|
DocuSign Envelope ID: D8671365-A26A-45AE-A1 BO-C9F674AC3364
<br /> After Rhapsody Gershwin returned to study of composition with several excellent teachers, notably Rubin Goldmark and
<br /> Henry Cowell. The legend has grown that he continued to ask for lessons from virtually every famous composer he met,
<br /> a list numbering Ravel, Schoenberg, Bloch, Toch, and Varese, among others. All reportedly turned him down. Another
<br /> refusal came from Nadia Boulanger whose pupils included a Who's Who of American composers, most outstandingly
<br /> Aaron Copland, that migrated to Paris to sit at her feet. In denying Gershwin's request Ravel was said to have asked,
<br /> "Why should you be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?" Igor Stravinsky reputedly demanded
<br /> to know how much money Gershwin was making. When given the answer, an astronomical (in those days) $100,000 or
<br /> $200,000 annually, his flip response was, "Then I should take lessons with you."
<br /> David Schiff, a professor at Reed College in an article for The Atlantic titled "Misunderstanding Gershwin," notes that
<br /> these tales may be apocryphal. He shares a speculation "that the composer had floated them himself." Schiff detects
<br /> patronization on both sides of the aisle — Gershwin flaunting his economic success, and famous, `serious' modern
<br /> composers implying that"Gershwin's identity might not survive[rigorous musical training],"with the underlying assumption
<br /> that he "was a freak of nature rather than a true artist." Schiff cites Copland's friend and protégé Leonard Bernstein, the
<br /> musician who perhaps most resembled Gershwin as a dominant figure in both the Broadway theater and formal concert
<br /> halls, as the source of"the most lethal anti-Gershwin brief." "I don't think," he quotes Bernstein, "there has been such
<br /> an inspired melodist on this earth since Tchaikovsky....but if you want to speak of a composer, that's another matter."
<br /> We should view the composition of An American in Paris, Gershwin's next concert hit after Rhapsody, against this
<br /> backdrop.The story is often told that Gershwin went to Paris in March 1928 as something of a musical primitive, in search
<br /> of more advanced training and armed with an introductory letter from Ravel to Boulanger. Somehow, despite being
<br /> turned away from her studio, he absorbed enough from the city's rich culture to produce the sophisticated new, freely
<br /> written "rhapsodic ballet." But perhaps Gershwin was seeking nothing more than a bit of authentic background color for
<br /> an innovative form, extending his own fusion of jazz and classical music, of which he was intrinsically the best master.
<br /> He stated the "purpose" of the new composition in an article in Musical America as simply "to portray the impressions
<br /> of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises and absorbs the French
<br /> atmosphere." Gershwin even provided a narration for his work:
<br /> "The opening gay section is followed by a rich blues with a strong rhythmic undercurrent. Our American friend, perhaps
<br /> after strolling into a café and having a couple of drinks, has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness. The harmony
<br /> here is both more intense and simpler than in the preceding pages. This blues rises to a climax followed by a coda in
<br /> which the spirit of the music returns to the vivacity and bubbling exuberance of the opening part with its impressions of
<br /> Paris.Apparently the homesick American, having left the café and reached the open air, has disowned his spell of the
<br /> blues and once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life.At the conclusion, the street noises and French atmosphere
<br /> are triumphant." Program notes provided for the first performance with Gershwin's cooperation went further to hint,
<br /> scandalously during the Prohibition era, that the "American friend" had consumed enough alcohol to get drunk, and that
<br /> he quelled his homesickness by picking up an attractive female companion "for hire." But, be that as it may...
<br /> So what did Gershwin really find on his travels to Paris?Atmosphere for sure...and a set of authentic Parisian taxi horns,
<br /> carefully selected for various musical pitches, which he brought back and incorporated into the music... But he did not
<br /> need to travel somewhere over the rainbow to find new musical answers. Schiff concludes, "Perhaps Stravinsky was
<br /> right: instead of continuing to give Gershwin posthumous lessons in how to be a composer,we should let him teach us."
<br /> And for this representative of the American melting pot, who managed to synthesize Yiddish theater, African-American
<br /> jazz, and the great works of the European symphonic concert hall, Dorothy's words from the Wizard of Oz might well
<br /> apply—"There's no place like home."
<br /> — Program notes by Mark Furth ©2014
<br />
|