Frank Cordell (musician)

Frank Cordell (1 June 1918 - 6 July 1980) was a British music composer, arranger and conductor, who was actively involved with the Institute of Contemporary Arts. He also wrote music under the name Frank Meilleur or Meillear (Meillear being his mother’s maiden name).

Early life

He was born Frank Cordell in Kingston-upon-Thames. His father was a doctor who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the First World War. Frank had two sisters, and a brother who was a professional musician. Frank's brother, Sid Cordell, wrote music for some of the Hammer Horror productions filmed at Pinewood Studios. As a young teenager Frank worked briefly for Homfray & Company in the cotton mills in Halifax and the Midlands for a family relative, before returning to London. By age 14, he was a competent pianist. Cordell entered a city-wide London music contest and won a "Melody Maker" poll at the age of 17 for the most promising jazz pianist of 1935. This enabled him to secure a job as a sound man in one of the prestigious London film studios.

Military service

When World War II broke out Cordell enlisted in the RAF and trained as a radio navigation operator, flying the Vickers Wellington in Bomber Command. In his time between dangerous flying "ops" Cordell was in constant demand entertaining his squadron with popular piano music in the mess. On completing his 33 ops he was transferred to flying stealth De Havilland Mosquito bombers on the run between Britain and the Middle East. While in RAF Middle East he was later assigned as bandleader with his own group of musicians and a small convoy of lorries to entertain the British troops in the Western Desert Campaign. He was then appointed music director of Forces Radio in Cairo. Among the friends and local Cairo artists he worked with was the singer, Delores El Greco. From there he was assigned to a double role of music entertainment and intelligence work in Palestine. It is in Palestine while music entertaining that he met his first wife Magda, who was a Hungarian refugee working for the British in translating intercepted wireless signals. Magda later became a well known "Brutalist" artist, and along with Cordell was a participant in the This Is Tomorrow Exhibit, and both were founder members of the Independent Group at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.

BBC work

Cordell returned to Britain in 1947, resided on Higher Drive in Barnstead, and joined the BBC as a composer, arranger, and orchestra conductor. Among the recording studios he used were the Abbey Road Studios in St John's Wood, and the Aeolian sound studio in Bond Street, he also worked with George Martin. One of his early music hits conducting his own orchestra was called "Sadie's Shawl", and another called "The Black Bear". Cordell was noted in 1951 for his radio score of the historical drama "The Gay Galliard", starring Valerie Hobson as Mary, Queen of Scots. He worked with most of the well known performers and musicians of the day including Noel Coward, Charlie Chaplin, vocalists such as Alma Cogan and Ronnie Hilton, and the jazz trumpet player Humphrey Lyttelton. In 1952 Cordell was drawn to the cinema and made his music film debut. He also commenced composing music for many advertising commercials for film and TV.

The atelier

It was in this 1952/3 period that Frank and Magda Cordell established an artistic atelier at 52 Cleveland Square in Paddington London, which they shared and artistically collaborated with the British Modern artist John McHale. The McHale/Cordell atelier occupied three floors in a large Georgian row house in Cleveland Square. Frank used the top floor with his piano and large windows overlooking the park as his music composing studio. John McHale occupied the large sky lit studio at the back of the atelier on the ground floor. Magda used the other large painting studio downstairs, which was also used by all three artist as a film studio. McHale used the downstairs film studio to produce his photograms for his Telemath collage series. There was also a separate downstairs workshop and photographic dark room. The living room on the ground floor was used for entertaining guests such as: Reyner Banham and other members of the ICA group, musicians, writers such as Eric Newby, dramatists such as Arnold Wesker, and international guests such as Buckminster Fuller, and Picasso's son. Cordell made numerous tape recordings of Bucky Fuller.

It is the atelier living room, with window shifted right to left and stairs modified, that was used by J.McHale in the pop art layout design of the This Is Tomorrow poster collage "Just What Is It that Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?". Magda Cordell provided the Hamiltons access to McHale's private studio and the contents of McHale's famous black metal trunk containing all the pop art collage material including the measured design and iconic images, which the Hamiltons and Magda used to cut out and paste up the collage. The cut out and paste up of the collage was done in the McHale/Cordell atelier living room at 52 Cleveland Square.

