Allen Forte - Secrets of Melody - Line and Design in the Songs of Cole Porter

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Secrets of Melody: Line and Design in the Songs of Cole Porter Author(s): Allen Forte Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 77, No. 4 (Winter, 1993), pp. 607-647Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/742350Accessed: 19-08-2014 11:08 UTC

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The Twentieth Century

Secrets of Melody: Line and Design in the Songs of Cole Porter

Allen Forte

1. Introduction

It is difficult not to respond pleasurably to the beautiful contours of a Cole Porter melody; the songs, with their witty and poignant lyrics, have enchanted generations of Americans and Europeans as reflected in a performance tradition now decades old. But, judging by the number of published works on the song writer, scholars have not analyzed the songs of Porter to the same degree as European art songs. Perhaps this lack reflects the persistent attitude of the "generations of musicians" to which Arnold Schoenberg refers in his provocative comments on American music-comments that are still timely:

When I speak of American music, I cannot pass over American light music. Who can doubt that it adds up to something American? But who has the right to call it inferior in comparison with the light music of other peoples? We know Wagner despised Offenbach. . . . And who can say how arrogantly generations of musicians would speak of that light music, had Brahms not been able and sufficiently educated to recognize its purely musical substance and the value of that; had he not had the respect for achievement possessed only by those who know at first hand what achievement is. . . . (Boston, 28 June 1934)1

Schoenberg's point, although perhaps somewhat condescending, is well made. And with respect to the music of Porter, its negative implications find a parallel in the American musicological literature of the past fifty years: a resounding thud.

In this essay I hope to make a small contribution toward rectify- ing that situation and toward forming a deeper appreciation of the "purely musical substance" of the songs of Cole Porter (1891-1964). I will examine certain elemental features of the music and discuss those aspects of melody that I feel are of signal importance to the structural and aesthetic qualities of the songs--the linear and design aspects to which I refer in the title.

607



608 The Musical Quarterly

Descriptive Terms With apologies to those who are familiar with contemporary analytical jargon and to whose who speak the lingua franca of the American musical theater (formerly "musical comedy"), I will explain some of the terms that are used in this article.

The term "line" refers to linear features of larger scale (in the Schenkerian sense), while "design" applies to motivic detail and idio- syncratic harmonic motions.2 More specifically, line designates a stepwise, usually diatonic-scalar, melodic projection. A line, however, is not necessarily equivalent to a melodic line (see Ex. 1).

0

"I love you" Hums the April breeze,

II V I

Example 1. "I Love You," refrain, mm. 1-3.

In Example 1 the scalar line c2-b-flatl-aI (scale degrees 5-4-3, indicated by careted numerals) spans the opening phrase. Each of its notes is supported by the bass and harmony, providing linear continuity over the span of the progression.3 The melody in its entirety features the expressive leap from c2 of the line down to d-flat1, a salient decorative note flagged to indicate its special role in the melody. The second note of the line, b-flat1, connects downward to the salient decorative note g-sharpI before it resolves as voice-leading dissonant seventh to the final note of the line, a1. Here and elsewhere the line may be regarded as the controlling structure that organizes and directs the melodic components in their entirety. As will become evident, lines of this kind are everywhere in Porter's music and, far from being stereo- typical, have many different manifestations in the songs.

Example 1 may also serve as an introduction to the graphic symbols and conventions that will be used in the musical examples of this essay. First and foremost, the components of a line are connected by a



Secrets of Melody 609

beam and often labeled by careted numerals to show their degree- position in the prevailing scale. Flagged noteheads designate special melodic notes. Ties have the usual meaning, here connecting adjacent notes of the same pitch, since repeated attacks are regarded as irrele- vant to the analytical sketch. Slurs connect notes that are related by harmonic function, as in the bass here and elsewhere, or by voice- leading syntax-for example, b in the tenor of m. 3 resolves upward to c1. In addition, the lyrics are given in approximate alignment with the melody so that as the article progresses the reader can sing along if he or she so desires. The examples are also arranged to be easily played at the keyboard and are suitable for framing, as well.

I gave short shrift to the term design above. As will become evident, design is a somewhat loosely defined but comprehensive term for the interaction of musical components. It refers to the ways in which various features are transformed and combined to contribute to the whole musical texture as it is organized around the linear structures that I regard as basic to the songs.

Among the other terms used in the essay proper, three perhaps require attention here. The first is lyrics, a corruption of the classical lyric, as in lyric poem, that designates the words of the song--in Por- ter's case the poetic text.4 The term refrain (sometimes called the chorus) is applied to the first part of the main body of the song, while verse is the short section, with its own text, that introduces the refrain. In the American musical theater song, the verse is equivalent to the operatic recitative. It prepares for the refrain's aria and, accord- ingly, is often patter-like and not distinctive as a melody. As Porter says in the verse of "It's De-Lovely," "This verse I've started seems to me/The Tin-Pantithesis of melody." In addition, the song may have a (usually brief) piano or instrumental introduction and a codetta, sometimes called a tag.

The bridge or release is the middle of the song, connecting the first part, the refrain, with its repetition, usually modified.5 Thus, the full-blown song in its musical theater form is a three-part concatena- tion: refrain-bridge-refrain, with verse and coda as anticipatory and reflective parts, respectively. Not all of Porter's songs follow this full pattern, however. Some of the best known songs-for example, "Easy to Love"-have no bridge.

However, many of his songs have verses, and although it is easy to disregard them, they deserve more than passing consideration. For example, the verse to "Night and Day" is overture-like in character and states in concealed form motives and basic gestures that appear prominently in the refrain. In "I've Got You Under My Skin" the bass




of the introduction recurs in the descant of the refrain, mm. 6-7, setting the words "deep in the heart (of me)."6 For this reason, the verse should be included in performances, or, better, sung again after the refrain, following Broadway practice.

Repertory, Text, and "Contributory Authorship" For the most part, the musical examples in this essay are drawn from Porter's "ballads," the love songs from the big musicals that may be the best known of the "standards." The production numbers-such as "Just One of Those Things"--are given only passing attention in order to work with a more cohesive repertory. But this does not mean that the linear features discussed here are absent from those songs.

Before proceeding, I must also address the question of the text- to borrow a term from musicology-of the Porter songs. To what extent did others contribute to the definitive form of his music? These questions are important to answer since our analytical work would be questionable were it performed on a spurious or corrupt text. The problem is complicated in the case of Porter-and for all the composers for the musical theater. When each musical was produced, Porter's songs were orchestrated by several different individuals on different occasions, of whom the most famous was Robert Russell Bennett. The publishers also had various types of arrangements made for combina- tions of voices, for orchestra, for band, etc. All those processes intro- duced variants into the music, though, for the most part, the original music still remained as a core structure.

For the purpose of this study, the definitive text is the piano- vocal score that was prepared for the sheet music market.7 This is the form in which Porter submitted his music to the copyist, who, in turn, prepared a clean (fair) copy (the Stichvorlage) for the engraver.8 The question arises concerning the extent to which the copyist added to or otherwise altered Porter's manuscript. Examination of documents in the Cole Porter Collection, Yale American Musical Theatre Col- lection, Historical Sound Recordings, sheds light on this issue.9

Although there are relatively few Porter holographs in the collection, it is instructive to compare those that are there with the copyist's version. For example, "Take Me Back to Manhattan" (The New Yorkers, 1930) exists in the composer's manuscript (with his characteristic handwriting, including the tell-tale reversed F-clef), without lyrics. Also in the collection is the same music, edited by Dr. Albert Sirmay, with lyrics added.10 This is the Stichoorlage, very carefully prepared and including a few additions to the music as it was notated




by its composer. These include the ukelele tablature and chord symbols (obligatory for the sheet music market); a few embellishing bass notes, in particular, occasional fifths above the bass on the offbeat inserted for rhythmic reasons without effecting a change of harmony or changing the fundamental bass progression; and a few minor changes in chord positioning to accommodate the hands of the ama- teur pianists who formed the bulk of the sheet music audience. "Vivi- enne" (Paris, 1928) provides yet another instance. Here we have Porter's manuscript, without lyrics, very carefully prepared for the copyist. There is also an ink copy, probably by another copyist, and finally, the carefully drawn Stichvorlage, in pencil, with lyrics, edited by Sirmay and including the copyright notice (copyright 1928 Harms, Inc.). Here the copyists' copies are virtually identical to the Porter manuscript.

