| Show l J f t i Jf f. f q t 1 11 Z 2 I s. s it TAP S jU LM r I JA F 1 ll v J q v i AI i ip p i v S j S S 4 4 x i aX h f ri na y yM M 1 r v 0 I i tj 1 I w r. r 5 eY H yA a R fit F ey y 4 a o C y Sigmund Romberg n composer of many Broad Broad- Broadway Broadway Broadway way musical hits E who says says says' that jazz was 5 S an emergency M x E. E r aK yam S forced upon us x by the war war val f the Death Sounding in n This Country for Wild Syncopation y J t 1 R S kSay k Say Leading American Composers as Rank and File FIleo o of f tf Lover Lovers Musk Register Disapproval o of f Jazz and Demand Demant i Aft l More Refined Grade o of f Melody for tor Theatre and Radio 4 k By Isabel Stephen StephenA AMERICANS A in in all walks o of life seem Sr t to be turning tuning thumbs down on jazz music and its satellite acrobatic ballroom dancing This was aras indicated through three representative bodies which made a thorough investigation re recently rey of f the subject t t In answer to a questionnaire addressed by the Department of Agriculture to of the farmers now owning owning owning own own- ing radio receiving sets they expressed their views and emphatically If music must be mixed with nth educational educational educational farm programs weather and markek mar market mar mar- ket kek r reports ports let it be classical and old- old time tunes that were popular in grandmas grandma's grandm grandmas grandma's grand grand- m mas ma's s 's day dayl Walter Waiter Damrosch lately retired conductor conductor con con- ductor of or the New York Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Ord Or Or- d chestra tra laid before the National Broadcasting Broadcasting Broad Broad- c casting sting Company letters letter which he received last year from th the younger sets lauding high-class high programs These came not only from the larger cities but iron from the smallest country towns and W Western stern farmers and ranches In many of oC these hese letters letten the wish vish was expressed t that classical orchestral music by radio sho should ld be te extended to schools and colleges col col- col- col leges 3 The be he outcome cf d this will be the found- found 3 of the fint first U of the Air with the celebrated symphony conductor aj is ai dean Ills His concerts will reach most of the students in American Americ n schools and colleges when these open in inthe inthe inthe the falL taiL falLA A stroll through Jingle Town which is scattered through the forties and the fillies fifties just off Broadway proved productive productive pro pro- productive and enlightening The Spirit of Jazz has already spread its wings and departed from the land Ian of its birth Those who have recently been so loud loudin loudin in n crying yang out their disparagement have been hammering nails in the lid Hd of an empty coffin The barbaric little god had not waited to be toppled off oft his pedestal HOW this happened was explained by Sigmund Romberg who for years has been pleasing the American Amerian public with success successful Cui operettas At presen present t he has six running to capacity housein houses house s America in and nd England Among the theare them sm m are The Desert Song My Sly Maryland The Student Prince Blossom Time and Cherry Blossoms Mr 1 Romberg recently returned from m Europe and is busily engaged in putting patting the finishing g touches to The uThe- Lace Petticoat Petticoat Petticoat Petti Petti- coat an operetta in m which ton will star next season It is the picture motion-picture ho houses ses more m more re than anything or anybody else which have educated people in appreciating good music he said The score written written written writ writ- ten to accompany the films is almost entirely taken from classical works Jazz music was found to be absolutely unsuitable except in very short and and unimportant unimportant un un- important spots What is krown known as us jazz was never written because there was a demand for that type of music by the American public pub pub- lic It was simply simpy an forced upon us by the war This is how it happened In 1914 the b big g. g orchestras had from thirty-five thirty to forty men who were paid from 35 to 42 a week in operettas The musicians musicians' musicians musicians' musicians musicians' musi musi- union forced the salaries up up to 55 and 65 per manAt manAt man At cAt that time the admission scale w was was s for top-price top seats This rise in salaries was very hard on the producers producers producers pro pro- of all theatres for the musical productions which were then being given called for full orchestras But it was was hardest on the smaller theatres theatres theatres-in in fact it was disastrous In 1915 Jerry Kern started in writing writing writing writ writ- ing such pieces as Oh Boy and others for lor the Princess Theatre in ew lew York with arrangements which