User:BarryJ/Reform of Lyricist-Text system

Thoughts about reforming Lyricist template and redesigning the text system

Barry Johnston

Version 2b • October 2, 2021

1. Proposal. The pages concerning authors, lyricists, and translators should be redesigned:

a. Create Category:Works with <Author> text whenever Template:Lyricist is used

b. There needs to be a warning if more than one name is shown in the lyricist template, that these people must have collaborated in the writing.

c. In Template:Lyricist, only one line-feed at end regardless of choices.

d. Eliminate "As composer" choice, add Category:Lyricists to Composer page in those cases. Always show a real name (or alias) in the Lyricist template.

e. Add Template:Author to text that appears on a work page or a text page. This template would add "Category: <Author> texts" which would link to the author's page.

Category:<Author> texts	→	<Author> page (Texts by <Author>)
Category:Works with <Author> text	→	<Author> page (Settings of <Author> texts)
	JUST LIKE
Category:<Composer> compositions	→	<Composer> page (List of choral works)
Category:<Composer> arrangements	→	<Composer> page (List of arrangements)
	JUST LIKE
Category:<Translator> translations	→	<Translator> page (List of Translations)

f. Rename Template:Translator to Template:TranslationBy, and rewrite it. Make the new Template:Translator optional following Template:Lyricist on work pages. The new Template:Translator would assign <Author> to Category:Translators and Category: <Author> translations.

g. There would be categories "Translations by <Author>." The Template TranslationsList will show below LyricistSettingsList on Lyricist (and Translator) pages.

h. New Category:Authors, to include all those who write text; the category includes Lyricists and Translators. Lyricists are authors of text used in music, those called "Lyricists" on work pages. Another subcategory of Authors is Translators.

i. Template:Lyricist to be used with Template:TextSource, in parallel with Composer and Pub(1).

j. Add nationality to lyricist, translator, and compiler-editor pages.

k. Templates, categories, and list pages relevant to this topic. Asterisk indicates those needing redesign, dagger indicates those needing to be developed.

Templates	Categories	List pages
Author†	<Author> texts†
Lyricist*	<Author> settings*
LyricistSettingsList*	<Author> translations*
TextSource†	Authors†
Translation*	Lyricists
TranslationBy†	Translators
TranslationsList*	Works with <Author> texts†
Translator*	Works with texts by known authors*

2. The situation now.

a. The Lyricist template requires a blank line following the template on work pages.

b. A text is currently kept in one of two places: within the Text template on a work page, or on a text page. How the text is handled is different in the two places.

c. The format of text pages is not consistent, neither among text pages nor with other page types. The "General information" section on a work page has (among other things) Genre, Language, First published, Description, and External websites templates; all of these would be relevant to a text page. Lyricist on a work page would become Author on a text page (because the two templates serve different functions; see discussion below). The optional templates First Line, Meter, and SeeAlso would be relevant on test pages as well. Currently the "General information" section on a text page has none of these; some pages have "External websites" as a separate section.

d. The Lyricist template has been lately added to some text pages, but that leads to mis-categorization, since the text page is then put into "Category:<text page title> settings" and "Category:Works with texts by known authors". If no template is used (as ' ' ' Lyricist: ' ' ' [[<Author>]]), then the text on the page is not properly categorized, and will not be shown on the Author's page.

e. The Lyricist template allows up to three lyricists. It is implied that lyricists appearing in the same template should have co-authored the same text, but this is not stated. Some editors have concatenated the names of an original author and a later one (such as a translator, or adapter), which is unworkable, especially in works with many editions. There is no way currently to attach a lyricist or translator to an edition.

f. Text on a work page is not categorized to the lyricist on that page. Only in those cases where the page title is the first line of text is it linked to the lyricist's page, but even in that case the page title is often truncated or excerpted from the text.

g. There are no categories "<Author> texts", which would allow linking a text to an author's page, like the category "<Composer> compositions" links a work to a composer's page.

h. There is currently no standard way to categorize or link a text page to the author of the text, which means that texts on text pages are not shown in the author's page.

i. There is no notice of the copyright status of texts, even when it is obvious (came from old books) or implied (written by a CPDL editor, maybe included in their copyright assignment).

j. Some texts are found to be different from the original text, but the amender (or translator!) is often not given.

k. Most texts have no indication of the source of the text used – on work pages or text pages. Even when the source is cited, it is not linked to a publication or shown on the author's page.

l. The text section on work pages and text pages often have translations or other versions of the text included within them; these are only tied to a translator or author if the translator template has been added, but often this has not been done.

m. Some texts appear on both a work page and a text page; sometimes these are different, but rarely is any explanation given, and rarely is the alternate text linked to any other page.

n. Few texts (on text pages or work pages) are linked to a publication where the text first appeared; nor is the date of first publication linked, even on pages where it is cited (usually in the Description section). Many texts have no author cited or date when the text was written or published, even though often this information is available or easily gotten by a web search. Yet history of a text is often easier to discover than history of the music.

