An American in Paris

Section A follows the American strolling through the city: brisk walking tunes, honking taxi horns and snatches of café and street music. After he crosses to the Left Bank, a solo violin approaches him, in Deems Taylor's programme someone speaking broken English. The Section B / Blues section slows to a rich blues with a strong rhythmic undercurrent, with the trumpet and saxophones to the fore: the visitor's sudden homesickness. It rises to a climax, and in what Gershwin called the coda the bright Paris music returns, until at the end the blues tune sounds grandly over the walking themes.

1. 0:02Section A
2. Section B / Blues section