"An American In Paris" Ballet with George Gershwin's Original Score

[recovering16]

Thank you for presenting this. I have no problems with the score used in the movie, but I can understand why you wanted to present the original composition. I love this because the quality of the film is so clear...amazing. I'm sharing this on Facebook - on this, the night of the Oscars. (since this is my all-time favorite movie, and it won best movie for 1951)...

[RogerHWerner]

What a wonderful thing. I love this film and this ballet and I love knowing more about it. Thanks again. It's almost a different piece of music...

[dcs93]

@wrybreadspread - Completely on the same page with you here, The Chaplin version is the one i'm used to with that amazingly powerful trumpet solo.. But I also almost always favour originals! p.s the reply button wouldn't work

[lostvocals6]

@dcs93

That's why I made this - to make sure people knew that what they hear in the film is not Gershwin's piece. After hearing the travesty that is being called "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" on Broadway, it's even more important to talk about how his music has been altered over the years. People are certainly allowed to like what they like - I just want them to know that they are not hearing what Gershwin wrote.

[beeznbirds]

I remember having seen S. Chaplin talk about this. Maybe on the Rhino DVD. He was so full of respect for Gershwin's composition. He said it broke his heart having to adapt the music, but that it was required since the movie ballet was supposed to be a series of different scenes, with each scene being characterised by a different mood/painter (Toulouse-Lautrec, Dufy etc.). And that the music was just not composed that way, but rather contained musical motives being interwoven and repeated.

[lostvocals6]

@beeznbirds

Yeah, I understand rearranging things. It's the new music that bothers me. And I wish they had stuck closer to Gershwin's orchestration.

[wrybreadspread]

12:47. wow. You put me on the horns of a dilemma. I am totally in love with I understand to be the Saul Chaplin version. I'm as implicit a believer in unabridged versions, whether in art, literature, cinema, or music. But the version I grew up with is, of course, fixed in my head. I think it's iconic.

By the way; kudos on coordinating the audio soundtrack to the film footage. This isn't something just anyone can do with some editting software like Windows Movie Maker...izzit?

[lostvocals6]

@wrybreadspread

I also grew up with the Chaplin version but later fell in love with Gershwin's original. Then I watched the film again, and thought, "Wait a minute! This is very different!!"

So I decided to see what had been changed. The hardest part was comparinng the two scores to see what had been moved, cut, and added. I wanted to use only the Gershwin score, but the middle section was so different that I had to use a big chunk of the soundtrack. Thanks for watching!

[wrybreadspread]

@lostvocals6 The part of that sequence I always liked was at 12:47. He picks her up the way someone carries his beloved over the threshold. He clasps her close, cheek to cheek. The lighting changes to back-and side-lit colored neon. In my head, if there’s a signature Gershwin musical sequence that’s as emblematic as the clarinet opening of Rhapsody In Blue, this part is it.

[wrybreadspread]

There is that solo trumpet, with the gentle drum brushes in the background, and then it goes into the violins. The mood is so sensual and lush. I went through and listened to the version you posted. And there are those spots where the action is frozen while the restored music plays.

In fact, speaking strictly for myself, you understand, as more of a cinema enthusiast than a music enthusiast, for me the Chaplin version works better.

[lostvocals6]

@wrybreadspread

I understand, especially if you grew up with the Chaplin version. I'm just surprised that Ira Gershwin allowed such significant changes to be made. I can see editing it for time (Gershwin did that himself for the 78 record of "Rhapsody in Blue"), and reorchestrating it for the huge MGM orchestra, but adding new music? I can never get over that.

[wrybreadspread]

@lostvocals6 But…it’s great watching this and sharing thoughts with you. Thank you for posting. And sorry for the protracted reply

[mrmxyzplk]

Thank-you for this. I always wondered....