did not re require require require re- re quire such large orchestras He lIe got along very ery well with two pianos a couple couple couple cou cou- of violins a drummer clarinet and bass combination to play the show Other theatres followed suit rewrote their orchestrations and found they could manage to get along with from twenty-five twenty to twenty-eight twenty musicians musician I When hen in 1917 the union again agahi raised the tho musicians' musicians this salaries salaries this time from seo CO to 70 per man the theatres further reduced their orchestras to from eighteen to two twenty-two rum m n and the admission price went up to The producers were up against it In the larger theatres the orchestrations orchestrations orchestrations orchestra orchestra- had to undergo a radical chan change e. e It came to be a matter of the survival of the loudest instruments We expert One man at the piano which covered the flute in its higher notes le leus let letus letus t us get rid of the flute date player one bassoon bassoon bas bas- soon and two clarinets equaling three thre e men were replaced by one or two sax saxo saxo- o- o phones The replaced ced two cellos the piano and two basses basse replaced two se second second sec sec- a ond and violins one viola two cellos on one e flute Bute two clarinets and one bassoon bassoon- I. I it also did away with th the necessity for fora a harp two horns were cut down to one Cut away still more morel the producers ordered So on we went juggling with the various instruments Finally we discovered that two cornets one trombone trombone bone lione one drummer a bass a piano and three or four violins formed an ideal combination loud and soft enough to replace the big ig orchestras UN Now ow using only a a few men in the orchestra it also came to the survival of the best musicians Each man had to be an artist on his particular ar ment went OUR JH Cf small orchestra however could not handle th the type ype of music we had been offering It was necessary to write an entirely new class for this this' com com- In order orde not to 9 get tiresome we the gradually introduced subtle hard and intricate stuff for each individual instrument That is how we we arrived at what later became known as jazz My contributions included such pieces pieces' as Sinbad Robinson Crusoe Crusto ruso and Dancing Around for Jolson and the t e Winter GardenIn GardenIn Garden In order to get dance rhythms the dance orchestras had to emphasize and exaggerate the beats so 50 they took the theatre combinations which were necessary necessary sary for that special genre of music musi and multiplied the number of noisier instruments They conjured up all sorts of other tantalizing instruments in ad ad- After the Armistice nobody wanted to take anything seriously Slowly but but surely the office box-office scale rose from to 5 3 A great many new theatres were being built throughout the country with big seating capacities Now while the American people have been getting tired of jazz music Europeans Europeans Europeans Euro Euro- have been taking it up Though it is old and tiresome to us it is new and fascinating to them All the big bands in Vienna Paris Budapest Biarritz Monte Carlo and London are arc wild over it Even ven the best musicians over there are now writing jazz New York is the worlds world's music center It is the ambition of every European artist to come over to this country I 1 talk talked d to hundreds of them and found no exceptions They are all aU learning to speak English with America as their beacon light It uIt has been said that the women of this country are always just one one season behind chind the women of Paris in styles t at gds a I 1 fr t r I 2 Y Ya Yx x a 1 z vL C The biggest horn isn't always the loudest says Vincent Lopez th the jazz master comparing the notes of the phone phon with Jeanne Gordons Gordon's voice lei it It is acknowledged acknowledge in Europe that they are now always more than a year behind behind behind be be- hind us in popular music We lead they follow Why We have the best artists and musicians musician and Americans will soon soon take first rank as the greatest music-lovers music and critics in the world AFTER A A FTER this post mortem on jazz George Gershwin composer of music music in n the lighter vein offered his testimony Among some of the present successes g he has to his credit are Lady Be Good Toes Tip Oh dOh Kay Stairway to Para Paradise ise Fascinating Rhythm Song of the Flame and Rhapsody d in Blue Although still a very young man Mr Gershwin has made nade a large fortune from his tunes I 1 am called a jazz writer he said as he sat in the music room of his residence residence resi resi- dence which overlooks overlooks- the Hudson River and the Palisades but has jazz come cometo cometo cometo to mean so many many types of music Some people think of