George Gershwin - An American in Paris (Basic Notes)

Hello!!

I recently listened to a 'BBC Proms Music Guide' about George Gershwin's 'An American in Paris'.

It was actually very helpful, and gave me some of the basic information I needed to know about this piece. Here are the notes that I took:

An American in Paris was composed in 1928. It was about Gershwin's second trip to Paris to take lessons with Nadia Boulanger.

The piece is light and jolly, and represents Gershwin walking through the streets of the French capital. It is in a loose rondo (ABA) form:

• A represents Gershwin strolling through the streets of Paris
• B represents Gershwin feeling quite homesick. This is conveyed by a bit of blues/Americana.

Gershwin composed this piece for a symphony orchestra, plus car horns, saxophones and a celesta. For the New York premiere, he bought 4 taxi horns from Paris to use when displaying this work.


These are the very few, basic notes that I collected from this very short overview. Here is the link to the guide narrated by Andrew McGregor:

http://player.fm/series/bbc-proms-music-guide/pmg-04-sep-12-gershwin-an-american-in-paris

Enjoy!!