Pop art

Cordell had a wide knowledge of commercial entertainment and the media and it was this information and his insights that helped John McHale with his original concepts when he coined the term "pop art" in 1954. Frank and Magda Cordell collaborated with John McHale on the This Is Tomorrow exhibit in 1956. McHale designed most of the pop art installation at the TIT and provided the pop art material. Some of the pop art was in the form of readymades which McHale requested Cordell to assist him access through his extensive media contacts. Cordell accessed Robby the Robot, the juke box, the film projector used for the endless reel of film depicting the British Navy Fleet at sea. Cordell accessed the gramophone motor and installed the rotating rotor relief disc given to McHale by Marcel Duchamp in New York. Cordell also installed the interactive microphone and electronic amplifier that provided cybernetic feedback of the ambient audience sounds at the TIT, and was the first example of an artistic "happening" in Britain. Magda helped McHale fetch Robby the Robot from the film studio, which was used to open the TIT. Magda along with Tery Hamilton blocked in with paint some of McHale's op art designed dazzle panels that were positioned at the portals to the TIT. Cordell and McHale also collaborated on the making of an architectural promotional film "Hauptstadt Berlin" in 1959 for the Smithsons, with commentary by Peter Smithson, which is available through the British Film Institute. In return, Alison and Peter Smithson designed a studio house on paper for the Cordells. Cordell delivered several lectures at the ICA, Independent Group, including "Gold Pan Alley", on the subject of commercial music, jazz and popular culture.

Musical scores

In 1955 Cordell left the BBC to become musical director of HMV Records, known subsequently as EMI, a post held until 1962 when he decided to become a full-time film composer. He scored the music for the film "The Captain's Table", 1959. In the early 1960s he divorced Magda who went with McHale to America. Cordell married his second wife Anja who he met on film location in Japan while doing the music score for "Flight to Ashia" in 1962/63. He wrote the theme music for the spy adventure directed by Robert Lansing called "The Man Who Never Was" 1966-67. Cordell wrote "The White Mountain" introductory music for the science fiction film "Mission of the Darains", 1975. Frank Cordell composed over twenty major music scores including: "The Voice of Merril" 1952, "First on the Road" 1957, "The Rebel" starring Peter Sellers 1961,"The Bargee" 1964, "Never Put It In Writing" 1964, "Khartoum" 1966, "Mosquito Squadron" 1969, "Ring of Bright Water" 1969, "Hells Boots" 1970, "Cromwell" 1970, "Trial by Combat" 1976, "God Told Me To" ("Demon" in the U.S.) 1976. Between his film scores Cordell wrote concert hall works including the "Concerto for Cello", the "Concerto for Horn", a wind quartet entitled "Interplay"; also pieces for saxophone quartet, "Gestures and Patterns", and mood miniatures such as "Production Drive".

He wrote choral music for the Choir of King's College, Cambridge; and an arrangement for strings of the English air "Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be", available on Guild GED5104. He was nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe for his feature film score of "Cromwell", 1970. Cordell was involved in several experimental and documentary films. These included a surrealist film made in Yugoslavia in 1957 with McHale and his three sons and Arnold Bittleman the Yale trained artist. Cordell also wrote the score for the documentary film "Tiger Tiger" 1977. He appeared in the "Fathers of Pop" interviewed by Reyner Banham in a 1970s TV documentary on the origins of British pop art.

Later years

Cordell retired with his wife and son, to their sheep farm in the English countryside where they kept open house to many of Britain's leading artists and musicians including The Beatles.

Cordell died in Hastings in 1980. Cordell's original manuscripts now reside in the archives at the Trinity College of Music in London.

References

*Musiker, Reuben and Naomi. Conductors and Composers of Popular Orchestral Music: A Biographical and Discographical Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.