Talk:An American in Paris

An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the An_American_in_Paris article:

• Can link tone poem: ...shwin's time in [[Paris]], it is in the form of an extended tone poem evoking the sights and energy of the [[France|French]] capi...
• Can link native speakers: ...d movies referencing France seldom use location shooting or native speakers. For example, in the [[Home Alone]] franchise, all airport ... (link to section)
• Can link French-Canadian: ...t scenes were fake and the speakers could not even pass for French-Canadian. Great care is however sometimes put into reproducing Paris... (link to section)

Notes: The article text has not been changed in any way; Some of these suggestions may be wrong, some may be right.
Feedback: I like it, I hate it, Please don't link to — LinkBot 11:22, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I have removed the reference to French-Canadians as I consider it to be an NPOV violation when read in context with the rest of the sentence, which didn't make a lot of sense (all airport scenes in movies are, by definition, fake) and was also edited out. 23skidoo 06:05, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I moved information on the movie to An American in Paris (movie). I also changed the links that are intended for the movie to point to the movie section as well. Hopefully this will allow the song section to grow, while noting that it is two seperate artistic works. --Poorpete 19:13, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Proposed move

I think that the movie is more notable and should get this namespace if we have to choose between them. However, I will advocate making this a disambiguation page. If no one objects, I will do this myself in a few days. savidan^{(talk) (e@)} 03:07, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

New York premiere

If it was performed in New York State before that date, note that New York refers to the state, not the city- just since the expression I believe often means New York City premiere? Schissel | Sound the Note! 20:06, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Taxi Horns: tuned or untuned?

The score calls for four taxi horns, labeled "a", "b", "c", "d". Many recordings use these labels as literal pitches. Strangely, however, Horn "a" always sounds together with a b in the orchestra. Horn "b" with an a, Horn "c" with a c, horn "d" with a b flat. So, if you use these horns with pitches as labeled, you get all sorts of unmusical dissonances. I have heard a recording where more or less untuned horns were used, whch suited the music better. Or should they be tuned to the according orchestral pitches (b, a, c, and b flat)? Does anyone have any evidence as to which system was intended by Gershwin? (I suppose he used four horns that were available (in b, a, c, and b flat) and chose the orchestral pitches according to them, but that's my own opinion...) -- megA 13:04, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Unmusical dissonences were probably what Gershwin was getting at. A taxi horn is not meant to be musical, especaially in a major metro area. Justin Tokke 01:07, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

True that. All the major recordings I've heard (e.g., Bernstein/N.Y. Phil.) have semi-dissonant horns. Otherwise, what's the point? Gershwin would have simply given that line to one of the brass instruments if he was after good intonation. +ILike2BeAnonymous 01:18, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

In the Bernstein recording you mention, the horns, although squeaky, are tuned to a, b, c, d, which gives us C major over D flat major and later D major chords. Which I think was not what Gershwin intended. Compare this to this (otherwise neglectible) recording: (Sandor/Budapest Phil.) [1], where the horns are "tuned" to their corresponding orchestral pitches, and this vintage recording: (Shilkret/Victory Symph.) [2], where horns with random pitches are used.

My opinion is that Gershwin opted for truly dissonant (or randomly pitched) horns, and simply labeled them a, b, c, d, without pitch connotation. As stated in the preface to the Warner-Chappell/Eulenburg orchestral score about the premiere: "...Ersatz horns were not deemes adequate for the four taxi horns, ...'authentic' horns from Paris were brought over specially." So if Gershwin had specified simple tuned horns, they would have been easily constructed in NYC, without the need to import French horns (pun!). My question is: Did Gershwin himself give citable specifications about the horns to be used? -- megA 11:49, 9 September 2007 (UTC)