Songwriting

Mark Eden Horowitz (2010) Sondheim on Music: minor details and major decisions (2nd edition), Scarecrow Press [Where I have marked MH, it is quoting Horowitz; otherwise all quotes are Sondheim. The comments in square brackets are my own thoughts and responses.] Preface to the 2nd Edition v MH “art is most effective when couple with […]

Content dictates form Less is more God is in the detail All in the service of clarity [and ‘truth’] Rhyme true / perfect rhyme – final accented syllable; masculine = last syllable; feminine = penultimate or earlier accented syllables rhyme (different consonant) and succeeding syllables exactly alike identity rhyme – matches syllables and consonants (motion-promotion)

Rooksby, Rikky (2000/2009) ‘How to Write a Lyric’ in How To Write Song on Guitar: A guitar-paying and songwriting course, Backbeat Books, pp. 117-136 118 “True poetry has much less tolerance of cliché than lyrics.” 118 Music can add important information to a lyric [Note: Sondheim’s idea that a lyric must leave room for music

Forsyth, Mark (2013) The Elements of Eloquence: How To Turn the Perfect English Phrase, Icon Books, London [This is not likely to be on many songwriters’ shelves, but I think it makes a great contribution to any songwriter’s reference library. This a very entertaining read that shows how memorable (not necesarily ‘great’) quotations and lines become

Webb, Jimmy (1999) Tunesmith: inside the art of songwriting Preface Preface: expression, form, aesthetics; rescue form from mediocrity Preface: 1) Inspiration comes from the guts. 2) Technique is a personal and private conceit. 3) Creativity as a concept is perhaps not well understood by the people who practise it most successfully. [Analysis will reveal the

Whether you are a singer, a lyricist, songwriter or melody writer, it is valuable to understand how songs are put together. Here is a glossary of some of the main elements found in songs, whether they are pop, rock, music theatre, classical, jazz or folk. At the end, I have described the formulae / recipes

Oscar Hammerstein II the essay ‘Notes on Lyrics’ in 1949. They were reproduced in Hammerstein, William (ed.) (2002) Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, London, Omnibus, pp3-48. These are my notes of Hammerstein’s notes … 3 – “There is, as a matter of fact, no invariable or inevitable method for writing songs. Sometimes the words are