ABSTRACT
It has been argued above that popular music is for the most part popular song. It thus follows that the music teacher should include the study of lyrics as part of his course. Such a sugges tion is likely to jar a little at first, since musicians have a tend ency to see themselves either as instrumentalists or singers but not as lyricists, and their training reinforces this. But we draw attention to the fact that in many other cultures the tasks of poet and musician are part of the same activity. In Africa, the praise singer must both play and improvise verses. In earlier European culture poets such as Homer and Virgil refer, even though it may well be metaphorically, to their work as 'song’. Classical musicians were continuously concerned with the setting of words, sacred and secular - the words of Thomas Morley are regularly quoted on this matter. We therefore argue that, though collaboration between music teachers and English teachers can only be advantageous to both parties, the musician, to be a com plete musician has to have a working knowledge of verse making and setting.
