Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color
Encyclopedia
Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color is a 1956 album
of tone poems composed by eight notable mid-20th century Hollywood arrangers, with each composition inspired by the poetry of Norman Sickel.
As well as being conducted by Sinatra this album marked the first musical collaboration between Sinatra and Gordon Jenkins
.
A chapter discussing the album, "The Colors of Ava
: Tone Poems of Color and the Painful Measure of Sinatra's Passions," appears in A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit (Greenwood Press, 2002) by Gilbert L. Gigliotti.
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
of tone poems composed by eight notable mid-20th century Hollywood arrangers, with each composition inspired by the poetry of Norman Sickel.
As well as being conducted by Sinatra this album marked the first musical collaboration between Sinatra and Gordon Jenkins
Gordon Jenkins
Gordon Hill Jenkins was an American arranger, composer and pianist who was an influential figure in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s, renowned for his lush string arrangements...
.
A chapter discussing the album, "The Colors of Ava
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
: Tone Poems of Color and the Painful Measure of Sinatra's Passions," appears in A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit (Greenwood Press, 2002) by Gilbert L. Gigliotti.
Track listing
- "WhiteWhiteWhite is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...
" (Victor YoungVictor YoungVictor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
) – 4:14 - "GreenGreenGreen is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
" (Gordon JenkinsGordon JenkinsGordon Hill Jenkins was an American arranger, composer and pianist who was an influential figure in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s, renowned for his lush string arrangements...
) – 4:05 - "PurplePurplePurple is a range of hues of color occurring between red and blue, and is classified as a secondary color as the colors are required to create the shade....
" (Billy MayBilly MayWilliam E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...
) – 4:21 - "YellowYellowYellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
" (Jeff AlexanderJeff AlexanderJeff Alexander was an American conductor, arranger, and composer of film, radio and television scores.-Career:...
) – 2:38 - "Gray" (Alec WilderAlec WilderAlec Wilder was an American composer.-Biography:...
) – 4:29 - "GoldGold (color)Gold, also called golden, is one of a variety of orange-yellow color blends used to give the impression of the color of the element gold....
" (Nelson RiddleNelson RiddleNelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...
) – 3:36 - "OrangeOrange (colour)The colour orange occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum at a wavelength of about 585–620 nm, and has a hue of 30° in HSV colour space. It is numerically halfway between red and yellow in a gamma-compressed RGB colour space, the expression of which is the RGB colour wheel. The...
" (Nelson RiddleNelson RiddleNelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...
) – 4:57 - "BlackBlackBlack is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
" (Victor YoungVictor YoungVictor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
) – 3:58 - "SilverSilver (color)Silver is the metallic shade resembling gray, closest to that of polished silver.The visual sensation usually associated with the metal silver is its metallic shine. This cannot be reproduced by a simple solid color, because the shiny effect is due to the material's brightness varying with the...
" (Elmer BernsteinElmer BernsteinElmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
) – 4:38 - "BlueBlueBlue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
" (Alec WilderAlec WilderAlec Wilder was an American composer.-Biography:...
) – 4:38 - "BrownBrownBrown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color....
" (Jeff AlexanderJeff AlexanderJeff Alexander was an American conductor, arranger, and composer of film, radio and television scores.-Career:...
) – 4:01 - "RedRedRed is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
" (André PrevinAndré PrevinAndré George Previn, KBE is an American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world, and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. -Early Life:Previn was born in...
) – 3:57
Recording Dates
- Tracks 1, 7, 8 & 11 were recorded February 22, 1956.
- Tracks 9 & 12 were recorded February 28, 1956.
- Tracks 2, 4, 5 & 10 were recorded March 07, 1956.
- Tracks 3 & 6 were recorded March 15, 1956.
- All Tracks were Recorded at The Capitol Tower & Engineered by John Palladino.