the old jazz bands of four or five fie men who improvise as they v 1 q go along long and express what each one one feels feel s i individually regardless of the notes before be be- fore them Some people call it syncopation some som e call it rhythm and noise y J has rhythm and noise in his lis compositions yet they are arc not jazz because e he has form and puts melody and tremendous tremendous tremendous tre tre- orchestration to back him up Brahms and Beethoven use syncopation f but you wouldn't call them jazz writ writ- ers According to Mr Romberg there are ar e some types of oi popular modern music mush which cannot be jazzed pieces jazzed pieces which h defy the improvisers improvisers' meddlesome work he be was told different he he said Rom bergs berg's music is more of the Viennese e j school I write and an an American rican school school- more the syncopated dance music m N None No Noone Noone o one ever tried this syncopated dance e 5 rhythm before it was introduced d i in n i America We ourselves formerly use used d 1 the waltzes of Vienna and Berlin an and and d 1 music to fit the South American dances A v c I LV m I J. J 1 I UI I believe that Irving Berlin was was as the the pioneer of the modern ragtime school when he wrote such music music as Ev Everybody Every Everybody ry body Step and Pack Up Your Sins Jt Then we had another form that was t called the blues which was followed by jazz The word jazz is fading out in in this country the next phase will not be similar but but butwill will be something a akin in into to the dance music of today ant and will of course be called by another name People call Irving Berlin waltzes jazz yet they are not even tion They call my Rhapsody In in Blue and Concerto in jn F jazz but it all aU depends depends de de- on how they are treated whether in the and European manner manner manner man man- ner or by a jazz band Jazz got its bad name from the interpretations interpretations in interpretations in- in given by certain incompetent incompetent tent performers All AU they do is to make an awful lot of noise noise The good jazz bands are still popular ov over r here as they are over in England but we have havea a great many bad ones and those are the ones which are being killed off Nobody can stand a steady diet of jazz Even the writers writer of that type of music music find that a tittle goes a long way However the American type of music which is temporarily going under that name is is well liked as is proved by the office box-office receipts j ALL ALL composers including myself are naturally opposed to any any classification of many types of music under one name but we we can do nothing about it When you get hundreds of f orchestras playing your music only avery a avery avery very few will interpret t the composition properly and With Pith taste No one welcomes welcomes welcomes wel wel- comes the death blow given to the sort of music which masqueraded under the name nam of jazz more than the music writers do Those incompetents who seemed to imagine that v what hat hat people wanted was plenty of noise got just what they de de- served The public has expressed its disapproval just as a baby docs does when its nurse accidentally sticks a pin in in it it it- it yelled and I believe it will keep on yelling until those bungling styled self-styled musicians fade right out of the picture One side-product side of the so-called so ragtime or jazz school is development of original ballroom dances in America The Charleston and the black bottom were of course arranged for or the stage i but were taken up by the public because because because be be- cause the dance bands band were playing the jazzy tunes which were best suited to that type of dance Alway before eye ye danced the South American English or j Spanish dances From now on Od Americans will con con- con con- i to originate ballroom dances but I believe they will be bo much finer and nd J more suitable le for the general public We have tired of the strenuous steps but in Euro Europe e the they are goin going crazy i over them I because they are using our music We cant can't educate the public public public-it it is the public which educates us It gives f everything a fair trial weighs it in is the balance and then very quietly discards it it American people dont don't do a thing because because bese be- be cause se it is the thing to do or because it is JS smart they smart they ar are far too independent ent for that I dont don't believe you need j to send sed questionnaires out to find out what they want They will let you kno know without articulating their disapprove disapproval prove Yes jazz has gone but the form form form- not nt the he rendition of it it-is it is left behind and nd it Jt will always be with us because J it is JS a real product of the spirit of 1 America by lu PUbU Ledger A dI r. r |
