Song

   

This page is about musical songs. For other meanings, see Song (disambiguation).

A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). It is typically for a solo singer, though may also be a duet, trio, or for more voices (works with more than one voice to a part, however, are considered choral). The words of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, although they may be religious verses or free prose. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used. One division is between "art songs", "popular songs", and "folk songs". Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, Lieder, etc.) or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc). The performer of a song is called a "singer" or "vocalist", the act is called singing.

Art songs are songs created for performance in their own right, or for the purposes of a European upper class, usually with piano accompaniment, although they can also have other types of accompaniment such as an orchestra or string quartet, and are always notated. Generally they have an identified author(s) and require voice training for acceptable performances. The German word for song, "Lied" (plural: "Lieder"), is used in French and English-speaking communities to refer to the serious art song, whereas in German-speaking communities the word "Kunstlied" (plural: "Kunstlieder") is used to distinguish art song from folk song ("Volkslied"). The lyrics are often written by a lyricist and the music separately by a composer. Art songs may be more formally complicated than popular or folk songs, though many early Lieder by the likes of Franz Schubert are in simple strophic form. They are often important to national identity.

Art songs feature in many European cultures, including but not limited to: Russian (romansy), Dutch (lied), Italian (canzoni), French (mélodies), Scandinavian (sånger), Spanish (canciones). Cultures outside of Europe may have what they consider to be a classical music tradition, such as India, and thus feature art songs.

Popular songs are songs which may be considered in between art songs and folk songs. They are usually accompanied in performance and recording by a band. They are not anonymous in origin and have a known authors. They are often but not always notated by their author(s) or transcribed after recording and tend to be composed in collaboration more often than art songs, for instance by an entire band, though the lyrics are usually written by one person, usually the lead singer. Popular songs are often a part of individual and cultural, but seldom national, identity. Performers usually often have not undergone formal voice training but highly stylized vocal techniques are used. Many people consider songs in popular music to have in general simpler structures than art songs, however, musicologists who are "both contemptuous and condescending [of popular music] are looking for types of production, musical form, and listening which they associate with a different kind of music...'classical music'...and they generally find popular music lacking" (Middleton 1990, p.103).

Folk songs are songs of often anonymous origin (or are public domain) that are transmitted orally. They are frequently a major aspect of national or cultural identity. Art songs often approach the status of folk songs when people forget who the author was. Folk songs are also frequently transmitted non-orally (that is, as sheet music), especially in the modern era. Folk songs exists in virtually if not every culture. For more on folk songs, see Folk music.

For a list of influential songs, see:

Song forms

See also

Source

  • Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.

External link

 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Song.


de:Lied fr:Chanson ms:Nyanyian nl:Lied pl:Piosenka ru:Песня ja:歌

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