George Gershwin (1898–1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs Swanee (1919) and Fascinating Rhythm (1924). Later came the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924), An American in Paris (1928), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935).
As early as 1924, he collaborated with his brother Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) on a stage musical comedy Lady Be Good, followed by Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927) and Strike Up the Band (1927 and 1930).
Notwithstanding Ira’s longevity, these early collaborations are in the public domain – even in countries having adopted ‘rule of the shorter term’ – due to the 95-year copyright expiry of printed matter in the U.S.
Promenade was originally published in 1960 as a piano composition (it never had lyrics by Ira Gershwin). In the 1937 movie Shall We Dance it was performed as a solo for clarinet with orchestra while the dance stars, posing as would-be lovers, meet aboard an Atlantic steamer whilst walking dogs.
Shall We Dance is not a particularly memorable movie despite some energetic tap dancing by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and great Gershwin songs They All Laughed (at Christopher Columbus), Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off and They Can’t Take That Away from Me.
Trial Solo Clarinet part to see if you can play it with your band:
The sound clip is computer generated using sampled sounds (AI). Transcriptions and descriptions are not AI-generated.
Note: Published in a European country where copyright of the original composition (not this arrangement) has expired, due to application of the 70 years past death rule.
Set contains one score and one of each part, as download or on paper. Copying allowed by acquiring band for their performances only. Additional copies may be obtained from the J. W. Pepper webshop.
George Gershwin (1898–1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs Swanee (1919) and Fascinating Rhythm (1924). Later came the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924), An American in Paris (1928), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935).