Since the Stichvorlage was the last stage before engraving, it re- ceived special attention from the composer. Thus, in the copyist's copy of "Don't Look at Me That Way" (Paris, 1928) Porter himself has made minor additions in the form of a few notes added to chords. And finally, the holograph of "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" (Paris, 1928) looks exactly like the published sheet music score, except that it lacks ukelele tablature and chord symbols.

From another vantage point altogether, an intuitive one, we may well ask if, in the absence of extensive source material (sketches, drafts, etc.), it is possible that in some cases Porter conceived the melodies only, without reference to a harmonic-contrapuntal setting. Given the complexity of the melodies--dramatically represented in such elaborate structures as "Easy to Love" and "I Concentrate On You"-any experienced and thoughtful musician would respond with an unequivocal "no." Thus, it is probably not without significance that even the melodic sketches in the Cole Porter Collection are notated on two staves, with the lower staff left empty, presumably to be filled in with bass notes.

2. Surface Melodic Features of the Songs

Turning now to my central concerns, I would like to begin by considering some of the "naive" surface features of the songs--aspects of line that are immediately perceptible to the attentive and responsive per- former and listener. Then, I will approach some of the deeper structural features, beginning with a melodic note of unique function: the primary tone.




The Primary Melodic Tone In each of Porter's songs, one scale degree in the key may be singled out as "primary melodic tone," the note in the upper voice that delimits the primary melodic space of the song and that often serves as headnote of the linear structure of longest range, one that may extend over the entire piece. This note almost always occurs at or near the beginning of the melody in the refrain-perhaps in the thematic incipit--and is likely supported by the tonic triad or, more usually in Porter's case, by one of its surrogates. The refrain of "All of You" provides an example:

I love the looks of you,

Example 2. "All of You," refrain, mm. 1-2.

Here the scale degree 3, the primary melodic tone, is preceded by an ascending stepwise upbeat figure that leads to the sentient decorative note a-flat1, a traditional neighbor note." By "sentient decorative note" I mean a note that, in an affective manner that almost always supports a keyword in the lyrics (as "looks" here), embellishes a note that is part of a line, as defined above. The mere presence of a primary tone is, of course, of little analytical interest. More important are the ways in which it relates to other melodic features-for example, to long lines and, closer to the surface, to the nadir and apex notes.

Registral Extremes: Apex and Nadir The apex (high note) and nadir (low note) of a Porter melody are not scattered casually throughout but, with few exceptions, occur only once, and then in strategic locations with respect to the text and to large-scale unfolding structures--notably in relation to the lines, which are a primary focus of the present essay. The brief excerpts that follow will be placed in a larger context in the third section, entitled "Long-Range Lines," and in the final section, "Lines in Complete Songs."




a) A [m.251 apex

There's no love song finer,

b) b) [m. 29] nadir

Ev- 'ry time we say goodbye

Example 3. "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye."

Here (Ex. 3), apex note f2 decorates e-flat2 at the beginning of the penultimate phrase and sets "love," always a keyword in a Porter song. The nadir note, d1, a tenth lower than the apex note, decorates the final note of the melody, setting "good" of "goodbye" and mirroring the apex.

[m.33] apex

"Do you love me

b) A nadir

In the still of the night,

Example 4. "In the Still of the Night."

In "In the Still of the Night" (Ex. 4), the nadir note is the very first note of the melody, c1, while the apex occurs as f2 at the very beginning of the bridge, both strategic formal locations.

a) [m. 23]

_ 3 apex

it does seem a shame,

b) [m. 1] nadir

You'd be so eas- y to love,

Example 5. "Easy to Love."




As in the previous example, the nadir note of "Easy to Love" occurs at the beginning of the melody (Ex. 5). It too is the headnote of a line, as will be seen in Example 34, which also shows the crucial linear role of the apex e2, located exactly one octave above the first note of the song.

a) [m.33] apex

Night and day

b) [m. 13] nadir

I think of you

Example 6. "Night and Day."

In "Night and Day," b-flatI in m. 33 is not literally the apex note; this is the final C in m. 46, which I regard, however, as a decorative and formulaic gesture. The true apex, in my view, stands at the beginning of the bridge, as shown in Example 6, a minor third above the primary tone, scale degree 5. The nadir occurs much earlier in the song, just at the end of the first period of the refrain, and is exactly one octave lower than the primary tone. Both notes set highly significant words in the lyrics: the apex, set by a major triad, is an apt depiction of "day," while the nadir provides an affective setting of "you." As will be seen in Example 24, the nadir note is the tailnote of a long descending line that begins on the primary tone.

a) [m. 50] apex

just the thought of you

b) [m.31] un0e1y snadir

under my skin.

Example 7. "I've Got You Under My Skin."




The nadir note in this beautiful song, "I've Got You Under My Skin" (Ex. 7 at b) occurs at the very end of the refrain and, as is so often the case, closes a long descending line. It is exactly one octave lower than the primary tone. The apex, setting "thought of you," occurs very near the end of this long song and is rendered especially poignant by its harmonic setting, an instance of the half-diminished seventh chord, reserved by the composer for heightened effects, as in this case.

a) [m. 13] apex

You'd be all

b) [m.29] apex nadir

to come home to and love c) [m.7]

nadir

nice by the fire

Example 8. "You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To."

If the composer's notation on the piano-vocal score is followed exactly, the nadir note of "You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To" is c1, which sets the last word, "love." In fact, this is then the second nadir; as shown in Example 8 at c, it is heard first at the end of the second phrase, in m. 7 ("fire"). The nadir note is strongly related to the primary tone--again, as in previous examples, by the interval of an octave. Since the apex is e2, apex and nadir occur in immediate succession in m. 29, a very unusual occurrence in Porter's songs.

a) [m. 25] S3 apex

is it a fan- cy b) [m.7]

r------ 1 nadir

or merely the mock?

c) [m. 1] [m.25] 3 primary tone - 3 ---- apex

is it an earthquake Is it a fan- cy

Example 9. "At Long Last Love."




The nadir in "At Long Last Love" occurs at the end of the first period, setting "mock." Here dI is a melodic substitute for the "real" note required by the voice leading, namely, fl, and is thus an appro- priate musical analogue to the poetic idea. The apex note e2, supported by a half-diminished seventh chord, which enhances its text- setting role (see Ex. 17), relates directly back to the first note of the song, el, in the upbeat. Whereas the latter is the head note of the melodic fourth from el to a1, the former is the tail note of the melodic fifth, complement of the fourth (Ex. 9 at c).

In "I Concentrate on You," apex, nadir, and primary tone are interconnected, as can be seen in Example 10.

a) [m.49] A I- apex

and so when wise men

b) [m. 1] S_ nadir

When- ev- er skies

Example 10. "I Concentrate on You."

