05-03-2015, 06:47 AM
Revision 5-17-15, Ray, RiverNotch
[Note that through-composed music never repeats, whereas strophic music does.]
Song lyrics are tonal unless they contemplate the identity of some object. Through-composed lyrics follow the same literary principles as other written works, but strophic lyrics differ.
Because of the recursive nature of strophic musical settings, strophic lyrics are constrained such that they may contemplate the identity of one and only one object. Said somewhat differently to clarify, the repeated musical settings of strophic music (verses and choruses, essentially) force lyrical sections to interact such that their shared aspects emerge as the principle focus. Efforts to frustrate this inherency will, ironically, demonstrate it.
Once established, the identity of an object may be examined in one and only one of four ways. Specifically, the identity of an object may be examined in relation to
1. Itself, alone,
2. External forces,
3. Inferior hazards, or
4. Superior hazards.
To explicate, strophic lyrics may:
1. Contemplate an object's identity without more,
2. Assert its identity and describe it by placing it in opposition to other objects,
3. Showcase the strength of its identity by subjecting it to hazards it will succeed against, or
4. Show the weakness of its identity by having it fail against those hazards.
A song about a basketball would be of type 1. If the basketball encountered a soccer ball, the song would be of type 2. If the soccer ball attacked the basketball and lost out, it would be a type 3 song. And if the basketball were defeated by the soccer ball, the song would be of type 4.
Original:
I've been spending 10–15 hours a week revising my lyrics primer, and here's a piece of what's likely to be absolute crap that I'd like to include. It seems right to me, but I think I'm not being objective.
It's this:
There are only four kinds of songs:
(1) identity formation and assertion songs (I'm X; lots of rap, for instance),
(2) maintaining balance songs (to keep thing X, thing Y needs to be dialed back; Missing the War, Ben Folds),
(3) aggressive idiosyncratic pursuit songs (I'm going all in; New York, New York);
(4) idiosyncratic unhealthy pursuit songs/Faustian bargain songs (a personal strength/asset becomes a weakness/liability; Billy Joel's Piano Man), and
(5) the rest are "merely atmospheric" songs (tone lyrics; Beck's "Loser").
The question is, is this an exhaustive list? If you think it isn't, please point me to an exception, if you can think of one.
What I like about the list is that it tends to foreground the song's subject, not its speaker. So, for instance, Adele's Rolling in the Deep seems like, at first, a song about Adele. It's not. It's a song about a guy trying to maintain balance.
If I'm wrong, call me out on it, if you would. Much obliged, and heresit:
[Note that through-composed music never repeats, whereas strophic music does.]
Song lyrics are tonal unless they contemplate the identity of some object. Through-composed lyrics follow the same literary principles as other written works, but strophic lyrics differ.
Because of the recursive nature of strophic musical settings, strophic lyrics are constrained such that they may contemplate the identity of one and only one object. Said somewhat differently to clarify, the repeated musical settings of strophic music (verses and choruses, essentially) force lyrical sections to interact such that their shared aspects emerge as the principle focus. Efforts to frustrate this inherency will, ironically, demonstrate it.
Once established, the identity of an object may be examined in one and only one of four ways. Specifically, the identity of an object may be examined in relation to
1. Itself, alone,
2. External forces,
3. Inferior hazards, or
4. Superior hazards.
To explicate, strophic lyrics may:
1. Contemplate an object's identity without more,
2. Assert its identity and describe it by placing it in opposition to other objects,
3. Showcase the strength of its identity by subjecting it to hazards it will succeed against, or
4. Show the weakness of its identity by having it fail against those hazards.
A song about a basketball would be of type 1. If the basketball encountered a soccer ball, the song would be of type 2. If the soccer ball attacked the basketball and lost out, it would be a type 3 song. And if the basketball were defeated by the soccer ball, the song would be of type 4.
Original:
I've been spending 10–15 hours a week revising my lyrics primer, and here's a piece of what's likely to be absolute crap that I'd like to include. It seems right to me, but I think I'm not being objective.
It's this:
There are only four kinds of songs:
(1) identity formation and assertion songs (I'm X; lots of rap, for instance),
(2) maintaining balance songs (to keep thing X, thing Y needs to be dialed back; Missing the War, Ben Folds),
(3) aggressive idiosyncratic pursuit songs (I'm going all in; New York, New York);
(4) idiosyncratic unhealthy pursuit songs/Faustian bargain songs (a personal strength/asset becomes a weakness/liability; Billy Joel's Piano Man), and
(5) the rest are "merely atmospheric" songs (tone lyrics; Beck's "Loser").
The question is, is this an exhaustive list? If you think it isn't, please point me to an exception, if you can think of one.
What I like about the list is that it tends to foreground the song's subject, not its speaker. So, for instance, Adele's Rolling in the Deep seems like, at first, a song about Adele. It's not. It's a song about a guy trying to maintain balance.
If I'm wrong, call me out on it, if you would. Much obliged, and heresit: