Description
In 1960s and 1970s singer-songwriter music, some artists used malleable metric settings alongside other features of self-expression in performance. This resulted in songs with extremes of self-expressive timing flexibility that cannot be accounted for using a single conception of meter. This book proposes a theory of flexible meter that recasts metric structure as encompassing the variety of metric scenarios presented by the self-expressive performance practice of singer-songwriters, from metric regularity to metric ambiguity, and vacillations between these two possibilities. Author Nancy Murphy explores performances by Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Paul Simon, and Cat Stevens to investigate the individual metric style of each artist and how their flexible metric techniques contribute to the self-expressive rhetoric of the singer-songwriter performance tradition.
Table of Contents
AbstractTable of ContentsList of Figures and CaptionsAcknowledgementsChapter 1: The Self Expressive Rhetoric of Flexible MeterSelf-Expressive FeaturesFlexible Meter and "The Fiddle and the Drum"Self-Expression and the Singer-SongwriterExpectations for Singer-Songwriter MusicBob Dylan and The Folk RevivalFlexible Meter as Self-Expression in Singer-Songwriter MusicChapter 2: The Theory of Flexible MeterTypes of Flexible MeterRegular MeterReinterpreted MeterLost MeterAmbiguous MeterMetric PotentialChapter 3: Regular and Reinterpreted MeterRegular MeterReinterpreted MeterJoni Mitchell's Rhapsodic SentimentsPaul Simon: Reinterpreted Meter Expressing Enigmatic LyricsCat Stevens's IntrospectionA Closer Look: Joni Mitchell's "Lesson in Survival"Chapter 4: Self-Expressive Innovations: Lost MeterBob Dylan's "Only a Pawn in Their Game"Cat Stevens's "Time"Joni Mitchell's "Blue"Chapter 5: Intensifying "Imperfection": Ambiguous MeterBob 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 MeterBeyond 1982Future Singer-SongwritersBuffy Sainte-Marie's "My Country" (1966)"My Country" (1966, Rainbow Quest)"My Country" (2017, Medicine Songs)Conclusion: Flexible Meter as Self-ExpressionIndex