Apex note e-flat2 clearly relates back to its counterpart an octave lower in the opening music of the song. Both are followed by versions of the pitch D: d2 and d1, respectively, and the correspondence of rhyme ("wise" and "skies") can hardly be accidental. In addition, the nadir note is the octave replica of the primary tone, b-flat1, in m. 5, a relation that will be seen in a larger context in Example 29.

From the foregoing examples one can see that primary tone, apex note, and nadir note are basic melodic coordinates in Porter's melodies and crucial factors in their design. Their placement and interaction are essential to the unfolding of the melody, and, as will be shown in the final section of this essay, they are intimately connected to the linear structures that form the underlying melodic thread of the music.

Special Melodic Notes as Design Elements In any Porter song there are notes other than the apex, nadir, and primary tone that the ear singles out and that the heart and' brain respond to. Although these cannot be fully appreciated until they are placed in the full context of the music, for introductory purposes I




have assembled some examples that are intended to be suggestive rather than exhaustive.

What I have called "sentient decorative notes," especially the neighbor notes of the "incomplete" genre (the prefix appoggiatura and its reverse form), serve to highlight particularly sensitive words in the lyrics and are embedded in the subsurface lines of the music, creating a basic design feature. Example 11 shows how a series of such notes may create its own coherent pattern, in this case, summing to a harmony, an fm7 chord, that duplicates the first simultaneous sonority of the song.

'got' 'heart' 'deep' 'got' fm7


Example 25, which will be discussed later, shows how the special notes flagged in Example 11 are attached to components of the long line that spans the first period of the refrain. Two classes of special notes now require at least brief consideration in connection with the design of Porter's songs: "blue notes" (the lowered third and seventh scale degrees in major) and mode-changing notes.

With few exceptions, Porter does not use blue notes very obviously in his songs, but when he does employ them he does so in a somewhat self-conscious way. An instance of this is "What Is This Thing Called Love," where both the lowered seventh and lowered third are featured, the latter in a decorative capacity, the former as an important component of a long line. These elements are clearly in the spirit of the composer's performance instruction for the refrain--"in the manner of a 'blues' "--and are to be found as the first note of the melody, b-flatI ("What"), d-sharpl ("called") in m. 6, and, more obviously, as e-flatI in the cadence at m. 14.12

The mode-changing notes that constitute the second class of special notes will be amply illustrated in subsequent examples, especially in those of sections 3 and 4. A particularly cogent instance is to be found in the opening measures of "I Concentrate On You," specifically, the music that begins with the "tenor" f-sharp in m. 3, which becomes g-flat in m. 5, as part of the E-flat minor triad that initiates the minor-mode section that follows. I will have occasion to refer to this feature again later in connection with Example 29.




Finally, a note that may be all too easily overlooked in this sur- vey of special notes is the tonic note itself, scale degree 1. To Porter this is a special note, indeed, and its definitive statement, as a symbol of closure, is most often reserved for the very end of the song. A rather extraordinary example of this is to be found in "Easy to Love," where the primary tone E (scale degree 6) achieves apex status in m. 24 (Ex. 5) and becomes the headnote of a long line that descends to scale degree 1 in the very last measure, the first occurrence of that note in other than a very subsidiary capacity. Example 34 provides a full representation of this and other linear events in "Easy to Love."

Melodic Motives and Motivic Design In accord with the main focus of this essay, which is upon the linear aspect of Porter's songs, I will not undertake a detailed exploration of melodic surface. Suffice it to say that melodic decorations and their intricate transformations occur throughout the music and are there to be savored by the connoisseur of the art song as well as by the scholar--in the event that those individuals are distinct. For the present purpose, however, let us reflect upon the idea that motivic design in Porter's songs includes not only the small, atomic decorations, but also linear formations of greater length.

The musical presentation of these design features hinges on a traditional process that will be called motivic transferal: the shifting of a melodic phrase or recognizable fragment thereof to another position in the music. A single simple example will illustrate this kind of motivic connection, which is one that the composer cultivated assiduously.

a) [m. 1] nadir


b) [m. 33] (rhythm simplified) apex

Are you my life to be,





At the opening of the refrain (Ex. 12 at a), the music for the vocal phrase "still of the night" (the thematic incipit) spans a descending third, with passing tone el decorated by an upper neighbor fl. The phrase ends on the nadir note d1, appropriately set by a half-diminished seventh chord whose a-flat provides minor coloration. In the bridge, which begins as shown in Example 12 at b, the descending third span from the opening music of the refrain appears an octave higher, tem- porally expanded by a factor of 2 and without its decorative neighbor note. While the original melodic segment ended with the nadir note, the transferred segment begins with the apex note, in this way afford- ing a sensitive juxtaposition of registral and motivic dimensions.

Above, in connection with a brief discussion of the role of the verse, I suggested that the bass of the introduction of "I've Got You Under My Skin" reappears as part of the descant in mm. 6-7 - perhaps not an extraordinary transferal, since the linear item in question is, after all, drawn from a domestic vintage E-flat major scale. However, as they say on television, there is more, much more. The introduction of the verse appears as the prominent inner voice of the first phrase of the refrain, which is repeated three times, finally emerg- ing in the descant at m. 13 to set "got you under my skin." All this (and much more) is shown in Example 13.

a) Introduction

b) Refrain

I've got you under my skin, I've

c) Refrain @

I've got you under my skin.


Although the performance chronology of the transferals shown in Example 13 is straightforward- from verse to refrain-the compositional chronology may well have been in the reverse direction. Another example will support the general case (Ex. 14).




a) Refrain, m. 1

What is this thing called love? This funny thing

b) Bridge (outer voices), m. 19

--day. You took my heart and threw it a- way.-

day. You took my heart .

and threw it a- way.

U *,lwe . .[ a L .-

-" -

Example 14. "What Is This Thing Called Love?"

From the correspondence between the descant of the refrain of "What Is This Thing Called Love" and the last part of the bridge of that song, I conclude that the latter is not based primarily on a "harmonic" progression, to which it would be very difficult and essentially arbitrary to assign roman numerals, but upon a motivic line transferred from the descant and harmonized in the most "neutral" and, indeed, for Porter, very unusual way: by parallel major triads.

The final example of motivic transferal involves the verse and the refrain of "Night and Day," as shown in Example 15.

a) Refrain, m. 41

And its tor-ment won't be through 'til you let me spend my life making love to you

b) Verse, m. 13 (rhythm simplified)

voice within me keeps repeating you, you, you. Night and day.

* I I .


Compared with the descending chromatic line in the verse, shown at a, the chromatic pattern in the refrain moves twice as slowly at the




beginning, accelerating at m. 44, a motion intensified by the change of register on "love." The refrain pattern breaks after a1 ("you"), just before the arrival, in the corresponding pattern in the verse, of the crucial bass A-flat, discussed above in connection with special chords (Ex. 12). And again, we do not know which chromatic pattern came first, the one in the refrain or the one in the verse; although, if I had to make a choice, I would say that the refrain pattern has conceptual priority. Whatever the case may be, these motivic transferals of line segments demonstrate how integral is linear thinking to Porter. 13

Special Harmonies

Virtually every song--in particular, among the ballads-has a special harmony that is connected with some significant melodic-linear feature. Such harmonies should be regarded as design features and not simply as routine "coloristic" items. Perhaps the most famous example of a such a special chord is the first chord in the refrain of "Night and Day," the major seventh chord (A-flatM7) that sets the primary tone of the song, scale degree 5. Characteristic of Porter's musical thinking, this chord comes about in a linear way directly from the progression of the bass of the verse, as can be seen in Example 15.

