Composer of the Month 9/2014: Cole Porter
(selected by Peter van Dessel / Belgium)
USA 8.6.1991 |
from the revue "Broadway Melody of 1940" |
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The American composer and songwriter Cole Albert Porter was born on 9 June 1891
in Peru, Indiana. He started at the age of six years playing the violin, got
piano lessons and wrote his first songs, which he dedicated to his mother, at age of ten.
After graduation he studied law at Yale and Harvard, but decided to study music in 1915.
In the same year a first song with success appeared in a Broadway revue. 1917 Porter
went as a volunteer for an American charity to France. After the war he remained in Europe,
attended a private music college under the direction of Vincent d'Indy, married and made
numerous trips. In the late 1920s he returned to the USA and worked from then with
increasing success as a composer and songwriter.
Cole Porter has composed about 40 complete musical comedies including all the accompanying lyrics. His breakthrough came in 1928 with the musical "Paris". With the help of his friend Irving Berlin, Porter quickly became a fixture in the music business and his musicals such as "Gay Divorce" or "Anything Goes" at that time were all the rage. After a serious riding accident in 1937 work became increasingly difficult and as he had trouble to raise the necessary funds for his Broadway productions, some critics saw his star already be extinct. But in 1948, Porter again landed a spectacular coup with "Kiss Me, Kate", which was a worldwide success and is also still played today. Many of his songs like "Night and Day", "Begin the Beguine" or "I've Got You Under My Skin" are now evergreens that are sung and played by world-renowned artist. Cole Porter died on October 15, 1964 at the age of 73 years at a hospital in Santa Monica. October 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of his death. More composer can be found in the members only section |