Cole Porter: Man of Paradoxes

It’s been a great joy and an enormous privilege to have had the chance to sing more than 320 of Cole Porter songs over the last 3 years.
The PhD that developed parallel with it, will hopefully allow to dig even deeper in the treasure trove of Porter archives.
The text below are some thoughts resulting from my fortuitous acquaintance with the supreme sophisticate.

A hunger for attention, but ‘at an arm’s length’

Inspired by the familiarity with the circus in his younger years, Cole Porter learned a lot from the illusionists with their great disappearing acts. Porter was an expert at fooling his entire entourage, not in the least when he invented a fictional couple who were part of the new rich: Mr. and Mrs. Fitch¹ whose sensational lives he devised in the Herald Tribune.

No one truly knew the man who ‘could grin from ear to ear²,’ while his eyes remained as cold as ice. Most of all, Cole Porter wanted to be left alone. And yet he desired the attention of the whole wide world, if ‘at an arm’s length.’ ‘He cast himself as a kind of dandy. The dandy’s strategy is to combine daring with tact, flamboyance with distance.’³ Cole’s sudden moments of intense concentration — presumably a new theme or an interesting lyric which he had just came up with — often lead to a great deal of confusion, because these absences were often interpreted as arrogance. In numerous interviews he seems to be knowingly pulling the journalist’s leg. He enjoys the attention he gets from the press but does not want to share a thing. Cole appears to be an emanation of Baldassare Castiglione’s concept of Sprezzatura, the stolid yet very deliberate negligence with which one hides their diligent work or intense concentration.

Tragic and humorous: ‘Love For Sale’ vs. ‘Civilized Cheer’⁴ .

Cole combines enormous sensitivity, an often existential tristesse or desolace, to an extraordinarily strong sense of humour, and always with a great deal of class. Cheer, be it civilized. This creates enormous tension curves in his work. In the first category, we find songs such as ‘Weren’t We Fools’, ‘In the Still of the Night’, ‘Begin the Beguine’ and ‘Love For Sale’. The second category includes songs such as ‘Let’s do it, let’s Fall in Love’, ‘Let’s Misbehave’ and ‘C’est Magnifique’.

While most of the undercurrent of his work has a tragic feel to it, the surface displays itself as utterly optimistic and humorous. It remains important to bear in mind, however, that depth and frivolity are not necessarily opposites:

‘Cole Porter possessed to a singular degree the art of expressing depth through apparent frivolity. The effervescent wit and technical bravura of his songs are matched by their unguarded revelation of feeling.’

‘Amour lointaine’ vs. scabrous explicitness

Cole’s concept of love is often courtly: the dame or imaginary gentleman (because, in his imagination, Porter writes his songs for someone of the same sex) appears to be very ‘lointain(e)’, at an often unreachable distance ⁵. However, his texts are often scabrous as well. A good example is ‘Find Me a Primitive Man’, a song which could simply not be any more autobiographic:

Find me a primitive man / Built on a primitive plan / Someone with vigour and vim / I don’t mean the kind that belongs to a club / But the kind that has a club that belongs to him.

It also features a striking second refrain:

Trouve-moi un homme primitif/ Trouve moi un garçon naïf … / J’ai besoin d’un bel animal / Pour règler mon chauffage centrale.

In a future project, I would like to link Cole Porter with the patriarch of the troubadours: Guilhèm de Peitieus, who travelled a similar path and was very much part of the ‘upper set’ ⁶ as well.

Tragic and yet ‘appetitive’

Porter’s concept of love is tragic and ‘appetitive’ at the same time: sink your teeth in that apple of life, even though it may hurt. It is better than not to have lived. His alphabet of love expressed each possible feeling: from budding love and innocence to happiness, jealousy, doubt, perseverance, cynicism and even the ‘love that is slightly soiled, love for sale.’

‘In Porter, love is not consecrated … (it is) under the control of ‘the Gods’; he is fully aware that the passions such deities can unleash may shatter the world. ⁷ Again and again, Porter refers to the ecstasy and horror of love at its hottest- its amazing power to affirm the ego but also its destructive impulses (I hate you darling / Get out of town / You’re too far away). Love is so absolute that it swallows one’s identity.’ ⁸

A subversive aristocrat

Cole Porter is a soft revolutionary; an ultra-progressive man with some very conservative traits. He argues unequivocally against each from of censorship and holds up a mirror to the nation. In his time in Paris, he does not hesitate to heavily criticise the United States’ Prohibition. ⁹

At the same time, he lives like a lord, is very affable to his servants but cannot picture a life without his valet and cook. He is clearly progressive in his anti-racism. He was very amicable towards the black musicians he associated with, always treating them as equals. He showed a great sense of empathy for the outcasts of society, as shown in ‘I’m a Gigolo’,‘The Extra Man’ and ‘Love for Sale’. Yet he emphasises the importance of the distinction between personnel and master: he could hardly fathom another society. At the same time, the Yale alumnus is best buddies with the proletarian Broadway diva (and ex-stenographer) Ethel Merman, who curses like a longshoreman.

