One of music history’s first “crossover” artists, George Gershwin initially enjoyed tremendous success in the popular music realm, beginning with his 1919 hit song “Swanee” and “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” in 1920. The musical Lady Be Good, his first major Broadway production with his brother Ira, ran for 330 performances in 1924- 1925, cementing Gershwin’s reputation as a master songwriter and providing him enviable financial security. He first ventured into the orchestral realm with 1924’s Rhapsody in Blue, but had used classical composer Ferde Grofé to do that work’s orchestration. Rhapsody in Blue was followed by his Concerto in F, and this time, Gershwin composed not only the solo piano part but did the orchestration as well. Despite the success of these two works, Gershwin still sought the pedigree of traditional classical training, and in 1926 he traveled to Paris, with one of his goals being to meet and study with Maurice Ravel. They did meet, and Gershwin played for and had extensive musical conversations with the French master. As for potentially taking composition lessons, however, Ravel declined to teach Gershwin, allegedly remarking, “Why be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?” The legendary Parisian pedagogue Nadia Boulanger had a similar reaction when Gershwin sought out her tutelage in 1928, commenting “What could I give you that you haven't already got?" Having received the blessing of two of the 20th century’s most revered classical artists, Gershwin embarked on his next project: a symphonic poem based upon the sights and sounds of Paris, as seen through the eyes of an American.
Composed in the spring and summer of 1928, An American in Paris was premiered on December 12, 1928 in Carnegie Hall. Walter Damrosch conducted the New York Philharmonic, whose percussion section utilized the four Parisian taxi horns that Gershwin had brought back with him. Gershwin provided extensive program notes for the premiere, which he later summarized in an article for Musical America:
“This new piece, really a rhapsodic ballet, is written very freely and is the most modern music I've yet attempted. The opening part will be developed in typical French style, in the manner of Debussy and the Six [a group of composers that included Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, and Arthur Honegger, among others], though all the themes are original. My purpose is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris, as he strolls about the city and listens to various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere. As in my other orchestral compositions, I've not endeavored to represent any definite scenes in this music. The rhapsody is programmatic only in a general impressionistic way ... The opening [cheery] section is followed by a rich blues with a strong rhythmic undercurrent. Our American friend, perhaps after strolling into a café and having a couple of drinks, has succumbed to a spasm of homesickness. The harmony here is both more intense and simpler than in the preceding pages. This blues rises to a climax, followed by a coda in which the spirit of the music returns to the vivacity and bubbling exuberance of the opening part with its impression of Paris. Apparently the homesick American, having left the café and reached the open air, has disowned his spell of the blues and once again is an alert spectator of Parisian life. At the conclusion, the street noises and French atmosphere are triumphant.”
Audiences loved the work, while critics were skeptical. The New York Evening Post’s Oscar Thompson suggested that it would have no staying power, writing “to conceive of a symphony audience listening to it with any degree of pleasure or patience 20 years from now, when whoopee is no longer even a word, is another matter.” Undeterred, Gershwin responded, “It's not a Beethoven symphony, you know ... It's a humorous piece, nothing solemn about it. It's not intended to draw tears. If it pleases symphony audiences as a light, jolly piece, a series of impressions musically expressed, it succeeds.”
The piece of course has far exceeded even Gershwin’s wildest dreams and is now among the most recognizable orchestral works by any American composer. Gershwin may have traveled to Paris in search of a teacher, but in reality he already had everything he needed—the talent and skill to blend jazz and classical music together in a joyous, uniquely American combination.