The Cambridge Companion to the Singer-Songwriter

摘要

The Cambridge Companions series is well-established and, within it, there are several notable works that examine music - as well as classical topics such as Handel and opera studies. We find companions to the Beatles and the blues, jazz and the guitar, the saxophone and, most recently, hip hop (Williams, 2015). The last of these was edited by Justin Williams, one of the two editors of this work on the singer-songwriter. Katherine Williams lectures in music at Plymouth University (UK) and Justin Williams at Bristol University (UK). They have assembled and coordinated an interesting team of commentators and academic writers in this study of the singer-songwriter. This term in one sense goes back centuries to any composer who also performed: several of the 29 essays here point out this historical pedigree (for instance, the Lieder of Schubert and Brahms and Wolf or popular songs of earlier periods). But, the focus of the companion is the modern singer-songwriter, characterized best when we think of James Taylor, Carole King, Billy Joel, Carly Simon, Roy Orbison, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell and Dylan.