[ApK]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

We'll have to agree to disagree. Even in a cappella there are still words. They don't have to be sung.

You may have misunderstood me. Of course there are words. I was listing forms where the music was sometimes ONLY words, not separate instrumentation played along to words, as you suggested.

My point was that music is not just instrumental music and literature sandwiched together and served on the same plate.
The words in music can BE the music, and composing words for music is a distinct art form from poetry or literary prose.

Not that I necessarily think that the Nobel for literature should exclude music, any more than I think it should exclude poetry.

WHen I read the lyrics to a great song, I am reading them for meaning. After hearing a song I often look up the lyrics to have a better understanding of the story. For me, the story often matters more than other musical facts. I'm sure writing a song is different than writing a longer story because even writing a short story is different than writing a novel. Some people can tell a story in a few words. Others take longer. But generally speaking, the songs I like most have a good story AND good music and I tend to evaluate those separately.

There is a huge amount of music, even music with words, that doesn't tell a verbal story. Even some of Dylan's (I think...).
Songwriters can communicate in other ways than narrative, just as poets, or painters for that matter, can.
(BTW, Story songs are my personal favorites as well.)

Or I enjoy a particular voice/talent (Vince Gill for example) but I tire of his constant cheatin' and drinkin' stories. He needs better stories because I swear that woman has left him so many times...

You know what you get when you play a country song backwards...?

ApK