An American in Paris
An American in Paris ( An American in Paris ) is a composition for orchestra of George Gershwin from 1928. It is next to the Rhapsody in Blue one of the most popular works of the composer.
Similar to the Rhapsody in Blue , An American in Paris is a rhapsody or tone poem in free form in which Gershwin musically depicts the impressions of his own stay in Paris . Gershwin himself subtitled the work as "Tone poem for orchestra". It was commissioned for the New York Philharmonic . It is written for the usual line-up of the symphony orchestra , with a few special effects such as the horns of Parisian taxis that Gershwin brought back from France. The orchestration that can always be heard today, however, differs in many points from Gershwin's original manuscript. Frank Campbell-Watson (1898–1980), Gershwin's editor and editor at New World music publisher, intervened so deeply in the score that he is now listed as an editor. For this reason, the scores offered today are not in the public domain, even though George Gerswhin has been dead for more than 70 years.
In December 2015, the Bremen Philharmonic performed the original version of the "American in Paris" for the first time. Both the changes made by Frank Campbell-Watson and the shortening of 120 bars that Walter Damrosch made immediately before the premiere in 1928 had been reversed.
The piece was premiered on December 13, 1928 in Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Walter Damrosch .
The performance lasts approx. 20 minutes.
In 1951, the orchestral work served as a template for the film An American in Paris by Vincente Minnelli .
Web links
- An American in Paris (Gershwin, George) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- George Gershwin: An American in Paris, tone poem for orchestra at Allmusic (English)
- Literature and phonograms for An American in Paris in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Detective work on George Gershwin. In: Weser courier . December 3, 2015, accessed December 14, 2015 .