Wiley, I'll ask Alan to look in on this thread. He wrote a couple hundred songs, words and music, and now he's tackled this libretto for Giants in the Earth.
Surely the greatest lyricist is Burns, most of whose lyrics rise to the level of poetry, much of it unspeakably great. He was borrowing all those old tunes, remaking them, then composing lyrics that scan as the strictest of verse. Of course he did so by employing melisma, drawing out syllables over the course of several notes if needed. I have written a couple of song lyrics and find it terribly difficult because I have devoted thirty years to metrical substitution. In a song, by contrast, you have to stick to the beat. It's a different ball game.
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