Gershwin: An American in Paris

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Gershwin – An American in Paris
An American in Paris is a piece that was different and unique from his other pieces. It is a song he wrote out of pure love and personal experience. It was inspired by time spent in Paris. This means that he wrote his heart out. He wrote with the perfect image of Paris in mind. The song was later used in the production of an Oscar winning movie which happened to be named after the song. Gershwin not only left a legacy but also created a path for others to trod and succeed. He passed down his legacy and his creative and artistic composition to other persons. He left a mark and showed a way. But who is Gershwin and how exactly did he get here? What inspired his career and how did he rise to a world star at such an early age? Did he have other people he worked with? Did he write his own pieces?
George Gershwin was born in 1898 in Brooklyn, New York to Russian immigrants who were not of means. Gershwin plunged into music when he was about 11 years of age where he started playing a piano the family had bought for his sibling. He dropped out of school four years later in order to play professionally. Of course he had to play in events and clubs to make money, which he did and turned his skills up a notch. He became better with time and three years after leaving school, he published his first song which he called, ‘When You Want ‘Em, You Can’t Get ‘Em; When You Have ‘Em, You Don’t Want ‘Em.’ In the 1920’s, he spent time in Paris which greatly inspired his orchestral composition, An American In Paris, which he composed in 1928. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2020)
His lyricist was Ira, his older brother, who turned out to be an amazing artist who could really play with words in a unique and appealing way. This gives the work a diverse input as in all his other works. This owes to the act that he went to Paris seeking to learn and benefit from a more advanced and compositional training, which he intended to put in a concert following up one of his biggest and most successful works, Rhapsody in Blue. In Paris, he was opened up to Jazz and linked with the music stars who were great as at that time and found motivation in the way they all respected his innate skills. This gave him the inspiration and deeper insight of orchestra advancement. Having learnt biggest lessons and interacting with the Paris stars who had nothing but pure respect and love for his work, he wrote the piece that demonstrated how well he had understood orchestra and although he was not accepted for advanced studies as he had anticipated, he listened to the big jazz musicians and learned from whatever he heard which helped him add taste and color to orchestra.
An American in Paris was made to express confidence and put skills into artistic use. It is a piece that he made different, unique and designed to tell a story. It pushed into the limelight a number of musical impressions; the opening light strolling melody, taxi horns honking in a busy street, muted trumpets and even the bluesy melodies. All these are telling a story by reflecting an existing and real time scenario that complemented the composition design. In the conclu...