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TIME: Almanac of the 20th Century
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TIME, Almanac of the 20th Century.ISO
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1920
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20gershw
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1994-02-27
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<text>
<title>
(1920s) George Gershwin
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1920s Highlights
People
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
George Gershwin
</hdr>
<body>
<p>(DECEMBER 24, 1928)
</p>
<p> Three times now George Gershwin has set foot over the line
that divides formal and informal music; three times taken his
own jazz notions, compounded them seriously and presented them,
not for any singing or dancing they might invoke, but for
listening purposes only. First was the Rhapsody in Blue and with
it much talk of "classical jazz" gospeled by Paul Whiteman. Then
came the Concerto in F, but by that time Gershwin had become a
creed with many and the Concerto had its premier in Manhattan's
Carnegie Hall with Walter Damrosch and his New York Symphony.
The third came last week. This time the orchestra was the
Philharmonic-Symphony, the composition An American in Paris. It
was a picture with sound effects.
</p>
<p> An American arrives in Paris--presumably Gershwin himself,
since he was there recently on the proceeds from his musical
comedy tunes. He leaves his hotel on a sunny spring morning,
starts gaily down the Champs Elysees to the first walking theme.
Taxis stop him first. Their horns amuse him, so four horns came
back with him to the U.S. to make their debuts with the
Philharmonic...On he goes, swinging his cane, past a cafe door
where trombones are moaning measures of La Maxixe. On he goes,
past a cathedral, or perhaps the Grand Palais, slackens his pace
a bit, then passes by on the other side. On he goes over the
bridge to the Left Bank and there he stops again, this time for
an Anise de Lozo and following effects are appropriately
blurred. A solo violin suggestive of charming broken English is
first to clear away the haze. There comes a swift transition and
Gershwin has the blues, bad blues, until he meets a friend,
starts off again jauntily to a final noisy walking theme that
foretells an hilarious evening.
</p>
<p> Gershwin's critical public is still a house divided against
itself. To the extremists on the one hand he is making the most
significant music of the day. To others he is out of place and
ineffective away from Tin-Pan Alley. Certainly the Concerto,
trying to be important, was unoriginal and dull. But with An
American in Paris he has done better and dared to be himself in
the presence of such betters as Wagner and Cesar Franck.</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>