Jeff Meyerson mentioned that Stephen Sondheim evaluated other Broadway composers in Finishing the Hat so I checked it out. Sondheim respected Cole Porter, but noted that Porter was a “list-maker” and cited several song lyrics to prove his point.
That led me to Alec Wilder’s American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950 (1972). I’m a fan of Wilder’s songs, especially “I’ll Be Around.” Alec Wilder isn’t afraid of making song judgments. Just check out this critique of a Richard Rodgers classic:
“No, I don’t like Some Enchanted Evening. I find it pale and pompous and bland. Where, oh where, are all those lovely surprises, those leaps in the dark, those chances? I’m in church and it’s the wrong hymnal!” (p. 221)
Stephen Sondheim ranked Cole Porter at the top of his list of great Broadway composers. Alec Wilder has a different opinion:
“There is considerable irony in the fact that, though Cole Porter was the most thoroughly trained musician of all the writers discussed in this book, he is better known and more highly considered for his lyrics than his music. And there is no question but that his lyrics were high fashion, witty to a markedly sophisticated degree, turned out, often-times it seemed, for the special amusement of his social set. Yet they seldom risked or indulged in tenderness or vulnerability.” (p. 223)
Although you might think Wilder was being too critical of Porter, he does provide an insightful assessment: “For many years Porter had been suffering great pain from a shattered leg. It had been operated on countless times. His surgeon once told me that Porter’s pain must have been so excruciating as to cause virtual sleeplessness for years. Yet this anguished man managed not only to write good songs and witty lyrics, but, in 1948, to create possibly his most successful score, Kiss Me, Kate.” (p. 249)
Of all the song writers and composers in AMERICAN POPULAR SONG: THE GREAT INNOVATORS 1900-1950, Alec Wilder’s favorite is Harold Arlen. Wilder knew Arlen and spoke with him about their craft:
“Interestingly, when I discussed song writing with him, Arlen never spoke of hits, he talked only of good songs. My feeling was that he simply didn’t equate quality with sales.” (p. 254)
After reading Wilder’s chapter on Harold Arlen, I wanted to drop everything and listen to Arlen’s music!
Wilder sums up his survey of a half century of popular songs with these conclusions: “Overall, I find Rodgers warmer, Arlen more hip, Gershwin more direct, Vernon Durk more touchable, Berlin more practical. But no one can deny that Porter added a certain theatrical elegance, as well as interest and sophistication, wit, and musical complexity to the popular song form. And for this we are deeply indebted.” (p. 252)
If you’re interested in American popular songs from the first half of the Twentieth Century, Alec Wilder has a lot to say. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Author’s Note — xxi
Acknowledgements
Introduction by James T. Maher — xxiii
1. The Transition Era: 1885 to World War I — 3
2. Jerome Kern (1885-1945) — 29
3. Irving Berlin (1888-1989) — 91
4. George Gershwin (1898-1937) — 121
5. Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) — 163
6. Cole Porter (1891-1964) — 223
7. Harold Arlen (1905-1986) — 243
8. Vincent Youmans (1898-1946) and Arthur Schwartz (1900-1984) — 292
9. Burton Lane (1912- 1997), Hugh Martin (1914-2011), and Vernon Duke (1903-1969) — 331
10. The Great Craftsmen –370
Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981)
Walter Donaldson (1893-1947)
Harry Warren (1893-1981)
Isham Jones (1894-1956)
Jimmy McHugh (1894-1969)
Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
Fred Ahlert (1892-1953)
Richard Whiting (1891-1938)
Ray Noble (1907-1978)
John Green (1908-1989)
Rube Bloom (1902-1976)
Jimmy Van Heusen (1913-1990)
11. Outstanding Individual Songs: 1920 to 1950 — 452
12. Additional Songs and Composers — 521
Index –525
