科尔·波特

生平

波特出生于一个美国印第安纳州秘鲁的富裕家庭。他以音乐作为自己开始从事的职业。经过传统的训练，他将事业转向音乐剧。经过一个缓慢的开始，他于20世纪20年代开始走向成功。20世纪30年代，他成为一个百老汇音乐剧舞台的主要词曲作者。与许多成功的百老汇作曲家不同的是，波特不仅从事写作歌词，他还写音乐以及歌曲。

Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in Hollywood films.

Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, Porter defied his grandfather's wishes for him to practice law and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs.

After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, Kiss Me, Kate. It won the first Tony Award for Best Musical.

Porter's other musicals include Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady, Anything Goes, Can-Can and Silk Stockings. His hit songs include "Night and Day", "Begin the Beguine", "I Get a Kick Out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love", "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" and "You're the Top". He also composed scores for films from the 1930s to the 1950s, including Born to Dance (1936), which featured the song "You'd Be So Easy to Love"; Rosalie (1937), which featured "In the Still of the Night"; High Society (1956), which included "True Love"; and Les Girls (1957) which featured "Ça, C'est L'amour".

Life and career

Early years

Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, on June 9, 1891, the only surviving child of a wealthy family. His father, Samuel Fenwick Porter, was a pharmacist by trade. His mother, Kate, was the indulged daughter of James Omar "J. O." Cole, "the richest man in Indiana", a coal and timber speculator who dominated the family. J. O. Cole built the couple a house on his Peru-area property, known as Westleigh Farms. After high school, Porter returned to his childhood home only for occasional visits.

Porter's strong-willed mother doted on him and began his musical training at an early age.……

Musical style

Porter wrote both the music and lyrics of his songs. But he did not write the books of the shows, or the screenplays, in which his songs appeared. Nor, except in Kiss Me Kate, did he tailor his songs to the shows in which they appeared. For Porter, plot was only "a convenient clothesline on which to hang his songs", and he stated in his will that any of his songs could be used in any of his shows. Not needing to accommodate plots or songwriting partners, his recognizable style remained much the same throughout his career.

Tributes and legacy

Many artists have recorded Porter songs, and dozens have released entire albums of his songs. The first prominent artist to do so was Crosby in Bing Crosby Sings Cole Porter Songs (1950), followed in 1956 by Ella Fitzgerald in Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. In 1972, she released another collection, Ella Loves Cole. Others who recorded all-Porter albums include Oscar Peterson, Anita O'Day, Julie London, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Stephane Grappelli and Yo-Yo Ma, Dionne Warwick and Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.……

Notable shows and songs

Dates, shows and songs are given in Robert Kimball's The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter. Shows listed are stage musicals unless otherwise noted:

† Was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, but did not win.

Discography

Hundreds of recordings have been made of Porter's works. Many of these are listed in The Cole Porter Reference Guide.