Evening star., 1945-11-13
This and That
By Charles E. Tracewell.

''It is lonely in Kalua
Because you are not here
Tt Is lonely everywhere there is love
for melody since Jerome Kern went
away.
Still, one has but to listen again to
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" or THE
Way You Look Tonight" or "Kalua." :"
or "All the Things You Are" to feel the
sadness lift.
That is the power of genius.
The gift which was Kern's was
gentle, wholesome thing which gave
the lie to power and conquest
He was much greater man, COM
posing "Op Man River" than the man
who makes an atomic bomb.
He shamed hand grenade, whose
only power is to destroy.
Kern made happiness flower, and all
we have to do is to listen to him, to
get some measure Of the man, one of
the long line of musical geniuses in the
common mold who have helped make
America great.
America has been fortunate with its
musicmakers. 1t is true that we have
yet had no Beethoven, but we have had
Victor Herbert, and Reginald de Koven,
and Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter,
Hoagy Carmichael, and Irving Berlin,
and long list of others who have not
been afraid to sing the simple, honest
tunes which came to their hearts and
minds.
It Is a supreme gift, this of making
melodies the people love. Every nation
has known these good sons, men of mel
ody, singing their way through the trials
OF life, and helping us all to sing at
least now and then.
Jerome Kern had two great loves.
They were music and books.
Who can have greater, more to be
trusted, loves?
Out Of darkness comes light, out of
noise comes music. The powers of dark
ness shall not prevail, and the great
noises of battle and destruction shall not
altogether drown out the sweetness of
the lullaby, or take from us in our hours
Of need the majestic roll Of the cathe-
dral organ.
Symphony and concerto and hymn
must have behind them the music Of
the everyday, the songs of the people,
else we have nothing with which to con-
trast them to see their greatness.
Kern was man who knew this He
was of the people, and for the people.
He was not In the least ashamed to
: make money, great deal of money, with
his gifts. America was good to him. It
heaped money into his lap, and what did
he do with it?
He bought books.
ic cot hof 1an I'll l.;
for nearly two millions of dollars, and
all his stocks and bonds, too, in the
fatal year of 1929. showing that q music
maker can not only make money. but
may know how to keep 1t, too.
He was an owlish- -looking man, sensi-
tive and shy, but we can recall the time,
shortly after World War I. when he ap-
peared on the stage OF the National
Theater with six other musical comedy
composers.
Each man was seated at q grand piano,
and they all combined In playing in
turn one of the recent hits Of each.
Rudolph Friml was there, we recall.
Kern looked owlish even then, so
many years ago. He had round face
and wore big, round, horn-rimmed
glasses.
You might have taken him in the
street for successful broker, or maybe
q school teacher.
Now he IS gone, in the tide Of the
years. such tide as ought to make all
mankind stop and think, stop and think
enough to stop fighting each other.
The human part of the world must
stop nghting. II for no other reason
than We need the time to compose more
songs like Kern's melodies. safe Ii the
treasury Of the years.