Quantity and quality

Cole Porter’s music cannot be labelled strictly classical nor purely popular. Perhaps it is the best possible crossing of these two worlds. With classical elements (great arches, wide ranges, chromaticism, intriguing harmonies and complex rhythmics) and extraordinary lyrics, Porter elevates popular music to an exceptional level. With the dash and the delightful syncopations of jazz, he brings classical music closer to to Jean Cocteau’s plea for earthly music:

‘Enough of clouds, waves, aquariums, watersprites, and nocturnal scents; what we need is a music of the earth, every-day music… The music-hall, the circus, and American negro-bands, all these things fertilize an artist just as life does.’

Thus, his songs are the ideal crossing of quality, high class content and quantity: he reached, and continues to reach, a vast audience with them.

The eminent musicologist Robert Orledge asked me if I had any idea why Porter wrote no more classical pieces after finishing a succesful ballet. Initially, I could not answer the question but today I realise that it has everything to do with Porter’s exceptional talent for writing both text and melody that intertwine like vines. Prima la musica, poi le parole — or vice versa? I propose that Porter never wanted nor had to make a choice. The troika ‘rhythm, text and melody’ has proven inseparable. They take turns at taking the reins. In that sense, the question is redundant.

‘Porter (created) songs that were highly unified in style and form. A study of these relationships reveals Porter as a composer who was consciously aware of the serious problems of musical craft and who, through an inspired gift, was able to conceal the many beautiful solutions from unsuspecting ears while easily charming them.’ ¹⁰

Porter, life artist: hedonist and Stoic

Cole Porter at work and Cole Porter playboy seem two different creatures entirely. The hedonist who enjoys the virtues of life turns into a Stoic when he is working, hours a day. The hedonist is the curious cat who wants to know it all, who continuously asks questions and experiments. He even wrote down his creed in a famous song, which speaks up for ‘voluntary exploring’. ¹¹

The Stoic is a man who considerately charts these experiences and who cherishes a rigid work ethic to that end. By combining these two visions he made his life into a work of art in an almost Foucauldian sense: he never stopped changing himself, he continued to push the boundaries of his own ‘self’.

‘To a man like Porter, art was stylized autobiography.’ ¹²

He beat his greatest enemy, boredom, with great success.

Chronicler of his era, but still very relevant today

My final conclusion pays hommage to mentor Robert Kimball, who says:

‘A courageous man and a great artist, Cole Porter wrote glorious music and sophisticated lyrics that splendidly evoke the times in which he lived yet have endured to bring pleasure to millions and to become a significant part of our cultural heritage. Witty, urbane, ebullient, and poignant, the best Porter songs are crafted with skill, beauty and intensity of expression that bear the subtle and unique qualities of artistic genius’. ¹³

Artistic genius indeed: the references have dated but the songs are still as alive and meaningful as in the time they were written. Cole Porter is the emanation of a special time. Having been born at the end of the nineteenth century and having passed away in 1964, he was an integral part of the roarin’ 20s in Paris and the ‘30s and ‘40s in New York and Hollywood. He is a product of the ‘upper class’, the personification of the notion of ‘style’, of a philosophy that strives for a quality interpretation of life with an emphasis on creating beauty and well-being.

At the same time he is a subversive mole in the social order with a great empathy for the outcasts of society, for his fellow black man and for people with a sexual orientation that deviates from the norm. Both the biography and the art of Porter are an extraordinary prism through which to view the history of the twentieth century. His songs allowed him to transcend life’s hardships, perhaps this may count for both the performer and audience as well.

‘The legacy of Cole Porter lies primarily where it should — in his music. Cole’s treasury will live as long as anyone wants to listen to songs bearing a witty, sophisticated touch. Or songs that have a raucous joy. Or a haunting and voluptuous surrender. Cole Porter without question is an acquired taste, but then so are caviar and champagne.’ ¹⁴