VI? V I


Example 16 shows that the descant G, which descends by step to scale degree 3 ("one"), is already in place at the end of the verse; it is the bass that arrives on A-flat in m. 1 of the refrain to bring about the dissonant confluence that we conveniently label a "major seventh chord." In fact, it is difficult to attach a meaningful functional label to the chord, since it might also be regarded as a c-minor triad, with the bass A-flat as a dissonant passing tone. The dissonant seventh in




this situation resolves to the perfect consonance, the octave. Indeed, the copyist who prepared the Stichvorlage for the sheet music piano- vocal score and supplied chord symbols was apparently just as indeci- sive as the novice analyst might be when confronted with this circumstance and opted for the chord symbol "Cm." In any event, the general flavor of the chord is most certainly minor, and it stands in marked contrast to the second major-seventh chord in the song, the C-major seventh of m. 3, which sets the primary tone and lyric "one."14 This seventh chord behaves properly, resolving the disso- nance downward to the sixth, as shown by the figures in Example 16.

Another and remarkable special chord is the opening sonority in a later song, "I Love You" (1943), already cited in Example 1. Again, the chord has a voice-leading origin: c2 in the descant is suspended from the upbeat to become a dissonant fourth above the bass, displac- ing B-flat, which does not, however, appear in the descant, where it should, but in the inner voice, while d-flat' usurps its role as theoretical melodic note, completing the dramatic leap of a major seventh from c2.

Both the "Night and Day" and the "I Love You" chords exem- plify the role of linear processes in Porter's musical perceptions and conceptions, processes that imbue his songs with a special aesthetic quality and invite perhaps fruitful speculation on the elusive topic, secrets of melody, so presumptuously included in the title of the present article.

The half-diminished seventh chord, so characteristic of the music of Debussy, often occupies a special position in a Cole Porter song. Example 17 shows one instance.

m.25

Is it a fan- cy


Here the apex note e2 is set by a half-diminished seventh. Example 18 shows the same half-diminished (in a different context), again setting the apex note e2. Example 30, a complete analysis of this song, places the apex note and the chord in a larger context.15




m. 13

You'd be all

"" Aw 7 ,


The half-diminished seventh chord plays various structural roles in the songs. Whereas in Examples 17 and 18 it is primarily linear and does not participate in the basic harmonic structure of the music, the half-diminished seventh chord in Example 19 is a surrogate for the tonic triad and is aptly characterized as a tonic triad with lowered third and added sixth. Here, in traditional fashion, it depicts the text, setting the keyword "night."


I - Ito


Of the many possible examples of the half-diminished seventh chord at crucial points in Porter songs, I have selected for illustration just one appearance of this harmony in the pitch form of the Tristan chord (F-A-flat-C-flat-E-flat). It is perhaps not surprising to find this chord in Porter's music, since it is a harmony that has been so often quoted by composers, usually serving as a love symbol, sometimes in an ironic or sardonic vein.16

m.50

Just the thought of you makes me stop

IV IV +6 (Tr) I+6





Here, the Tristan chord coincides exactly with the arrival on the apex note of the song (Ex. 20). Its linear origin is clear: the third of the subdominant, c2, on the last beat of m. 49 descends to c-flat2 as the descant ascends to f2, vertically an "added sixth." The basic harmonic progression thus remains IV-I, with the fifth of the tonic chord, b-flat', momentarily displaced by c2 on the downbeat of m. 51.

The other seventh chords are amply represented in Porter's songs, but the half-diminished seventh as a class of sonority seems clearly to be in the ascendant and is invariably associated closely with long-range linear structures as they connect with focal melodic notes, in particular, with apex notes, as the examples above suggest.

Harmonic Progression and Line In general, Porter's songs are in accord with the norms of tonic- dominant tonality, with occasional excursions into chromatic areas, especially in bridges. For example, the bridge of "Just One of Those Things" (in F major) begins in E-flat in m. 33, having been prepared by modulation from the tonic f-major triad (with compromising added sixth) in mm. 30-32. This tonality (E-flat major) is only retrospec- tively based upon lowered scale degree 7 of F major (flat-VII); rather, it is the point of departure for a large-scale progression that moves by descending minor third until it reaches the bass of V of d minor, the harmony that begins the restatement of the refrain in m. 49. It is chromatic excursions such as these, along with other factors, that often cause Porter's lines (again, as distinct from melodies) to be skewed in comparison with those of normative classical tonal music.

Under "harmonic progression" I include an important category that is directly related to the linear dimension of Porter's music, the "nontonic" beginnings of which he is so fond and which are a prominent feature of the design of his music. These are exemplified by a number of the famous songs. For instance, "Love for Sale" begins on the subdominant harmony, IV; "What Is This Thing Called Love" begins with C7 chord that serves as secondary dominant to a minor subdominant harmony, and is thus twice removed from the tonic C major. "You'd Be so Easy to Love," cast in G major, begins with a minor triad (ii) to which its own subdominant is attached. And many songs begin with supertonic (ii) harmony, perhaps the most familiar example of which is "I Get a Kick Out of You."

Closely associated with the idea of the nontonic beginning is the characteristic delay of the tonic harmony. For example, the tonic F-major triad is cadential only in the final phrase of "Just One of




Those Things." The special sensitivity associated with the tonic triad, as a harmonic sign of closure, was also noted above in the case of the tonic pitch.

In Porter's songs, the opposition of major and minor modes is absolutely essential to the aesthetic quality of the text setting and the structural unfolding of the music. Moreover, this contrast extends to individual notes and chords and is not limited to "key change" in the textbook sense. The composer documents his own predilection for this delicate contrast in mm. 27-28 of "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" (Ex. 33). In this connection, the selection of unexpected chromatic harmonies may be traced to the dualism of major and minor. The brief detour to flat-III in m. 6 of the refrain of "Every Time We Say Goodbye" may serve as an example (Ex. 32).

Finally, as is the case with several topics broached in this essay, the subject of modulatory progression is one too large to cope with adequately here. Its connection with linear features, however, can at least be illustrated in a single case from a passage in "I Love You" (Ex. 21).

m.13 arp.

As once more she sees daffo- dils. 9 8

IV I III# (A major)

Example 21. "I Love You."

This example may also serve to illustrate an idiomatic voice-leading that would offend many harmony pedagogues, the dissonant ascending seventh. In this case the seventh of the local V7 (E7) ascends to resolution on e2 of the local tonic (A9). In the general case this is very common in music of the American musical theater-in the music of Gershwin, to cite but one instance. (As a theory pedagogue, I am not trying to justify this practice, but merely cite it in the interest of fac- tual accuracy. )




Form and Line

As will be evident in the last two parts of this essay, lines in the Por- ter songs are delimited by the form-segments, which, in turn, are in accord with traditions of the musical theater so that to a large extent the dimensions of each part of the song are determined by conven- tion. This applies almost without exception to the refrain, a binary form of thirty-two measures in length, subdivided into two sixteen- measure double periods, each containing four phrases of four measures each. The first double period (section A) may end on the dominant or some harmony other than the opening one; the second (section A') repeats the first (usually with modifications), ending with the tonic harmony or with a modulation to the bridge. This pattern recurs relentlessly, in template-like fashion, in the songs of Cole Porter, as in the music of virtually all the Broadway composers of his era. In- deed, it is one of the marvels of the American theater music of that time that those gifted authors were able to produce such a remarkable variety of music within the more or less fixed formats, which were simply taken for granted.

