{"id":11476,"date":"2010-05-14T16:24:40","date_gmt":"2010-05-14T20:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=11476"},"modified":"2010-05-14T16:24:40","modified_gmt":"2010-05-14T20:24:40","slug":"chairmen-of-the-board-frye-on-sinatra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/05\/14\/chairmen-of-the-board-frye-on-sinatra\/","title":{"rendered":"Chairmen of the Board: Frye on Sinatra"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sinatra-frank-portrait-4900049\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks for this post on Sinatra<\/a>, Mike. Frye\u2019s erudite knowledge of classical music is well known, but the one essay he wrote on Frank Sinatra is a little known fact. It just goes to show Frye\u2019s incredible range, like ol’ blue eyes himself. The essay remained unpublished; Sinatra threatened to sue, or worse–and you know what that means.<\/p>\n

Below are some excerpts from the essay, \u201cThe Fearful Symmetry of Frank Sinatra,\u201d which opens with a statement by the singer about his legendary sense of wardrobe and style, \u201cI am a symmetrical man, almost to a fault,\u201d a thinly veiled allusion to both Blake\u2019s “Songs of Innocence and Experience” and Carlyle\u2019s Sartor Resartus<\/em><\/p>\n

The excerpts start in fact with a brilliant gloss on Sinatra\u2019s version of Cole Porter\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ve Got you Under my Skin\u201d (great choice for the post, Mike!), worth quoting as it puts to to rest all the lame accusations that Frye was somehow weak on texture:<\/p>\n

“In \u2018I\u2019ve Got you Under My Skin,\u2019 [Nelson] Riddle starts with a comfortable, loping rhythm that he called \u2018the heartbeat rhythm\u2019\u2013\u2018Sinatra\u2019s tempo is the tempo of the heartbeat,\u2019 he said\u2013and then created a marvelous instrumental tension around Sinatra\u2019s voice. Riddle always found little licks\u2013certain spicy, nearly out-of-key notes\u2013that would tease the key, and added the glue of \u2018sustaining strings\u2019 almost subliminally to the rhythm and woodwind sections. At the instrumental breaks in the songs, Riddle gave solo voices to oboes, muted trumpets, piccolos, bassoons; in \u2018I\u2019ve Got you Under My Skin,\u2019 it was Milt Bernhart\u2019s trombone, which is whipped up the excitement and Sinatra joined the song again and brought it back to the heartbeat rhythm where it had begun. Sinatra had wanted an extended crescendo; Riddle provided one that was longer than had ever been heard in an organized arrangement.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And for you cultural studies types:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Sinatra evokes is not strictly urban. It is a very particular American loneliness\u2013that of the soul adrift in its pursuit of the destiny of \u2018me,\u2019 and thrown back onto the solitude of its own restless heart.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe cocked hat, the open collar, the backward glance with the raincoat slung over the shoulder, the body leaning back with arms wide open in song\u2013these images of perfect individualism dominated the albums of the fifties.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And finally, in the context of ritual and dream, opsis<\/em> and melos<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn time, Sinatra seized more than power; he infiltrated the Western world\u2019s dream life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Frye never stops amazing his readers. Who’d have thunk it? Not even Bob Denham. As one critic of Frye has justly remarked, \u201cin whatever direction you happen to be going, you always meet Frye on the way back.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Sinatra. Just don\u2019t get in his way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks for this post on Sinatra, Mike. Frye\u2019s erudite knowledge of classical music is well known, but the one essay he wrote on Frank Sinatra is a little known fact. It just goes to show Frye\u2019s incredible range, like ol’ blue eyes himself. The essay remained unpublished; Sinatra threatened to sue, or worse–and you know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hijinx"],"yoast_head":"\nChairmen of the Board: Frye on Sinatra - The Educated Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2010\/05\/14\/chairmen-of-the-board-frye-on-sinatra\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chairmen of the Board: Frye on Sinatra - The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thanks for this post on Sinatra, Mike. 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