Cole Porter Essay Example For Students

Cole Porter Essay (1891-1964)American composer lyricistBiographyColes familyCole Porters name derives from the surnames of his parents, Kate Cole and Sam Porter. Kates father, James Omar (known as J. O.), was an influential man both in the community and in Coles early life. J.O. started from humble beginnings as son of a shoemaker, but his business savvy and strong work ethic made him the richest man in Indiana. Despite J.O.s obsessive drive for making money, he took time off to marry Rachel Henton, who had several children with him. Kate Cole was born in 1862, and was spoiled during her youth (as well as later in life). She always had the best clothes, the best education, and the best training in dancing and music. Her father had every expectation of marrying her off to a man with a strong business background, a strong personality, and the potential for a good career. As it is for many filial presumptions and expectations, Kate married someone who was quite the opposite a shy druggist from their small town of Peru, Indiana. The couple married without the full consent of J.O., but he financially supported their wedding and subsidized the couple. As one of the richest men in Indiana, he thought his daughter should be seen doing and wearing the right things without financial fears. These subsidies from J.O. financed the rest of Sam and Kates life, as well as that of their son born on June 9th, 1891: Cole Porter. Coles early yearsCole learned piano and violin at age six. He became very good at both, but he disliked the violins harsh sound and so his energy turned to the piano. During his formative years, he played piano two hours per day. While Cole practiced, he and his mother would parody popular tunes on the piano in order to increase Coles patience with such long practice sessions. Appearing to surpass his peers was easier due to deception on the part of Cole and his mother. When he was fourteen, his mother falsified his school records so it appeared that he was a extra bright for his age. The power J. O. Cole wielded within the small town of Peru, Indiana allowed Kate many such unusual favors by community officials. For instance, Kate financed student orchestras in exchange for guarantees of Cole Porter violin solos and apparently influenced the medias reviews or billing surrounding such concerts. She also subsidized the publishing of Coles early compositions. Cole composed songs as early as 1901 (when he was ten) with a song dedicated to his mother, a piano piece called Song of the Birds, separated into six sections with titles like The Young Ones Leaning to Sing and The Cuckoo Tells the Mother Where the Bird Is. His mother ensured that one hundred copies were published so that the song could be sent to friends and relatives. He enrolled in the Worcester Academy in 1905, where he was lauded as the precocious youngster who became class valedictorian. There Cole met an important influence in his musicianship, Dr. Ambercrombie. His teacher taught him about the relationship between words and meter, and between words and music in songs. Cole later quoted from Ambercrombies lessons: Words and music must be so inseparably wedded to each other that they are like one.The Yale yearsColes Yale years included many adventures, many musicals, and the forging of relationships that he carried with him for the rest of his life. Most students soon knew him for the fight songs he would write, many of which continue to be Yale classics. It might be worth noting that it was during the Yale years when Coles homosexuality became a force in his life. Some biographers have speculated that his later preference for large strong men and the number of Yale football fight songs was no coincidence. The Cole Porter biographies I have read do not reveal actual evidence for his gay sex life until after college, so some of this may be based on conjecture based on his more well documented liaisons soon after college. Perhaps the biggest influence in his musical development were the full scale (for college) productions designed for the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the Yale Dramatic Association, and solo performances in the Yale Glee Club. Despite an Ivy League academic workload and social obligations, he composed several full productions per year in addition to individual songs. Most of the shows for the Yale student groups were zany musicals which were always complicated, and sometimes rallied around the superiority or sexual (heterosexual) prowess of Yale men. These shows were primarily intended for a Yale audience, although some of them charged admission when intended for a non-college crowd. Cole did not necessarily contribute to the book (the script) of the musicals, but he did have an influence on how the parts of the plot was strung together, the high energy, and the witty unreality that marked all Cole musicals. Cole wrote musicals for clubs and alumni associations, which allowed Cole and his friends to tour the country and showered with attention and parties. Some of these Yale connections were helpful when he started his career on Broadway. The Yale ties lasted beyond his graduation. Even as he was graduating, he was promising more musicals for his student organizations to be written after leaving Yale. He left Yale with a legacy of approximately 300 songs, including six full scale productions. Classical Theory Structure EssayAfter this point, he had one major production, Kiss Me Kate, which was based on the Shakespeare classic Taming of the Shrew. Cole was very skeptical of this production but eventually lent his hand to the production and it became very successful, eventually spawning a moderately successful movie. The following years saw some less successful productions, and the amputation of his right leg which pained him in 1958. After the amputation, his creative productivity, his social power, and his happiness had waned. He died on October 15, 1964. