Gershwin's french blues
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
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This week we are presenting an analysis of the melancholic blues from Gershwin's An American in Paris. This "rhapsodic ballet" (so called by the composer) is filled with bluesy melodies, extended chords, and modal colours. Years later it was adapted into an Oscar winning classical film starring Gene Kelly.
/ @-momentsmusicaux-
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
An American in Paris
Recording: Gustavo Dudamel and LA Philharmonic Orchestra.
Always makes me think of tom and jerry. Love this piece so much!
I think American in Paris is my favourite piece by Gershwin - it's all aspects of him perfected and distilled in one piece 💯🎶❤️
It's the first one I ever heard from him and it always brings me back to my childhood. 🎶
Gershwin is awesome!
where did you get the piano reduction shown in this video? great analysis btw.
Thanks! You can find it on imslp.
3:25 Eargasm
Best moment of the week: I really enjoy this channel! Loved the color coding for the different layers.
Thank you very much for your support!
The chords are really great, i can only imaging how fresh that was at the dawn of the blues and jazz
Gershwin was a pure genius, just as Mendelsohn, 'a heart's jewel' (yeah, Jews were great at any time writing music)
Both left us at 38. what a loss to the music history!
what?
@@gabrielkennedy4908 which part do you do not understand?
Gershwin is my favorite composer. I can not describe how much I love his music, and how he changed my life.
Absolutely Great Music. Incredible Composer.
love the dance clip included. thank you so much!
Glad you enjoy it! Thanks for watching until the end.
I definitely noticed two pretty possible quotes: 1:42 2nd measure very similar to chopin raindrop prelude and 2:42 m.2 Bach air on a g string. Could of course be coincidence but Throwing these in there intentionally would be very appropriate in the jazz style
I've always loved the Bach moment...hints of Stravinsky Apollo, written for string orchestra ? The ballet was made in 1928. Could he have seen and heard it ? As for Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron...one doesn't have the words !
One of the few moments in the piece you can hear bassoon clearly, love it
WOAHH
Very nice channel!!
2nd bar, 3rd chord, it sounds to me like Ebm6 (iv6), not as Cm7b5/Eb.
Maravilloso.
Gershwin supo combinar elementos de música clásica, el jazz y el gospel.
Underrated af
(as someone who studies music very informally, mostly notes for myself)
Gratuitous use of inversions really puts the classical in "jazz classical." I'm aware there are exceptions, but I'm just so used to jazz being so root heavy in the bass. The smooth line bass is a surprise to be sure, haha. (That and the use of Bb/F as a functional V). Using the ii functionally just like IV is definitely jazz.
Funny to see a rudimentary close voicing in the flutes (just add 1 voice!)
bVII could be seen as an IV/IV (just making stuff up here, huh) if we consider it a reverse circle of fifths (circle of fourths?), which makes more sense as it feels like we're tonicizing the darker Eb as we mellow down into that closure of a phrase. A weaker theory, but this one evokes a calming presence, so it's vaguely worth talking.
Also worth noting is just before, the V/V - iv (aka negative harmony V) - I movement is such a curious addition to the slip into parallel minor that sounds really good. Intervallic expansion/compression in trombones makes one feel uneasy.
The octatonic 3-groups are really intriguing figures. Each group is transposed up a m3, and the last note of each group acts as an upper chromatic approach to the next, with the very final note being the root of the F7 chord. As for the lower voices, couldn't tell you the reasoning.
Coming to the end, the M7 leaps from a descending arpeggio (and the echoed d7 a measure later) are sweet sentimentality (too sweet?) personified. You hear it everywhere in the era of first-half-of-the-20th-c. film scoring.
A lot of the movement in thirds in the melody (throughout) is as an escape tone or an enclosure. Arp up, scales down balances the energy of the former with the relaxation of the latter. Like the compression/release of a muscle.
Seems like we have Tom and Jerry here.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
well, beethoven is more into dark humor. he is not a that trivial and an entertainer, that is true.
I played this my junior year of college. Best piece, I've ever played.
1:50 impressive harmony!
Excelent performance.
3:00
great job. I was looking for better alternate chords but I didn't find anything I would change.
I still freak out a bit when I hear that trumpet solo, having had do play it on several occasions. "Yearning for home" is what they all tell me. I think that more music psychology than music theory.
I know what you mean, I am a horn player myself and I often get this kind of indications from the conductor. Personally I love them! Thanks for the support!
What rehearsal mark is this if I'm following along in the orchestral score?
It's 45
Super nice... 😊 (I liked and Subscribed 😊).
Thanks for your support :)
You nailed this ❤️❤️
Thank you! :)