There are, however, some exceptions to the verse-refrain-bridge- refrain succession; for example, "Easy to Love" has no bridge, nor has "You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To." There are other exceptions: the bridge may not follow the thirty-two-measure pattern, the second time round (after the bridge) the refrain may be abbreviated, and so on. But the template remains the referential norm, serving a practical purpose in the production and performance of the musical and, no doubt, making the music more accessible to the amateurs who consti- tuted the sheet music market and to professionals, especially jazz art- ists, who created new structures based on the more popular tunes, the "standards." In the rhythmic sphere the same applies to the ubiqui- tous alla breve meter-which is consciously overridden in various ways by the jazz performers who improvise on Porter progressions. Again, this formulaic feature has a commercial intent: the music was also intended to be danced to-not only in the musicals themselves, by such notables as Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell, but also by the large number of ordinary Americans who danced (and dreamed) to Cole Porter's music, especially during the Depression, when occasional escape from reality was mandatory.

In the final two sections of this essay, I will reflect more fully upon the interaction of form-even in the restrictive sense just described-and line, which, in Porter's music, is a much more power- ful entity, one that relates directly to the wondrous and unusual contours of the melodies and provides access to their secrets, as well.




3. Long-Range Lines

This section contains analytical sketches of descant lines from Porter songs, within a reduced version of the piano-vocal score, so that the reader can follow the music without difficulty while concentrating on the analytical interpretation. In each case the lyrics are reproduced, but without the hyphenation required to match the melodic line.

Graphic Conventions for the Analytical Sketches

Below, for the reader's convenience, I summarize the various types of symbols that appear on the analytical sketches that follow, in addition to normal musical notation, with a brief description of the information conveyed by each.

stemmed notes: Signify notes of more than passing structural importance. Chord notes are grouped by stems too.

flags: Mark special notes, for example, sentient decorative notes. beams: Join stems attached to notes that are constituents of lines. careted numerals: Designate scale-degree components of lines. figured bass: Shows local voice leading. roman numerals: Give root locations of chords, large letters for major, small for

minor. n-prg.: Signifies a line that spans an interval of size n. slurs: Group together notes that form small motions, including single decorative

notes. ties: Connect functionally equivalent notes. parentheses: Enclose implied notes.

Example 22 is an analytical representation of the first fifteen measures of the refrain of "At Long Last Love." The best candidate for primary tone of "At Long Last Love" is a', scale degree 6 in the key of the work, C major. At the outermost linear level, represented by the hanging beams at the top of the upper stave of the sketch, a long line slowly climbs from a', the primary tone (m. 1) to b' (m. 9), and arrives on c2 at the end of the first period, in m. 15. The series of beams below the topmost hanging beams identifies the linear motions that are attached to each of the ascending scale degrees that span the entire period, beginning with the descent from a' (m. 1) to el (m. 3), a line of a fourth or 4-prg. that coincides with the bass progression from I (with added sixth) to vi. At m. 5 the descant again descends from a', this time spanning a fifth (5-prg.) to d'. Because the rhythmic pattern of mm. 1-3 is maintained, the line must skip passing tone fl, enclosed in parentheses as an implied note, even though it is not literally present. 17



a0 4-prg. 5-prg.

r Is it an earthquake or simply a shock? Is it the good turtle soup or merely the mock?

1+6 vi IV

o ? b c

- 4-prg.

Is it a cocktail, this feeling of joy, or is what I feel the real Mc- Co

vii vi V





At the beginning of the second period, the ascending motion from fl has reached b1, the second note in the longer (outer) line. To this is now attached a descending 4-prg. above a bass motion that engages two notes of the triad on scale degree 7 (vii), d (m. 9) and B (m. 12). Finally, as the bass continues its stepwise progression downward and before it arrives on the dominant in m. 14, the melody arpeggiates upward to c2 in m. 13, which is decorated by the two skips to al, tokens of the primary tone, and finally receives its definitive setting within the tonic triad on the downbeat of m. 15. Thus, all the basic motions in the first double period of the refrain are stepwise- linear, including the bass. Moreover, the direction of the lines is clearly related to the rhetoric of the lyrics: at the lowest linear level the interrogative phrase ascends, while the alternative answer descends. Meanwhile, at the outermost (highest) level of linear motion, the direction is ascending, which intensifies the query over the span of the entire period.

c (nadir) 4-prg. d' e- arpegg.

While the world is in slum- ber, Oh, the times without

I iii

-e2 f2(apex)

# F- 9 66 number, Darling, when I say to you: "Do

V I





Example 23 provides an analysis of the three last phrases of the refrain of "In the Still of the Night" as it connects to the beginning of the bridge (m. 33). As in Example 22, the linear motion occupies two levels of structure. The outermost spans the fourth from c1, the nadir note. In this motion the third note, el (m. 25), is stretched out through an ascending arpeggiation--the lower level of structure--that arrives on e2 at m. 29, which is the climax of the refrain, but not the goal of the line. This is the apex note f2 at the beginning of the bridge. Thus, the long outermost line serves to connect two of the basic melodic coordinates of the song, nadir cI and apex f2, above the slowly mov- ing bass and harmony indicated below the lower stave: I-iii-V-I. A very elegant detail is worth pointing out in this regard: the beautiful and affective suspended ninth, bI in m. 29 within the mediant harmony, that resolves to the sixth, a1, at m. 31 within the dominant harmony. As a component of the large-scale harmonic progression here the mediant is, of course, an instance of the "classic" dividing harmony or divider that splits the fifth between tonic and dominant.

(5) 8-prg.:

g'--g 5

(you) beneath the moon and under the sun. Whether near to me or far, It's no

VI7 V Iv

0 5

o

matter, darling where you are, I think of you night and day.

- ii V I





Beginning in m. 5 of the refrain of "Night and Day," a long octave line descends from the primary tone to the nadir, another instance of the significance of the basic melodic coordinates with respect to linear projections (Ex. 24). In general, stemmed notes in the descant that are not connected to the beam are either passing tones, especially chromatic passing tones that embellish the line, or duplicates of notes of the line that are weakly supported harmonically or contrapuntally. Thus, el in m. 9 is a continuation of el from m. 7, where it receives its definitive support within the tonality from the tonic chord. In m. 10, e-flatI is a chromatic passing tone between e1 and the next beamed note in the line, d1.

5 O 8-prg.: bbl-bb

I've got you deep in the heart of me, so deep in my heart,

I ii V I-

@nadir

you're really a part of me. I've got you under my skin.

-I- -I


With the second phrase of "I've Got You Under My Skin" (Ex. 25) the descant unfolds a long octave line that, like the one shown in "Night and Day" (Ex. 24), connects the primary tone with the nadir. This line, however, wends its way downward in a more circuitous fashion, savoring the special embellishing notes flagged on the example, which will be familiar from Example 11.




Example 26 segments the line so as to emphasize the arrival on c1, which is associated with the special motivic form of that note an octave higher, setting the lyric "got."

3-prg. 4-prg.


The bridge of "I Get a Kick Out of You," shown in Example 27, begins on the dominant of A-flat with a replica of the opening theme, which features the succession of ascending leaps of a fourth, filled in by passing tones.

I 8-prg.: c - c2

I get a kick ev'ry time I see you standing there before me.

A6 (IV): V I V f (ii): V

to c' m.49/53

I get a kick tho' it's clear to me you obviously don't a- dore me.

I Vof V

Example 27. "I Get a Kick Out of You."




nadir- 5 - apex

flying too high with some gal/guy in the sky is my idea of nothing to do.

ii V I - ii V V of ii

Example 27 Continued

The top note of this figure, d-flat2, however, turns out to be a decorative neighbor note to c2 and the headnote of a long descending line that ends only with the nadir note cI in m. 53, at the beginning of the return of the refrain (modified).

