A
lyricist is a
writer who specializes in
song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song(s). A
singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a
singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a
singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's
melody in addition to the lyrics.
Collaboration
Collaboration takes different forms. Some composers and lyricists work closely together on the song, with each having an input into both words and tune. Often a lyricist will fill in the words to a tune already fully written out.
Dorothy Fields worked in this way. Lyricists have often added words to an established tune, as Johnny Burke did with the
Erroll Garner tune
Misty. Some partnerships work almost totally independently, for example,
Bernie Taupin famously writes lyrics and hands them over to
Elton John, who then sets them to music, with minimum interaction between the two men.
Religious songwriting
In the
Christian hymn-singing tradition, many of the best-loved pieces have words written to fit existing melodies. The
Christmas carol,
What Child Is This, had its words set to an old English folk tune that formerly was a lover's lament,
Greensleeves. The
English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams famously set existing poems, by men like
William Cowper and
Charles Wesley, to traditional folk tunes to create hymns, many of which he published in the
English Hymnal. A different way in which this happened was the marriage of non-related words and tune, the best-known example being
The Star-Spangled Banner, the
national anthem of the
United States, with words written by
Francis Scott Key strictly as a poem, which was later set to the tune of an old drinking song.
Classical music
In opera, the
librettist is responsible for all text, whether spoken or sung in
recitative or
aria.
See also
