"Writing Music Is Not So Much Inspiration As Hard Work" Says George Gershwin After Rendition Of His New Concerto

"Writing music is not so much inspiration as hard work", said George Gershwin, well-known composer, as he came off the stage of Symphony Hall Saturday night. He had just finished playing his new concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which he played for the first time in public at the regular Friday evening concert of the Orchestra. The demand was so great to get tickets for the two regular concerts that a precedent was set by having a special Saturday noon performance, the first noon concert ever played in Symphony Hall, as far as is known.

"All these tales of people sitting down and composing symphonies just as though they were writing a letter are very much exaggerated, at least it isn't that way in my work", declared Gershwin, as some one asked him "how he did it". "I didn't even start playing the piano until I was about 13 or 14", said the new famous composer, who is 34. "I guess I must have had a little talent or whatever-you-call-it, but I practised regularly, and that's what counts. In about a year or so I gave up the idea of being a great pianist and started writing simple popular music. I had several of my songs published and before long I was writing things for shows. I have now written the scores for over 35 musical shows, as well as several more serious things such as the "Rhapsody in Blue" and this concerto."

When asked what kind of music he liked to write best, Gershwin replied, "I really prefer to write the more serious kind, I think, but it is considerably harder and requires much more time, of course. In this concerto there are only three themes, but in the "Rhapsody in Blue" there are something like 30, quite a few to think up, you must admit."

At that moment Gershwin very obligingly submitted to a host of autograph-seekers who had surrounded him. "Not at all, not at all," and "Yes, of course, I am glad to do it," were his comments as he wrote scores of signatures with various notes on pieces of paper and books. From that point on would-be interviewers were out of the picture, for in a moment he said, "Well, I must be going, I'm supposed to meet Mr. Koussevitzky; he's a great man all right." And thus ended a very brief interview.