384 PART 3 | FROM WORLD WAR I THROUGH WORLD WAR II
CD 3.6 Listening Guide 15.5 “What Is This Thing Called Love?” BILLIE HOLIDAY
- Billie Holiday’s troubled private life was known to her public well before the publication
of her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues (1956), which told, among other things, of her
relationships with abusive men. How might that knowledge have shaped at least some of her
audience’s reception of this record? Conversely, Cole Porter kept his homosexuality out of the
public eye his entire life. Only posthumously have his songs come to be regarded as expres-
sions of desires not condoned by the social mores of his time. Are Porter’s sexual preferences
important to an understanding of “What Is This Thing Called Love?” Why or why not?
particularly bluesy. Instead, Porter creates an ambiguous melodic line that hov-
ers between major and minor modes, as do the harmonies that underpin it. Also
like most other songs of its time, it follows the four-beats-to-the-bar rhythm of
the era’s most popular dance, the foxtrot, making it suitable for dancing as well
as listening. W hen we hear these songs brought to life by a skilled interpreter
such as Billie Holiday, we can understand why they became standards for gen-
erations of jazz musicians.QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION AND REVIEW
- Listen to a recording or view a concert performance of Korngold’s Violin
Concerto. What, if anything, in this piece “sounds like movie music”? Is that
an asset or a liability, and why? - W hat are some differences between stage musicals and film musicals?
- How does the integrated musical resemble earlier stage musicals, and how
does it resemble operetta? - How does swing differ from earlier jazz styles?
- What distinguishes Swing Era jazz singing from earlier vocal styles or from
later vocal styles with which you are familiar?
FURTHER READING
Banfi eld, Stephen. “Popular Song and Popular Music on Stage and Film.” In The Cambridge
History of American Music, edited by David Nicholls, 309–44. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998.
Carter, Tim. Oklahoma! The Making of an American Musical. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 2007.
Decker, Todd. Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 2011.
Driggs, Frank, and Chuck Haddix. Kansas City Jazz from Ragtime to Bebop: A History. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Goldmark, Daniel. Tunes for ’Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 2005.172028_15_361-385_r3_ko.indd 384 23/01/13 8:36 PM