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IOWA SUMMER WRITING FESTIVAL
The Art and Craft of the Song Lyric (Five-Week Workshop)
The Art and Craft of the Song Lyric (Five-Week Workshop)
Jennie Litt, Instructor
Saturdays on Zoom, February 19–March 19, 2022
10:00 a.m.–12:00 noon Iowa/Central Time (11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Eastern; 9:00–11:00 a.m. Pacific; 8:00–10:00 a.m. Mountain)
A lyric is not a poem, though it may rhyme or use poetic language or imagery. A lyric is not a story, though it may tell one. A lyric is a message written in invisible ink, which can only be revealed in its true richness and specificity by music.
This is a workshop for lyricist/composers, serial collaborators, and those who’ve never written a song but have always wanted to. The class will consist of an hour-long lecture/discussion, followed by an hour-long workshop session during which we’ll respond constructively to our fellow participants’ original work. Every participant will have at least two original lyrics (with or without music) workshopped over the course of the five weeks.
During the lecture portion of the class, we’ll be listening to and analyzing songs in a wide range of genres. We’ll explore lyric-writing as an art and a craft: What is there to sing about? Where do spoken, written, and sung language intersect and diverge—and why? What are the purposes, advantages, and pitfalls of rhyming—and what constitutes a rhyme? How does the context in which listeners will encounter a song affect the choices we make as songwriters—do we write differently for the stage vs. the studio, YouTube vs. the radio, a cabaret club vs. a stadium? What are “song forms,” and how do they function; how can you turn the restrictions these forms impose to your advantage?
 Instructor
Jennie Litt is a lyricist, fiction writer, recording artist, cabaret performer, audiobook narrator, and educator. Jennie writes, performs, and records songs with her husband David Alpher, a composer. With David, she has performed cabaret shows all over the tristate area and at most of the major New York City clubs; their cabaret songs have been performed all over the world. In 2019, Jennie and David began work on The Mitfords At War, their first musical. Their recorded collections of original songs—Two Apples (2014) and Songs for Sapiosexuals (2019)—are available on Spotify.
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