take issue With Mr. Fitzgerald's statement by citing from my own musical experience. I am Just now completing a ‘Second Rhapsody’ for orchestra, more than seven years after I wrote the *Rhapsody in Blue.’ “As well as I can determine, my feeling for the music 1 am writing today Is essentially no different from what It was for the pieces I composed seven and more years ago. It Is true that 1 am trying to get a different quality of expression —simpler and more unified—into the new rhapsody than I secured in the first, and of course I hope that during the intervening yeans I have gained greater powers of musical creation and technic. ‘ But the so-called jazz effect is in this new music as in my other compositions beeause the musical Idiom —the ’lingo,* if you prefer— which happens to be characteristic of my work is fundamentally the same today as it was when I first began writing for the orchestra. • At that time, the stock market crash of 1929 was still so far beyond the horizon that not even Roger Babson could have seen it with a telescope, and jazz was still a young if shock ingly vivacious upstart ” MR. GERSHWIN’S new rhapsody is an am plification for symphony orchestra of some incidental music he wrote for his first musical talkie while in Hollywood last Winter. This picture, which Fox Films will produce during the Summer with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell playing the leading roles, is entitled ”Delicious." after one of the songs Mr. Gershwin has composed for it to lyrics by his brother, Ira. The young composer is only 32. Yet in ad dition to this first talkie score and the “Rhap sody in Blue," he has already written 32 musi cal comedies, a one-act opera called “135th Street,” the symphonic sketch, “An American In Paris.” a piano concerto, three piano prel udes, and hundreds of songs—all in less than 13 years. His last two musical comejjies, ’Girl Crazy” and "Strike Up the Band!" were Broadway hits and included the popular songs, “Soon,” “I Got Rhythm.” and Bidin’ My Time.” Ever since Paul Whiteman first played the “Rhap sody in Blue" for a startled and explosively en thusiastic New York audience on February 12, 1924, Mr Gershwin has been indisputedly. King of Jazz Continuing his comments on music, he says: “It usually surprises most persons who think Jazz revolutionized American music over night to learn that its roots go back at least until the latter part of the last century, when the Negro spirituals, to which jazz owes a great debt for theme and mood, began affecting the music of the country “I think the bistory of music backs up my THR SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C„ AUGUST 30, 193! ■MV V... ygmUH H wl SHF J&L a* j wf? ■ inßiPHnn wr Jw SS H1 ragb aaßfy Jrm tl| I ■. If i I | wd‘ —a y . oj ; **Whether ue wish it or not. jazz is as inevitably American as base ball or the skyscraper," says George Gershwin. who finds jazz expressing America in much the same way as does this striking painting, "City Activities," one of the famous murals by Thomas Hart Benton for the new School of Social Research, Netv York. argument that the jazz age is going to be with us. in one form or another, for years to c:me. Musical periods, like historical eras, have slow, often indefinite beginnings and do not come to an abrupt end. but rather are gradually absorbed into the great musical tradition, which reveals their influence in succeeding years “That has been true with the beginnings of Jazz, which I have indicated did not spring into life fully formed, but gradually evolved from the music that preceded It. and I see no reason why it should not be equally applicable to its end, which certainly is not yet within sight— or hearing. For many more years. I venture to say, jazz will color the tones and syncopate the rhythms of American music tn easily recognizable form. Hi KTS consider the future of jazz from an other angle—its reflection of the Amer ican people's spirit. For as long as I can re member I have believed that music, like all art, is profoundly affected by the age tn which it JL >* \mhßhb! J , mi m/ 1 ... B#? I *j V lffjg kaw HrSj Ebfcyßr JW Ww '"'w HI « h wray W . g TOP JaBK* itW -ik. : 'V *BfcflPj> ■ . BPiyipiafcdwL W S F I r -■ j I -'■B.u't ~ • >-.’; i^--SRSfI •. , ' ' _ *,'is\k I *1 ■MMlmbbb—«——«-* . ! t, k - -‘ * j^HNB V \ "InHHßkw W H i *. ; ■”. _. i Ts! r Jj . 1 "* '■ jB f " Ss.