Example 28 summarizes this large-scale structure in analytical (reduced) notation, which can be compared with the relatively full notation of Example 27 to trace the derivations.

nadir apex

A6 : V I V vi (III) Fm: I V of V ii V I

(I)

Example 28. "I Get a Kick Out of You."

The condensed analytical graph in Example 28 shows the extraordinary connection between the bridge and the refrain in its final modified statement. From the nadir note in m. 53, which is the goal of the descending octave line that occupies the bridge, the theme again ascends by fourth, but overshoots the primary tone b-flatI in m. 55 to reach the apex note e-flat2 in m. 56, setting "sky," in a Porter- esque "word-painting" gesture. The main linear coordinates in this




large-scale structure are thus the nadir cI and its counterpart c2, the headnote of the descending octave line, the primary tone, b-flatI and the apex note e-flat2, providing another demonstration of the significance of these three crucial melodic factors in the Porter song.

Example 29, an analytical sketch of the entire refrain of "I Con- centrate on You," contains a number of elegant features, some of which have been mentioned earlier. Let us focus here upon the linear structures in Example 29, while considering some of the unusual features that accrue to it as it wends its way downward. In the opening measure the descant of the song begins on the primary tone, scale degree 5, an octave lower than its main location as b-flat1. Projecting upward from b-flat is an ascending line of a fourth, which dwells upon the sentient melodic note d1, which has its own embellishing note, the lower neighbor c1. It is at the second occurrence of d' ("grey") that the tenor moves down a half-step to f-sharp, creating the unusual confluence of major seventh and minor third above the bass (mM7). The upward resolution of the seventh, d1, at m. 5 coincides with the completion of the ascending line of a fourth. An arpeggiation ascending through the parallel minor triad, E-flat minor, up to the primary tone b-flatI in its definitive register then begins the second phrase, which ends on a b-flatI in m. 7 ("brew"), within a Tristan chord: II7 in its second inversion. With the beginning of the third phrase ("Whenever") descant, a-flatI now has dominant harmonic support and is directed downward to g-flat1, a goal it finally reaches in the middle of m. 11 over the minor tonic harmony. But the path to that goal is digressive, as the descant provides counterpoint to the bass that ascends from B-flat in m. 9 to e-flat in m. 11. Here both bass and descant counterpoint, the beamed structures on the example, repeat earlier motions: the bass duplicates the ascending fourth in the descant over the first phrase, marked alpha on the analytical sketch, while the descant counterpoint both enlarges and repeats the descending third gesture marked beta in mm. 5-6. This descant motion is attached to g-flatI in m. 11, which, in turn, is attached to the outer beam. Thus, this small motion, b-flatl-a-flatl-g-flatl, unfolds within the larger line segment that spans the same interval beginning on primary tone b-flat' in m. 5. Looking ahead to the end of the first period of the refrain we see that the large-scale descant ultimately arrives on scale degree 2 in m. 14, supported by the dominant harmony, and closes on scale degree 1 over the tonic harmony, now in its major form. An effective detail of text setting occurs in m. 12, where "strong" receives the surprising G-flat7 chord, a transposed replica of the F7 (V of V) to which it proceeds in m. 13.



AA QA A A A (5) 5 4 2 1

Whenever skies look grey to me, And troubles begin to brew, Whenever the winter winds become too strong, I concentrate on you.

I I_77 II 7 (Tr) V I GL77 F7 (Vof) V I

AA A A A A 5 (5) 4 3 2 1 (apex)

b

(at,,_ -gbl) ) When fortune cries "nay, nay" to me And people de-clare "You're through", Whenever the Blues become my only song, I concentrate on you.

I I I ii7 V I I Vof V I bIII

Example 29. "I Concentrate on You."




The second period of the refrain begins at m. 17 as an exact replica of the first-except for the lyrics, of course, which are carefully designed to create internal rhyme correspondences ("cries/skies" and "grey/nay"). At m. 23, however, the half-diminished seventh Tristan chord II7 of m. 7 changes to a minor-seventh chord, and this proves to be a pivot chord in the modulation to flat-III, the mediant harmony of the parallel minor mode, E-flat minor. Thus, even though the local tonic, G-flat, represents a major "key," its referential location is within the parallel minor. To entertain a somewhat deeper analytical interpretation, one might regard the "key" of G-flat here as a remarkable expansion of the special pitch g-flat in the tenor of m. 5, hence associated with the lowered-third blue note. Indeed, beginning with the pivot chord in m. 23 at the end of the second phrase of this period, the G-flat key occupies six measures, relinquishing its hold only with the beginning of the last phrase of the period, in m. 29. The structural connection between G-flat as key and g-flat as blue note is made especially evident and affective in the lyrics of the G-flat section, mm. 25-28: "Whenever the Blues become my only song ...."

Within the G-flat area the descant executes a descending third that corresponds to that in the equivalent location in the first period of the refrain. Indeed, the G-flat area may almost be regarded, in a purely local way, as a transposition of the earlier music up a minor third. (An exact transposition would, of course, have ended on a G-flat minor chord in m. 28.) The effect of this modulation to G-flat upon the descant linear structure is somewhat complex: from primary tone b-flat1 in m. 21 the line moves to a-flat1 in m. 23, as before. Now, however, the melody ascends to e-flat2 at the end of m. 25 to initiate the descending subordinate line of a third from headnote d-flat1 discussed above; without going into all the details of voice leading here, the ultimate effect of this "overlapping" is to restore the primary tone b-flat1, in its original register, as the tailnote of the line in m. 28-hence the careted 5 in parentheses on the analytical sketch, while a-flat1 of m. 24 has now moved to an inner voice- specifically, to the parenthesized g-flat1 in m. 27. At this point, the reader (and author) may take solace from the unquestionable fact that the composer did not have to reconcile this rather complex structure with the analytical procedures we have just undergone.

Thus, the outer descant line that begins with the second phrase of the second double period of the refrain has quite a different shape from its counterpart in the first, greatly expanding the virtual time assigned to the primary tone, so that the descent to the tonic now occurs entirely in the final phrase of the refrain.



cA C

8ve transfer: el - d

SP- Pil ".

You'd be so nice to come home to, You'd be so nice by the fire, While the breeze, on high, sang a lullaby, You'd be all that I could de- sire.

am: V I ii V I I/Vof VI IV V I 7 +6 Vof V (vi)

8-prg.: c2- AA A A 3-prg.: f'- a' A3

apex nadir +1

Under stars chilled by the winter, Under an August moon, Burning a- bove, You'd be so nice, You'd be para- dise to come home to and love.

6- -5 -5

4- -3 C: 1+6 Vof IV+6 lin07 (I) IV ii V I

N.B.





4. Lines in Complete Songs

In this last section I will present analytical sketches of three Cole Porter songs, together with brief comments. Although the first song, "You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To," consists of only the two sections (double periods) of the refrain, the developments in the second of these compensate for what might otherwise be a somewhat banal repetition-driven form (Ex. 30). Among these developments is the conflict between major and minor, represented by the a minor orientation in the first section of the song, which ends in m. 15 on the dominant of that key, and the abrupt change to the C major orientation in m. 21, effected by the reinterpretation of al in the melody ("August moon") as the added sixth of a C-major triad, with, for additional effect, a fleeting reference to the primary tone c2, flagged on the sketch, as a decoration of the two a2's in that measure. Thus, the primary tone starts out as scale degree 3 in a minor and ends as scale degree 1 in C major. Only after two long linear peregrinations, each spanning a descending octave, does it finally arrive "home," which is where it began in the first place.

