Aidan Chun

Mark Gammarino
Jazz Age

Civil Writes Reflection

For my assignment, I chose to convey my understanding by writing music to correlate

my interpretations from the reading. I’ve written 4 key moments from the book. The first one
being when we enter New York and the atmosphere of the parties hosted by the Great Gatsby. I
started it with like a cinematic-like opening to represent how the rich are above the common
man. Then there’s this little adventurous tone to represent Nick starting his journey in West
Egg. Then after that, it reprises the cinematic-like opening but with a bit of variation to shift into
a very upbeat and jazzy type of music (I tried to make it seem jazzy, and I know from the
timeline in the story was a different type of jazz music). But the music also represents on how
Gatsby is living. I also guess that you can make the connection that this feel of music wasn’t
what it was during the time to represent how Gatsby is trying to fit in. The second key moment
I wrote was Gatsby’s love for Daisy. I made it feel very light, but I purposely had each bass note
very low to represent how Gatsby is obsessed with her. Towards the end, it only ascends to
represent Gatsby’s attempt to take Daisy as his lover. It falls all the way back down to the bass
to foreshadow how Gatsby falls. The third key moment I wrote for was when Gatsby and Daisy
left New York in a hurry to get back to West Egg. The first part is written to feel very tense and
heavy to represent how Gatsby has been “dethroned” and is on his nerves. It’s very powerful
and it get quitter to represent in what I imagine as them leaving the suite in New York. The next
part where the feel of it starts to pick up as they drive away from New York. Then for the bass
line, I took inspiration from the dies irae motif (motif for death) and put it in reverse. It’s pretty
rhematic to really increase that tension. The melody also plays the dies irae theme but
syncopated to kind of represent how drunk Daisy is and to also increase the tension. I also
modulate everything up by half and whole steps and increase the tempo to make things even
more tense. After a bit the reversed bass line is “un-reversed” to put out front the dies irae
motif until what I image the car hitting Myrtle. It turns quiet and then get quiet to represent the
reader and or listener to take in the catastrophe. The final key part that I wrote about was an
interpretation of Gatsby’s funeral. It contradicts how he was feeling towards Daisy with the
melody heavily relied on the higher notes. It’s all in the bass clef to really leave off a dark
feeling. In the end, the dies irae motif plays a final time to close off Gatsby’s life.