\ '- '• p I v A ■ <L.; :•'**%. V msa%g»«HKffiHßffiME»Bg m k WMm£ ;*- V. j f " ■*- n »$* B TfiPlTlfc i ’lf| George Gershwin in an informal pose at the piano. He credits much of his success to the fact that he has been free from European teaching. is created. For better or worse, it is a faithful mirror of its time. “Imagine how incongrous It would have been, for example. If jazz had existed in the time of Washington, when men wore silk breeches and white pig-tail wigs, and women curtseyed before their gallant masters in billowing gowns that swept the floor. Those clothes and the gracious manner of living which they typified would have been no more compatible with jazz than the tinkling minuets of Colonial days would be in harmony with the present machine age that has made an Industrial country of our Nation. “The contemporaneous spirit of the United States Is expressed In jazz with convincing if not complete eloquence. I believe. Some critical observers say that we must change our ma terialistic philosophy of life if this country is to survive • s a nation. It seems to me we ara already becoming a more spiritual more cul tured country, and in time that trend in national taste and spirit is bound to be re flected very definitely in our music. “But the change will have to be a gradual process. Musical oaks also grow from little acorns. As our national life slowly becomes richer and more completely rounded, our music will assume greater expressiveness. “Without the peculiar exuberance and vital ity of jazz, however, it will not be typical of the United States so long as. in addition to other more refined qualities of taste and feel ing. our people retain the present go-getting, energetic spirit that is found nowhere else in the world just as jazz is not representative of any other country. - Mr. Gershwin was talking in the music room in his pent house atop a Riverside Drive sky scraper apartment house. Outside was a shrubbery-bordered parapet from which one * gazes out on a stunning view of the broad Hudson training with river traffic and buzzing New York City sprawled out below. UR. GERSHWIN was bom of Jewish par ' 1 entage in Brooklyn, on September IS, 1808. He began to play the piano when he was 12. wrote his first musical fragment at 14, quit high school to work for a song publisher and to play the piano at chorus drills at IT, and composed his first musical comedy before he was 20. As a modern composer with an extensive musical background. Mr. Gershwin has a wide and sympathetic understanding of the music of the past. He is particularly fond of Bach, Wagner and Stravinsky. In their day. he remarks, as others have pointed out before him, these and other com posers were regarded a$ inconoclasts for intro ducing new musical forms. So today the writ ers of jazz, who he belivese are the only com posers creating genuinely American music, are declared outcasts for daring to break with the traditions of the past. Composer, conductor, pianist, Mr. Gershwin Is almost completely a self-taught musician, having only briefly studied the piano with the late Charles Hambitzer, harmony with Edward Kilenyl, and form with Rubin Goldmark. To the fact that he has been free from European teaching he credits much of hts success. Indeed, he believes that the less for mal instruction American composers take from foreign musicians in theory and composition, the more originality and distinctiveness will their work exhibit. “When better jazz is written," he says, “Americans will write it. The syncopations of Broadway amuse and interest London, Paris and Berlin. But the foreign composer who writes music in the manner of jazz, zs Krenek did in the opera ‘Johnny Spielt Auf,’ is merely adapting for his own purposes our idiomatic way of musically saying things instead of spontaneously expressing himself in his own musical language. “Equally mistaken are the composers of this country who force upon themselves the musical traditions of Fiance, Germany, Italy or any other country in setting down their musk. “Whether we wish it or not, jazz is as in evitably American ss base ball or the sky scraper. Babe Ruth and A1 Smith’s towering Empire State Building would never have sprung up in any other country. Both are typical of American genius. So, too, jazz has grown out of the people In some mysterious fashion and fz therefore musically representative of the Motion’s character. "This is true whether we wish it or not, and quite apart from any direct volition." 9