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From: rgh@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Stravinsky, Gershwin, and Ravel - (nf)
Message-ID: <1035@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Mar-84 23:58:41 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.1035
Posted: Sat Mar 10 23:58:41 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Mar-84 19:15:55 EST
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#R:tekecs:-356600:inmet:6600096:000:915
inmet!rgh    Mar  9 10:39:00 1984

I was trying to track down the Gershwin/Ravel story and came across
this interesting sidelight;  it's from an essay "The Emergence of Rock",
by Albert Goldman, in New American Review #3:

	On two memorable occasions in recent decades, a self-taught
	genius of popular music has sought unsuccessfully to study
	with a contemporary master.  In the twenties George Gershwin
	approached Maurice Ravel in Paris, only to be told that there
	was no way he could improve what he was already doing so
	perfectly.  Again in the forties, in New York, Charlie Parker
	implored Edgard Varese to take him on in any capacity (even
	as a cook) in exchange for lessons in composition.  But again
	the artist demurred -- not because he lacked appreciation of
	Parker's gifts but simply because he could not imagine what
	two such sundered arts might have to contribute to each other.


Randy Hudson
{harpo, decvax!cca!ima}!inmet!rgh