An American in Paris

George Gershwin’s orchestral fantasy An American in Paris offers a jazzy, nostalgic saunter through the City of Light, using what the composer called the most modern music he had yet attempted. Gershwin had already sketched out the piece when, in March 1928, he boarded an ocean liner for Paris. Upon arriving, he spent an afternoon wandering the car part supply stores on the Avenue de la Grande Armée in search of some old-fashioned French taxi horns. He’d become a resourceful orchestrator since Rhapsody in Blue (1924), and believed that the horn sound would perfectly evoke the Parisian bustle. That summer, a few months before the premiere by the New York Philharmonic under Walter Damrosch, Gershwin wrote, “My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere.” Gershwin also includes a bluesy evocation of homesickness by a solo trumpet and a Charleston dance section. The score became the climactic ballet of the 1951 Academy Award-winning film of the same name starring Gene Kelly.