Prop: Parisian taxi-cab horns
Appearing in: “George Gershwin Alone”
Paris can be an exhilarating place. Because George Gershwin wanted to capture that exuberance in his 1928 tone poem “An American in Paris,” he included some unique sounds made by real horns from Parisian taxis.
That meant that actor/singer/pianist Hershey Felder would need the same kind of horns for his in “George Gershwin Alone.” “These are the kinds of horns with a big rubber end that seals use in circuses,” explains Felder. “I wanted to have the real horns because they represent the music of the streets of Paris in the 1920s.”
Gershwin incorporated four different horns that each “honked” in a different key, so Felder ordered one of each from a manufacturer who still makes them. “I had been using a junky little horn up until then and when I opened the box these beautiful, long, sleek horns came out and it actually felt like they could be played like an instrument,” he recalls.
Easier said than done. “You don’t just squeeze them; you have to warm them up and they sort of squeak if you don’t hit them at exactly the right angle,” says Felder. “But it’s wonderful when they’re really loud and make a racket.”
Felder says the taxi horns play an essential role in Gershwin’s composition. “They needed to be in the piece because `An American in Paris’ at certain points represents the craziness of the Arc de Triomphe and all the people driving around it in a circle and honking their horns,” he explains.
“The busyness of Paris is so much different from the busyness of New York,” Felder adds. “In New York the horns express the feelings of people who need to get somewhere, but in Paris the horns are a greeting, they’re festive, they’re romantic–at least for a tourist.”
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“George Gershwin Alone,” 8 p.m. Friday; open run, Royal George Theatre Center, 1641 N. Halsted St., $37.50-$45; 312-988-9000.