These first few installments of my "Musings" page are to give a more in-depth and personal account of how I came to do what I do the way I do it. So, to pick up my story where I left off:

Over the years I have found that everything I learned from the time I spent as an actress has been important to my work as a singer. They are so closely related in so many ways. First of all there is the fact that an actor himself is his "instrument" and of course so is a singer. My voice, which is my own flesh and blood, is the "instrument" I play on. And like an actor, one of my mediums of expression is language. Words. Lyrics.

So what about lyrics? What about the interpretation of lyrics? I view each song I sing as a mini-theater piece. Kind of a theatrical haiku. Why? Because the stories I'm telling, the feelings I'm expressing are generally only about 32 bars long. It's not like I have a character I get to develop over the course of a two-act play. I have only a snapshot of a situation or feeling to work with. And yet the process that is brought to bear on interpretation is the same as what I would do with a longer theatre piece.

There is term used in theatre that you may have heard: subtext. Subtext is just what it says: it is all the unspoken layers beneath the actual words or text. For example if someone says to you, "Gotta go now", depending on the situation and the relationship between you and the person speaking, that phrase could be colored in variety of ways. The subtext could be saying: "gotta go now, although I never want to leave your side". Or: "gotta go now because you have hurt me too deeply to stay around you any longer"… or: "gotta go now because if I don't I'm liable to show you more of my heart than I am ready to right now" and so on … you get the idea. So with a song, where the dramatic import is so abbreviated, subtext becomes paramount to "filling out" or "fleshing out" the story.

Spending time exploring the subtext of a lyric is also a tremendous tool to help in memorization. It establishes your own personal connection to the song. It provides guideposts in the form of images and memories. Your relationship to the subtext will not only color the actual sound of the words, but also have deep impact on the phrasing and dynamic of your delivery. My concept of singing a lyric is that singing is simply extended and sustained speech. Singing is speaking on certain pitches and in rhythm. If you always keep the speech rhythm and sense in mind, your phrasing will stay true to the intent and meaning of the words.

Like an actor, the singer has a responsibility to the accuracy of the lyric. For several reasons. First and foremost out of respect for the lyricist and how much thought and care went into the choosing of one particluar word over another. To alter even one word can change the meaning of a phrase or the image the writer was seeking to convey. And in a lyric it can also destroy or diminish the rhyme scheme, internal and otherwise.

To make myself clear, let me site a couple of examples I have heard. These may not jar the ears of someone who doesn't know the song, but believe me, for those of us who care about and respect good lyric writing, these kinds of mistakes are jarring to the ear and convey a carelessness on the part of the singer… in addition to a lack of respect for the writer. If you've ever done any serious writing, then you know how you can labor over a single word until it is just right. And to have that word ignored or a similar word installed arbitrarily in its place is a drag.

Here is an example of something I heard on "How Deep is the Ocean" by Irving Berlin. It is the last line of the tune. The original lyric says: "And if I ever lost you, how much would I cry? How deep is the ocean, how high is the sky?" And what I heard sung was: "How deep is the ocean, how wide is the sky?" This substitution does two things: first of all it distorts the purity of the image, which is certainly a vertical one. Deep goes down and high goes up. Whereas the word "wide" is horizontal and detracts from the clarity and impact of the image. Secondly the rhyme scheme has been: cry, high, sky. All open ah - ee vowels. And although "wide" has that vowel sound in it, the consonant of d on the end of it detracts from the flow of the words soundwise.

Here is an example of how one word can change the entire character of a piece. This one came at the end of "Angel Eyes." The original lyric is: "Gotta find who's now number one and why my Angel Eyes ain't here". And what I heard sung was: "Gotta find who's now his number one and why etc." The insertion of the word "his" in front of number one puts a very different spin on the meaning of the lyric. It is now being sung by a woman who wants to know what her ex is up to, a woman who is caught up with the green-eyed monster. As opposed to being sung by a woman who wants to know who she herself is… a woman who is on the road to finding herself… "who's now number one." These are two different women telling two different stories… and all because of the insertion of one little word!!!

I see I have gone on a bit about this fine point of paying close attention to lyrics… but that is because I believe it is so important. This awareness and respect was cultivated in me by my early work in theatre. The words and how they are strung together, what images are used, slang and so on, all provide vital clues to the character you are portraying. And the same holds true for lyrics. The words contribute not only to the tone and character of the song, but in good writing they also lead the way to a personal sense of phrasing and technically give you the vowels you need to convey the emotion.

"Creative people knock on silence for an answering music." - Rollo May

Knock knock. Who's there?