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried between his wife Linda and his father Sam Porter. Perhaps because his fathers almost irrelevant role his upbringing, many reports have circled that he was buried between his mother Kate and his wife Linda. The popularity of his individual songs lasted far beyond the common knowledge of the man himself. Many of his most famous songs were presented to the public only in the context of musicals or movies which contained non-Cole Porter songs. Other famous songs have come from Cole Porter musicals or revues that failed miserably, but made up their exposure via sheet music and recordings from popular singers like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. One album that brought Cole Porter to many younger listeners was a fund raising pop album called Red, Hot, and Blue with Cole Porter songs sung by popular musicians of the 1980s and 1990s. Porter songs still maintain a strong presence in movie soundtracks (from Woody Allen Movies, to Tank Girls), with the most popular songs Lets Do It (Lets Fall In Love) and Night and Day. Lets hope that we all keep that faith and keep the talent of Cole Porter alive! The Shows (theatre)Anything GoesAround the World in Eighty DaysCan-CanDu Barry Was a LadyFifty Million FrenchmenGay DivorceHigh Society JubileeKiss Me KateLeave It to MeLets Face ItMexican Hay RideThe New YorkersNymph ErrantOut of This WorldPanama HattieRed, Hot and BlueSeven Lively ArtsSilk StockingsSomething for the BoysYou Never Know The FilmsAnything Goes (1936)Anything Goes (1956)Born to DanceBroadway Melody of1940Can-CanDu Barry Was a LadyHigh SocietyKiss Me KateLes GirlsPanama HattieThe PirateRosalieSilk StockingsSomething to Sho utAboutYoull Never Get Rich Miscellaneous Films These films a) were made from Cole Porter shows, but used very little of his contributions, b) have a song (or two) that were directly commissioned from Cole Porter. ParisThe Battle of ParisFifty Million FrenchmenParee, PareeThe Gay DivorceeBreak the NewsLets Face ItSomething for the BoysHollywood CanteenAdams RibStage Fright Early Broadway, Paris, and London ShowsGreenwich Village Follies of 1924Hitchy-Koo of 1919Hitchy-Koo of 1922ParisLa Revue des AmbassadeursSee America FirstWake Up and DreamWithin the QuotaCollege ShowsAnd the Villain Still Pursued HerCoraThe KaleidoscopeParanoiaThe Pot of GoldConcert Productions and Studio RecordingsAnything Goes (1989)Fifty Million Frenchmen (1991)Kiss Me Kate (1990)Nymph Errant (1989)Out of This World (1995)Something for the Boys (1997)Other RecordingsAnything GoesCan-CanHigh SocietyKiss Me KateSilk Stockings Television ProjectsAladdinTelevision Adaptations Anything Goes Kiss Me Kate Lets Face It Panama HattieUnproduced ProjectsAdios, Argentina Ever Yours Greek to You Mississippi Belle Star Dust Interpolations and RevuesFilms and shows with interpolated Porter songs, and revues of Porter songs. At Long Last Love Cole (Mermaid) Decline and Fall Evil Under the Sun Happy New Year Night and Day A Swell Party Unsung Cole Complete Movie ListingThese are all the movies which contain Cole Porter songs. Action in the North Atlantic (1943)Adams Rib (1949)Aladdin (1958)American Pop (1981)Anything Goes (1936)Artie Shaw and His Orchestra (1938)Battle of Paris, The (1929) Born to Dance (1936)Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)Bullets Over Broadway (1994) Dont Fence Me In (1945) Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)Everyone Says I Love You (1996)Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (1972) Evil Under The Sun (1982)Eye For an Eye (1996)Forget Paris (1995)Frauds (1993)French Kiss (1995) Gay Divorcee, The (1934)Grande Arte, A (1991)Great Expectations (1998)Great White Hype, The (1996)Hal Kemp and His Orchestra (1941) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)High Society (1956)Hollywood Canteen (1944)I dood It (1943)I morgon, Mario (1994)Imaginary Crimes (1994)Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)Innocen t Blood (1992)Innocent, The (1993)Jumanji (1995) Junior (1994)Kiss Me Kate (1953)Lets Make Love (1960)Life Stinks (1991)Life With Mikey (1993)Little Man Tate (1991)Lullaby of Broadway (1951)Marias Lovers (1984)Marrying Man, The (1991)Miami Rhapsody (1995)Mighty Aphrodite (1995)More the Merrier, The (1943)Mr. North (1988)New York Stories (1989) Night and Day (1946)No Questions Asked (1951)Now, Voyager (1942)Once Upon a Time in America (1984)Paree, Paree (1934)Pirate, The (1948)Prelude to a Kiss (1992) Radio Days (1987)Rising Sun (1993)Rocketeer, The (1991)Rosalie (1937)Russia House, The (1990)Scenes from a Mall (1991) Side Street (1950)Silk Stockings (1957) Six Degrees of Separation (1993)Slither (1972)Something for the Boys (1944)Something to Shout About (1943)Stage Fright (1950)Stardust Memories (1980)Starlift (1951) Tank Girl (1995)Thats Entertainment, Part II (1976)Timecop (1994)Whats Up, Doc? (1972)Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)Young Man with a Horn (1950)