In the second octave line, which begins on c2 in m. 17, the descending line pauses on scale degree 4 (now in C major), and this becomes the headnote of an ascending line--the only one in the song-that arrives on al at the end of the phrase, m. 28, which then becomes the headnote of an arpeggiation that ascends to e2, the apex note (in its second occurrence). As shown by the outer beam, this note connects back to fl at the end of m. 24. Thus, within the line, the two notes f1 and e2 are singled out for special emphasis. Perhaps, in a remote way, this note-pair relates to motive beta in the bass of the upbeat to m. 1 (and m. 17).

This connection between fl and apex e2 was heard in the first section, of course, but in a different way. Example 31 shows the sequential melodic pattern that connects the two notes.

apex

breeze on high / lullaby / all that I

V I V





As indicated in Example 31, the melody in the second period of the refrain is strongly directed, by voice leading, to cadence on the apex note e2. Instead, it drops down to the b1, following the model of the ends of phrases 1 and 2, a very artistic gesture and one that enhances the text. This is an instance of a Cole Porter signature, one that occurs in many of his songs and that represents a procedure that may be called "melodic substitution." There are two additional examples in this song, in mm. 7 and 23. In m. 7, stepwise voice leading would place fl in the descant (indicated by parentheses); instead, the melody moves down to an inner voice, to c1, the nadir note of the song. Almost the same pattern occurs in m. 23, except that the melody does not move down to the nadir note but to the note a step above it, a less definitive motion to the added sixth of the subdominant harmony that moves the line forward instead of suggesting closure.

Like "You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To," the poignant love song, "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye," has no bridge: the main part of the song consists of a repeated double period, the first of which is shown in Example 32.

The large-scale horizontal features of the song are straightforward, as shown on the analytical sketch (Ex. 32): From the primary tone, scale degree 3 (g'), a line ascends to b-flatI at the beginning of the second phrase. This ascent turns on the passing tone a-flat' in m. 4 ("die") -an instance of the idiomatic ascending dissonant seventh mentioned earlier. Following the arrival on b-flatI in m. 5, the descant remains on that note until m. 8, where it moves to the chromatic upper neighbor note c-flat2 on "why." Thus, the two active notes in the descant up to this point have set the associated and rhyming words "die" and "why." The c-flat2 of "why" is, of course, from the parallel minor, e-flat minor; moreover, it is a Tristan chord, completed with the arrival of the melody on fl at the end of m. 8. At the beginning of the third phrase in m. 9, the descant takes e-flat2 to set "why" (again), as the neighbor note c-flat2 returns to inner voice b-flat1. This e-flat2 completes a large-scale arpeggiation of the tonic triad from the primary tone in m. 1, as indicated by the outer beam above the upper stave. It is also the apex note of the song, so that, once again, the large-scale descant has engaged, in crucial positions, two of the basic melodic coordinates, primary tone and apex. Only at the end of the forthcoming repeated period does the third coordinate, the nadir, come into play.

The descant of the second period begins with a slow linear descent from scale degree 8 (e-flat2) to scale degree 5 in m. 14. In the analytical sketch this is shown as a linear progression over the fourth



I vi ii V I bIII I ivb (Tr) I

8 4-prg.

6 5-prg.

Ev'Why te gods a- bove

me Who must be in the know, Think so little of me They al- low you to go

* *

-PL

I ii (Tr) V Vof IV iv I iv

V

(Tr?)





from e-flat2 to b-flat1, but as a segment of the e-flat minor, not of the E-flat-major scale, thus incorporating the sentient note c-flat2 at m. 13, within a quasi-Tristan chord above bass F. The period then closes in m. 16 on the dominant harmony supporting scale degree 2- preceded, as the sketch emphasizes, by the minor third degree g-flat1, a blue third, in m. 15. This is not the first time that G-flat has occurred prominently in the song. Its first appearance, and a very unexpected one it is, is in the bass of m. 6, where it supports the flat-III harmony and contributes to a heightened expressive aura for the repeated title phrase, "Every time we say goodbye."

The linear organization of the second double period differs from the first only in its third phrase (m. 25). As shown in Example 33, the descant now traverses a sixth, connecting the apex note with the primary tone in m. 29 at the head of the last phrase and thus revers- ing the pattern of the ascent in the first period, which moved from primary tone to apex. In the last phrase of the song (mm. 29-32), the descant closes unequivocally downward from scale degree 3 (primary tone) to scale degree 1, and with the arrival on that degree the melody has reached the nadir, which sets the syllable "bye" of "goodbye." But the added sixth of the final tonic triad undermines the conclusive parting moment, suggesting that the lovers will resume later-perfect word-painting.

Before leaving this song, it is worthwhile to compare two corresponding locations in the double periods, beginning with m. 8 and m. 24. In m. 8, it will be recalled, the Tristan chord holds sway, with its minor third, c-flat2; in m. 24 the more optimistic lyric "sing" invokes a major third and major sonority. The reverse relation obtains between mm. 12 and 28, where the blithe major triad is replaced by the somber Tristan chord. In the latter situation, the lyrics tell the story: "But how strange the change from major to minor."

"Easy to Love," another short song, consists of a repeated double period. The long-range linear motions that its complex melody con- ceals are shown on the analytical sketch in Example 34.

Two lines unfold in the descant of the first section (double period) of the song: a long line that traverses the sixth from a to f-sharpl (the lower beam below the upper staff on Ex. 34) and a subordinate line that begins on d1 in m. 9 at the beginning of the second period and ends on the final note, f-sharp1, of the long line, at m. 15. By virtue of the same pitch-setting, this terminal note, f-sharp1, clearly associates "burning for" with "love" in m. 4, an association that does not require an elaborate music-theoretic explanation. At this point in the melody a secondary and nonlinear pattern begins,



O -to g1 m.29

When you're near there's such an air of Spring about it, I can hear a lark some- where begin to sing about it, There's no

I vi ii V I III I IV I

(apex) 6-prg.

2 A

AA3 2 8(apex) 7 6 5 4

There's no love song finer, But how strange the change from major to minor, Ev'ry time we say goodbye.

Ii(Tr) V V of IV ii (Tr) I V of V of V Iii(Tr) V V of IV ii (Tr) I V of Vof V 6




A6prg a-f1 3-prg .: d'-f#I' 6 6-prg.: da- - (6) nadir

You'd be so easy to love, so easy to idolize, all others a- bove, So worth the yearning for, So swell to keep ev'ry home fire burning for,

T" 7L; G: i iv i V I ii V 1+6 ii V I ii V iii(I) lin07

ii

6 6-prg.: e ' (e2)-g (6) ap6ex 5 4 5-prg.: be 1 ) apex

5-prg.: a-e1

We'd be so grand at the game, so carefree together, that it does seem a shame, That you can't see your future with me, 'Cause you'd be oh, so easy to love!

V I Vof ii ii7 V / I ii V I

Example 34. "Easy to Love."




the ascending arpeggiation, indicated by hanging beams on the analytical sketch: f-sharp'-al-d1. This is not to be construed as an integral pattern in itself-that is, as a projection of a D-major triad, which would not synchronize at all with the harmonic-contrapuntal structure of the section it traverses. Rather, it is best regarded as a collation of melodic points, the first and last of which have the special text association to which I just referred.

With the return to the opening music at the beginning of the second section of the song in m. 17, the sentient f-sharp1 falls back to el ("We'd"), the primary tone. Scale degree 6 as primary tone in this song has a peculiar career, to say the least, beginning, as it does, in m. 1 within the a minor triad, which is not the tonic of the song, but the supertonic ii. In m. 7 it does receive support from the tonic triad, but it 'is soon displaced by the constituents of the subordinate line of a third, which is directed toward the large-scale neighbor note f-sharpl at the end of the second period, as described above.

