power of figurative language
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NSAI Song Camp 2013 Instructor- Steve Leslie
“The Power of Figurative Language” I. Literal vs. Figurative Language - Facts (explicit) vs. Figures of Speech (implicit) - Tells rather than Shows - Listener as witness vs. listener as participant
We live in an age of explicitness- serving both stimulus and response, thereby dulling the imagination; no personal involvement, no need to “fill in” the empty spaces.
Aside from the occasional “shock method”, for a song to be remembered the listener must imagine his/her own life within it. This relationship between the writer, performer and his/her audience is an opportunity for empathy and catharsis.
Through implication and inference, rather than explanation, the listener is afforded the opportunity to participate in the creative process.
The use of figurative language, description and particular details, can restore songwriting to its primary function: the shared experience of human emotion.
The use of figurative language is more often a vertical rather than a horizontal approach promising, “more than meets the eye.” (Hemmingway’s “Iceberg Effect.”) This contributes to lyrical economy.
The underlying principle: Ambiguity
II. Figurative Language -See “The Craft of Lyric Writing” by Sheila Davis
1. Polysemy (PA-li-SE-my)- saying more than one thing at the same time.
“…and the Wichita Lineman is still on the line.” -Jimmy Webb “Wichita Lineman”
(line refers both to the singer’s occupation and his present emotions.)
2. Oxymoron- contradictory words producing an unusual effect:
“He Was My Strongest Weakness”; “Sound of Silence”; “Killing Me Softly With His Song”. 3. Zeugma (ZOOG-ma)- the use of a word to govern two or more words in such a way that it applies a different meaning to each: “ …they’ll steal a kiss and then a towel”; “watch your heart…and your purse”; “drunk on love and cheap red wine”.
4. Apostrophe- a figure of speech in which an absent person or thing is addressed as if it were present and will presumably answer: “Hello darkness, my old friend”; “Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone”; “Moon River”.
5. Synecdoche (se-NEK-da-key)- using a part to express the whole: “the smile waiting in the kitchen” (Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze”); “the canvas can do miracles” (Christopher Cross’ “Sailing”)
6. Metonymy (ma-TON-a-mee)- substitutes one word for another with which it is related: “The White House” (the American government); “white lace and promises” (“We’ve Only Just Begun”); “shackled by…the ink stains that have dried upon some line” (“Gentle On My Mind”); “Piece of paper from the city hall” (“My Old Man”).
7. Hyperbole- is extravagant exaggeration for emotional effect: “..with ten miles behind me, and ten-thousand more to go” (“Sweet Baby James”); “I’m a Thousand Miles From Nowhere.”
8. Personification- giving human qualities to inanimate objects or abstractions: “Love Walked In”; “(I’m the train they call) The City of New Orleans; “I Write the Songs”; “The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress.”
9. Symbolism- on its most basic level, as a type of metaphor: a word or phrase that stands for or represents something else: “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”; “He held the bottle to his head and pulled the trigger; “Biscuit and Gravy fat,” although it derives its full strength from a range of associations. 10. Metaphor- an implied comparison between dissimilar things. A metaphor goes out and comes back; it is a fetching motion of the imagination produced by one part of the brain and interrogated by
another. The work the metaphor does, the writer doesn’t have to; the image does the work (The Principle of Economy).
Ex. An army is a rabid wolf Ex. “..She rolled from New York to California, and I was just a station on that line.” 11. Simile- an acknowledged metaphor, as in “An army is like a rabid wolf”. A simile doesn’t transfer focus the way a metaphor does. One senses a slight falling off in confidence with the comparison. Ex. Days we cupped like water in our hands
Metaphors and Similes must be functional rather than decorative; must further the general intent of the lyric.
Ex. “Mule stubborn” (“That River Right There”/ S. Leslie) Ex. “Rodeo tired” (“South Texas Time”/ S. Leslie) 12. Objective Correlative- related to metaphor and simile; an object or set of objects, which evokes the intended emotions in a work of art. (T. S. Eliot)
Ex. “..like a broken wheel trying to roll uphill.” (“This Time”/ S. Leslie)
Ex. “I went down to Crosby’s to fix my radiator, I said the damn thing’s been runnin’ hot and cold.” (“Closer To Home”/ S. Leslie)
13. Understatement- to minimize or down play the importance of a given situation. Treating a heavy subject in an offhand rather than heavy-handed manner is more likely to evoke a deep response in the listener.
Ex. “..when you stopped loving me” “(Second Wind”/ Leslie, Worley) Ex. “Maybe You’ll Be There” (Gallup, Bloom) Ex. “I Love You, Goodbye” (D. Warren) I4. Ellipses… “a telling omission”
“I’m attracted to the unsaid, to suggestion, to eloquent, deliberate silence. The power in art is in harnessing the power of the unfinished. All earthy experience is partial; we don’t know more than we know. What is unfinished participates in these mysteries. Thoroughness is an enemy of the imagination. That which loves completion too much is like
a thoroughly cleaned room, it paralysis activity, lacks magnetism.” - -Louise Gluck :“Proofs and Theories” 1994
The harmonic equivalent to ellipses is ending the song on a 4 chord: The Power of The Unfinished.
One Corner Style Painting – “Filling In The Space”
Ex. “That River Right There”
III. Description Is Revelation
-“Beauty is simply accuracy” (Greek ideal of Art) -“No ideas but in things” –WC Williams -“Show Don’t Tell”
Through details, the writer is able to gain access to the listener’s imagination by triggering their memory.
-Details also add authenticity to a description, building trust that the author was really there (whether he/she was or not.) -That/This as opposed to The…
“Particulars Reveal Universals” (Leonard Cohen): The most particular fact is the most universal. Not: But: The tree The sycamore The lake Old Man Anderson’s Lake TV That hopeless little screen Watching TV Watching Capt. Kangaroo
The old car … Her red dress … This guitar … Our house …
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