o. Some work pages are titled by the first line (or part of it) of the text; but the relationship between the text, page title, and lyricist is often faulty and inaccurate. Often the title (and subscription or subtitle) given to the text when first published is not given, and is lost. Other work pages are titled by the title given to the text when it was first published, or to a title in common use among musicians. Sometimes it is difficult to tell which.

p. A lyricist page automatically shows those work pages where the author's name occurs in the Lyricist template; items are listed by page name, which often is not the title or first line of the text. Text pages by the author are not shown; neither are translations by the author.

q. The CPDL system does not deal easily with Composers that are also Lyricists, causing lists of authors and their texts to be incomplete.

r. For works with editions by different authors, often the authors are not named; neither is the text or translation linked to the author.

s. If a translator's text is shown on a text page and used on a work page, the work page does not appear on the translator's page under the automatically invoked "LyricistSettingsList". The editor must manually add  . And even then, the translated text is often not shown, rather the original language text is shown.

t. Template:Translator currently can't handle more than one translator. The Translator's page shows the work page name (with some difficulty, see above), which sometimes is the original-language text, but seldom the translated text. So the Translator's page shows words he/she didn't write!

u. Template:Translator doesn't display in red when the name doesn't have a CPDL page – inconsistent with other templates such as Lyricist and Composer. So an editor doesn't know if he/she spelled it correctly, or if the page needs to be created.

v. Adaptations and alterations of text are common, and those who adapt and alter text are usually shown in hymnals and scholarly works. CPDL currently has no way to properly acknowledge text alterations or to assign alterations to a person.

w. Aliases are not automated, except for a few composers, and the Alias prompt doesn't appear with other people besides composers.

3. Lyricist and Author. I appreciate the good arguments that Chuck made (in a forum), that Lyricist is the standard name for a person who writes words to music.

a. Most people who wrote words used in CPDL called themselves "authors". All style manuals consulted use the term Author to denote persons who write text. Examples include:

• Council of Science Editors' Scientific Style and Format

• The U. S. Government Style Manual

b. Would Template:Lyricist work on Text pages? I don't think so, but it's worth considering.

c. After considering Chuck's arguments, I feel we need to keep lyricist, author, and translator concepts separate; although they are overlapping. Here are my ideas:

• "Author" is a more general concept, that could apply to text or musical material; that is the usual concept in copyright law, I think. Writers of music books before the 20th century often referred to themselves as "authors", even though they often didn't write the lyrics. On the other hand, writers of books that don't have lyrics are usually not called "authors" but "composers" (except in technical copyright matters). In most contemporary usage, "author" most often means text, not music.

• "Composer" (in our context) refers just to music, not text.

• "Lyricist" is a musical term, usually not used in other contexts. A lot of music on CPDL is for accompaniment by a lyre or lyres.

• "Paraphrase" is most often applied to texts, but it could apply to music.

• Apparently "translator" is a concept used only for text. (It is not found in most music dictionaries.)

So I propose we use "author" to refer to a person (or persons) who writes text; the person would be in Category:Author, but they only become a lyricist (Category:Lyricist) when the words are applied to music. A perusal of the texts at CPDL shows that in some cases the text was not intended to be sung, that a later composer put the text to music. Some authors would be lyricists, some would be translators.

d. For now, at least, we can keep the idea that an author can sometimes be a paraphraser, and we don't need a separate "paraphraser" template. Separating them is an enormous task, and would run counter to common practice elsewhere: Isaac Watts is considered the author of his paraphrase of Psalm 1, not the paraphraser or the translator, even though the text is called a paraphrase.

4. What is "Category:Works with texts by known authors" used for?   5. Consequences of the proposal. a. b. There would be at least 12 kinds of pages:

(1) Work pages (2) Composer pages (3) Lyricist pages (4) Translator pages (5) Compiler-Editor pages

(6) Text pages (7) List pages (8) Templates (9) Categories (10) Main pages

(11) Help pages (12) Explanation and reference pages c. 6. Six

  Appendix

A. Author: "1 a person who makes or originates something; creator; originator … 2 a writer of a book, article, etc.; often specifically a person whose profession is writing books."

B. Composer: "the person who writes music (conceptualize and notate). A composer is thought of as a performer but, more recently, a composer is not considered a performer in the pre-20th century sense. Presently composers are rarely able to support themselves by writing (composing) music unless they specialize in popular music. Composers of classical music are often involved in teaching."

C. Lyricist: "a writer of lyrics" and lyric: "adj. 1 of a lyre; 2 suitable for singing, songlike; specifically designating poetry or a poem mainly expressing the poet's emotions and feelings …; n. 1 a lyric poem 2 [usually pl.] the words of a song, as distinguished from the music."1

D. Lyricist: "the person who writes the words, or lyrics"2

E. Paraphrase: "1 a reworking of something spoken or written, especially for the purpose of making its meaning clearer … 3 a free reworking of a musical text or composition."1

F. Translator: "one who transfers; one who translates; specifically a person or machine that translates books, articles, etc. from one language to another" and translate: "… 2 to put into the words of a different language"1