In the second double period, however, the primary tone comes into its own. The arrival upon el in m. 23 now proves to be the tailnote of an ascending line of a fifth that fills out the initial descending melodic fifth of the song ("You'd be"). The m. 23 manifestation of primary tone e1 then leaps up an octave to e2 in m. 24 ("shame"), which is the apex note of the song. From there it is all downhill, so to speak-but uphill as far as the lyrics are concerned-with the long line from e2 eventually reaching the tonic note gl in m. 31, setting "love" in the most secure context, that of the tonic triad. This long outer line undergoes a brief and very beautiful digression beginning in m. 27, the progression from b1 to e1, touching upon the primary tone one final time and in the context of the subdominant chord, which clearly associates it with its first manifestation in m. 1.

Probably no analysis can reveal the inspirational moment, the key to the secrets, if you will, of a Cole Porter song. But I hope that the foregoing analytical discourse will at least provide an orientation to some of the major features of the songs and give further support--if any is needed--to the critical opinion that Porter's songs are of the highest artistic caliber.

Notes One drizzly Saturday morning some years ago on the outskirts of a rainy city in the far west of the United States, a ten-year-old boy could be seen on his way by bus into the center of the metropolis. It was during the Depression and a bus fare was a serious matter. But so was the purpose of his journey: to appear, once again, on a radio show




as a solo pianist among a bevy of similarly youthful performers--mainly

girls accompa- nied by their mothers-all of whom aspired to sudden stardom in radio and the movies. Exactly what were this little boy's hopes (or those of his mother) is not known, but he certainly achieved a degree of local fame among his relatives and schoolmates for his radio appearances. On this occasion he played (without the notes, as usual) Cole Porter's "Night and Day," an experience so gratifying and exhilarating that he promised himself that when he grew up he would write an article on that composer's music.

I wish to thank the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts for permission to quote from the following material: "I Love You" ? 1943 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Copyright renewed. Assigned to John F. Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical and Literary Property Trusts. Chappell & Co., Inc., Publisher. International copyright secured. All rights reserved; "All of You" ? 1954 by Cole Porter. Copyright renewed. Assigned to Robert H. Montgomery, Jr., Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts. Chappell & Co., Inc., Publisher. International copyright secured; "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" ? 1944 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Copyright renewed. Assigned to John F. Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Liter- ary Property Trusts. Chappell & Co., Publishers. International copyright secured. All rights reserved; "In the Still of the Night" ? 1937 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Copy- right renewed; "Easy to Love" ? 1936 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Copyright renewed; "Night and Day" ? 1932 (renewed) Warner Bros. Inc.; "I've Got You Under My Skin" ? 1936 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Copyright renewed; "You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To" ? 1942 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Copyright renewed. Assigned to John F. Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts. Chappell & Co., Publisher. International copyright secured. All rights reserved; "At Long Last Love" ? 1938 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Copyright renewed. Assigned to John F. Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts. Chappell & Co., Publisher. International copyright secured. All rights reserved; "I Concentrate on You" ? 1939 by Chappell & Co., Inc. Copyright renewed. Assigned to John F. Wharton, Trustee of the Cole Porter Musical & Literary Property Trusts. Chappell & Co., Publisher. International copyright secured. All rights reserved; "What Is This Thing Called Love?" ? 1929 (renewed) Warner Bros., Inc.; "I Get a Kick Out of You" ? 1934 (renewed) Warner Bros., Inc.

1. Arnold Schoenberg, "Why No Great American Music?" in Style and Idea, ed. Leonard Stein (New York: St. Martins Press, 1989), 178.

2. Heinrich Schenker, Free Composition, ed. and trans. by Ernst Oster (New York: Longman, 1979), 73ff. "Line" is roughly equivalent to "linear progression" (my trans- lation of Schenker's Zug). Deviations from Schenker's formulation, strictly construed, will be apparent as we proceed.

3. Register designations are as follows: from middle C up, note names are written as lower-case letters (with accidentals) and superscript for each octave. Thus middle C is cl, the C above it is c2, and so on. Notes in the first octave below middle c are written as lower-case note names without super- or subscripts. In the next octave lower they are written as capital letters, without super- or subscripts.

4. Porter's lyrics are integral to the songs. Indeed, the filmed musical credits often run "Lyrics and music by Cole Porter."




5. Milton Babbitt, an authority on the vernacular of Broadway, as on many other matters, prefers "release," characterizing "bridge" as a usage fostered by "johnnies- come-lately." 6. To avoid confusion I use the term "descant" to refer to the top voice of the song or the top part, whatever it is; this will usually include all the melodic elements as well as the lines to which they contribute.

7. Today it may be difficult to imagine a time in which a very large number of people bought the music to popular songs (often at department store counters) so that they could play and sing them at home. As a conservative estimate, the sheet music market for one of Porter's songs would number in the hundreds of thousands.

8. Regarding this procedure-and Porter's compositional process in general--there is some very dubious anecdotal material recorded in published biographies of Porter, material that is unsupported by documentary evidence.

9. I wish to thank Richard Warren, Jr., curator of the American Musical Theatre Collections, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, for his generous assistance in making the Porter materials available to me.

10. Sirmay, music editor at Chappell & Co., Inc., New York, was associated with Cole Porter during the main period of his Broadway productions. 11. The selection of the primary tone is sometimes a difficult analytical operation. In the Porter songs, however, this is not usually problematic. As indicated earlier, the primary tone is supported by the tonic triad or its surrogate, usually occurs within the thematic incipit, and, more often than not, sets a keyword in the lyrics. The selection of scale degree 6 as primary tone in two of the songs in this study, "Easy to Love" and "At Long Last Love," which infringes upon Schenkerian norms, requires more attention than I can give it here. Suffice it to say, however, that the prevalence and assertiveness of chords of the added sixth in the repertory in general lend plausi- bility to that choice. I am grateful to Thomas Demske, who brought this and other issues to my attention and also made several important suggestions that I have incor- porated. 12. Although blue notes are traditionally an important component of the improvised line in jazz, which is no doubt the origin of Porter's usage, he would probably have taken a dim view of Tadd Dameron's jazz paraphrase of "What Is This Thing Called Love" ("Hot House") had it come to his attention.

13. The composer's species counterpoint exercises, preserved in the Cole Porter Collection at Yale, offer interesting background material in this respect. Perhaps Por- ter absorbed more than his "wool-gathering" doodles in the margins of those painstak- ingly executed exercises would indicate.

14. Major seventh chords are rampant in music of the American musical theater. Gershwin liked them very much, as in "Who Cares" and "Beginner's Luck," to men- tion but two examples. A familiar latter-day example is Marvin Hamlisch's theme music for A Chorus Line.

15. The half-diminished seventh chord in this particular spelling and vertical arrangement may amount to a minor obsession with Porter.




16. Porter was not the only composer for the musical theater to incorporate this erotic symbol into his music. Among others, Kurt Weill sometimes quoted it (in "Surabaya Johnny" from Happy End) and one finds examples in the music of Jerome Kern and Arthur Schwartz.

17. William Rothstein, "On Implied Tones," Music Analysis 10 (1991): 289-328. Rothstein's excellent article provides an illuminating and comprehensive view of the theoretical role of the implied note, distinguishing carefully between "note" and "tone,"1 a distinction I have not always scrupulously observed in this essay.



Documents

Allen Forte - Secrets of Melody - Line and Design in the Songs of Cole Porter