Editing An American in Paris (section)

==Composition==
{{Image frame|content=
{{left|<score raw="1" sound="1" >
  \header {
    piece = "Allegretto grazioso"
    tagline = ""
   }
\score {
\layout { }
\new staff {
\time 2/4
\key f \major

\relative c'' {
  \acciaccatura b8\mp( c-.) d,-. e4 |
  \acciaccatura b'8( c-.) d,-. e4 |
  \acciaccatura b'8( c-.) d,-. e-. d'-. |
  c c,16 d e4 | \acciaccatura b'8( c-.) d,-. e4 |
  \acciaccatura b'8( c_.) d,-. e-. d'-. |
  e16-. e-. e-. e-. e8-. a-. | g4->( f)
  }
}
  \midi {
    \tempo 4 = 96
     }
}
</score>
}}

{{left|<score raw="1" sound="1" >
  \header {
    piece = "La Sorella"
    tagline = ""
   }
\score {
\layout { }
\new staff {
\time 2/4
  \clef bass
  { \partial 8 cis8->\f-\markup { \italic scherzando } |
    dis-> eis-> fis-> gis-> |
    fis-. eis4-> dis8\( | fis4 eis\) |
    \acciaccatura eis8( dis-.) cis4. ~ cis
    \acciaccatura eis8( dis-.) | cis2
  }
}
  \midi { 
    \tempo 4 = 120
     }
}
</score>
}}

{{left|<score raw="1" sound="1" >
  \header {
    piece = "Andante ma con ritmo deciso (The blues)"
    tagline = ""
   }
\score {
\layout { }
\new staff {
\time 4/4
\key bes \major

\relative c'' {
   \acciaccatura e!8 f1^\markup{ \italic "Trpt. (with felt crown)"} (~\stemDown 
   f8_\markup { \italic "poco rubato" } g8 f8 bes,8 \acciaccatura c8 des8 c8\> bes8 g!8)\! \bar "|" f1
   }
}
  \midi { 
    \tempo 4 = 72
    }
}
</score>
}}

{{left|<score raw="1" sound="1" >
  \header {
    piece = "Allegro"
    tagline = ""
   }
\score {
\layout { }
\new staff {
\time 4/4
\key d \major

\relative c'' {
   d8^>^\markup{ \italic "Allegro"}\mf fis,8 a8 d,8 fis8 a,8 b8 d8^> \bar "|" r8 d8^> r8 d8^> ~d4. a'8 ( \bar "|"
   d8)^> d8 a'8^> a,8 d8^> d,8 e8 a8^> ~ \bar "|" a2 ~ a4. \stemUp b8 ( \bar "|" \break
   d8) g,8 b8 d,8 g8 g,8 b8 d8 \bar "|" e4 \trill ~ e8 d16 r16 r4  e4 \trill ~ \bar "|" 
      e8 d16 r16 r4  e4 \trill ~ e8. d16  \bar "|" a'2 ~ a4. a8 ( \bar "|" \break
   e'8) e,8 a8 a,8 e'8 e,8 a8 e'8^> \bar "|" r8 e8^> r8 e8^> r8 d8^> r8 fis8^> ~ \bar "|" fis1
  }
}
  \midi {
    \tempo 4 = 140
   }
}
</score>
}}
|pos=top|align=left|caption=Themes of ''An American in Paris'' and melody fragment from ''La Sorella''}} 


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Gershwin based ''An American in Paris'' on a melodic fragment called "Very Parisienne",<ref name="Gerswhin.com">{{Cite web |url=http://gershwin.com/publications/an-american-in-paris-concert-work/ |title=An American in Paris |website=Gershwin Enterprises |access-date=December 11, 2018 }}</ref> written in 1926 on his first visit to Paris as a gift to his hosts, Robert and Mabel Schirmer. Gershwin called it "a rhapsodic ballet"; it is written freely and in a much more modern idiom than his prior works.<ref name="JablonskiStewart1958">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/gershwinyearsgeo00jabl|url-access=registration|title=The Gershwin Years: George And Ira|author-last1= Jablonski|author-first1=Edward|author-link=Edward Jablonski|author-last2=Stewart|author-first2=Lawrence D.|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1958|isbn=978-0-306-80739-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gershwinyearsgeo00jabl/page/138 138]–141}}</ref>

Gershwin explained in ''[[Musical America]]'', "My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere."<ref name="Pollack2007">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RySwdc151ZoC&pg=PA431|title=George Gershwin: His Life and Work|author-last1=Pollack |author-first1=Howard|author-link=Howard Pollack|date=January 15, 2007|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-93314-9|pages=119, 431–440}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=''An American in Paris'' performance material|url=https://www.schott-music.com/en/an-american-in-paris-no251041.html|access-date=2022-12-12|publisher=[[Schott Music]]}}</ref>

The piece is structured into five sections, which culminate in a loose [[Ternary form|A–B–A format]]. Gershwin's first A episode introduces the two main "walking" themes in the "Allegretto grazioso" and develops a third theme in the "Subito con brio".<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Van Dyke|first=Joseph M.|year=2011|title=George Gershwin's An American in Paris for Two Pianos: A Critical Score Study and Performance Guide|type=Doctoral thesis|location=Columbus, Ohio|publisher=OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center|url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/pg_10?0::NO:10:P10_ACCESSION_NUM:osu1298660291|access-date=September 14, 2017|archive-date=September 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914172912/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/pg_10?0::NO:10:P10_ACCESSION_NUM:osu1298660291|url-status=dead}}</ref> The style of this A section is written in the typical French style of composers [[Claude Debussy]] and [[Les Six]].<ref name=Burton /> This A section featured duple meter, singsong rhythms, and diatonic melodies with the sounds of oboe, English horn, and taxi horns. It also includes a melody fragment of the song "La Sorella" by [[Charles Borel-Clerc]] (1879–1959) (published in 1905).<ref>{{cite book |title=George Gershwin's An American in Paris |author-last1=Daly |author-first1=William |contributor-last1=Taylor |contributor-first1=Deems |contribution=Commentary |year=1929 |page=36 |publisher=New World Music |location=New York}}</ref> 

The B section's "Andante ma con ritmo deciso" introduces the American [[Blues]] and spasms of homesickness.<ref name="Humanities 27/6">{{cite journal |author1=Howard Pollack |author1-link=Howard Pollack |editor1-last=Beatty |editor1-first=Mary Lou |title=Car-Horns, Cafes and Can Can |journal=[[National Endowment for the Humanities#Humanities magazine|Humanities]] |date=November-December 2006 |volume=27 |issue=6 |pages=12-13 |publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities}}</ref> The "Allegro" that follows continues to express homesickness in a faster [[twelve-bar blues]]. In the B section, Gershwin uses common time, syncopated rhythms, and bluesy melodies with the sounds of trumpet, saxophone, and snare drum.<ref name="Humanities 27/6"/> "Moderato con grazia" is the last A section that returns to the themes set in A. After recapitulating the "walking" themes, Gershwin overlays the slow blues theme from section B in the final "Grandioso".<ref name="Humanities 27/6"/>