The 1937 Paris Exposition, though opening under an unsettling international climate, became a great success, with its elaborately designed national exhibits attracting much attention. To commemorate the Exposition, two collections of piano pieces were planned and published, primarily led by Marguerite Long. One was “À l’Exposition” (At the Exposition / published by Deiss), a collection of works by eight French composers (Auric, Delannoy, Ibert, Milhaud, Poulenc, Sauguet, Schmitt, Tailleferre). The other was “Parc d’Attractions-Expo 1937” (Amusement Park of the 1937 Exposition / published by Max Eschig), a collection of works by nine foreign composers residing in Paris (Tcherepnin, Martinu, Mompou, Rieti, Honegger, Halffter, Tansman, Mihalovici, Harsányi). The “Amusement Park of the Exposition” refers to the entertainment zone established at the Exposition grounds, separate from the national pavilions. Both collections are interesting not only for showcasing the individuality of each composer but also for vividly capturing various scenes of this last historical event of the interwar period.

Tansman composed Le Géant (The Giant) for Parc d’Attractions-Expo 1937. It is dedicated to Marguerite Long. It is a short piece, two pages long, marked Andante pesante, in 4/4 time. Although it can tentatively be seen as in B minor, it has no key signature and is tonally unstable. The score contains small annotations: “Entrance of the Giant,” “Speech,” and “Exit.” It depicts, with a restrained hand, the giant slowly appearing, muttering something, and then retreating with the same gait as when it entered. According to pianist Bennett Lerner, who recorded the aforementioned two Exposition piano collections in 1988, Tansman explained that this piece depicts a scene from a circus attraction. Given its composition date, it might have been a type of street performance involving a stilt walker (a person on stilts). It was premiered by the composer himself in August 1937 at the Salle des Archives Internationales de la Danse in Paris. On November 28, 1938, Nicole Henriot, then 13 years old and a student of Long, performed it again at Salle Gaveau. Henriot later married Albert Schweitzer's nephew, taking the name Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer, and began a serious performing career after the war, including being the dedicatee and first performer of Milhaud's Suite concertante, Op. 278b (an adaptation of the Marimba and Vibraphone Concerto, Op. 278, for piano concerto).