The poetry in Bernstein's "Songfest" explores the American artist's experience, including creativity, love, marriage, and minority issues within a Puritan society.
Composition History
Leonard Bernstein's "Songfest" was written in 1976-77 to celebrate the American Bicentennial Year, setting verses by 13 American poets.
Recording & Production
This recording of Gershwin's "An American in Paris" uses a new 2019 critical edition that restores Gershwin's original orchestration, which had not been heard in concert for over 75 years.
Composition History
George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" was inspired not just by Paris, but also by his homesickness for New York City's Hudson River.
Instruments
The iconic taxi horns in Gershwin's "An American in Paris" were long performed incorrectly; Gershwin himself selected four horns for specific pitches and invented a notation for them.
Composition History
Aaron Copland's "An Outdoor Overture" was commissioned by Alexander Richter for the High School of Music and Art, with the slogan "American Music for American Youth."
Compositional Technique
Gershwin's "An American in Paris" uses a three-part A-B-A structure that also maps precisely onto the sonata allegro form of a classic symphonic movement.
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Copland, A.: Fanfare for the Common Man / Lincoln Portrait / Canticle of Freedom / Harris, R.: American Creed (Portraits of Freedom)
