Gershwin 'An American in Paris' Questions #1

1. Strong 2 beats of the bar, creating a strong feel of the 2 feet marching. Also, a slight lilt to the rhythm, created by varied note lengths and articulations, creating the feeling of an uneven, natural walk.
2. Imitate the violins from a bar earlier, in unison. The notes lead to the 3rd Trombone and Tuba note in the next bar.
3. 11 bars- the cadence is interrupted
4. Repetition of the walking theme, except the second violin has a melody in bars 12-15. This part ends with a shift to F minor, the parallel minor key.
5. "Dodging taxis", material in flute parts has come from the violin parts at the beginning, and semiquavers (e.g. in violins) has come from their part at the beginning of the piece, except that now it is repeated without rests, creating a slightly altered rhythm.
6. The taxi-horn is a very striking feature, as is the dramatic change in note durations (from predominating semiquavers to quavers and crotchets), that create a sort of hemiola feel. I would call this   the "Taxi" theme.
7. The rhythm of the flutes and bells/xylophone is the same as we have heard before in the horns and violins (figure 3).
8. The taxi horn that is played has a different pitch to the first, and after it plays, the semiquaver sequencing that follows is different from the semiquaver movement before it in this way (that it is more sequential than the last, in rhythm and in pitch), and the two flutes play different things, as well as all the instruments having much shorter note durations, creating a faster harmonic rhythm. Also, the taxi horns now (bars 40-43) have their rhythm repeated, as they have a short call-and-responsorial dialogue.
9. The piece gets faster here (Vivo, meaning lively). This boosts the tension here and creates the feel of increased franticness, perhaps as the protagonist dodges cars. Also the use of rests increases the liveliness of the music, with the 'um cha um cha' pattern. The use of staccato increases the impact of this  technique. Finally the use of chromaticism develops tension here, as it is used in most of the parts.