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How did emerging singer-songwriters in the 1960s and 1970s develop traditions for musical self-expression? This book takes a new listen to the music of beloved songwriters Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Paul Simon, and Cat Stevens to show how they used malleable metric settings as an important part of their self-expressive toolkit in performance.
List of contents
- Abstract
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures and Captions
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1: The Self Expressive Rhetoric of Flexible Meter
- Self-Expressive Features
- Flexible Meter and "The Fiddle and the Drum"
- Self-Expression and the Singer-Songwriter
- Expectations for Singer-Songwriter Music
- Bob Dylan and The Folk Revival
- Flexible Meter as Self-Expression in Singer-Songwriter Music
- Chapter 2: The Theory of Flexible Meter
- Types of Flexible Meter
- Regular Meter
- Reinterpreted Meter
- Lost Meter
- Ambiguous Meter
- Metric Potential
- Chapter 3: Regular and Reinterpreted Meter
- Regular Meter
- Reinterpreted Meter
- Joni Mitchell's Rhapsodic Sentiments
- Paul Simon: Reinterpreted Meter Expressing Enigmatic Lyrics
- Cat Stevens's Introspection
- A Closer Look: Joni Mitchell's "Lesson in Survival"
- Chapter 4: Self-Expressive Innovations: Lost Meter
- Bob Dylan's "Only a Pawn in Their Game"
- Cat Stevens's "Time"
- Joni Mitchell's "Blue"
- Chapter 5: Intensifying "Imperfection": Ambiguous Meter
- Bob Dylan's "Down the Highway"
- Bob Dylan's "Restless Farewell"
- Joni Mitchell's "The Fiddle and the Drum"
- Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Sir Patrick Spens"
- Chapter 6: What Happens Next? Self-Expressive Flexible Meter
- Beyond 1982
- Future Singer-Songwriters
- Buffy Sainte-Marie's "My Country" (1966)
- "My Country" (1966, Rainbow Quest)
- "My Country" (2017, Medicine Songs)
- Conclusion: Flexible Meter as Self-Expression
- Index
About the author
Nancy Murphy is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, previously teaching at the University of Houston and the University of Chicago. Her research studies singer-songwriter music, metric flexibility, self-expression, vocal production, and transcription. She has published articles and reviews in Music Theory Spectrum, Music Analysis, and Music Theory Online and serves on the editorial boards of Music Theory Online, Indiana Theory, and Engaging Students: Essays in Music Pedagogy (Associate Editor). She has reviewed journal submission for multiple peer-reviewed publications including Music Theory Spectrum, Popular Music, Music Theory Online, Analytical Approaches to World Music, Engaging Students, and Indiana Theory Review.
Summary
How did emerging singer-songwriters in the 1960s and 1970s develop traditions for musical self-expression? This book takes a new listen to the music of beloved songwriters Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Paul Simon, and Cat Stevens to show how they used malleable metric settings as an important part of their self-expressive toolkit in performance.
