Rufus Wainwright
Katherine Williams [+–]
Independent Scholar
View Website
Katherine Williams is Lecturer in Music at the University of Plymouth. She is author of Rufud Wainwright (Equinox Publishing, 2016), co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Singer-Songwriter (Cambridge Univesity Press 2016), and the Singer-Songwriter Handbook (Bloomsbury Academic 2017). Katherine is also a professional saxophonist.
PAPERBACK EDITION PUBLISHED JULY 2016
Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright is famous around the world for his multi-faceted musical style, shown through both his recorded output and his engaging live performances. In this book, Katherine Williams combines aspects of his life story with scholarly readings drawn from several methodologies. Popular music studies, opera, queer studies, music and geography, the sound-box: all combine to give a rich biographical and interpretative overview of Wainwright’s life and music.
Williams brings together close musical analysis and varied disciplinary perspectives with a tone that is both in-depth and scholarly, and accessible. The book is a must-read for fans, students and scholars alike.
More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on the Thinking About Music website.
Series: Popular Music History
Table of Contents
Preliminaries
List of Figures and Tables [+–] vii
Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright is famous around the world for his multi-faceted musical style, shown through both his recorded output and his engaging live performances. In this book, Katherine Williams combines aspects of his life story with scholarly readings drawn from several methodologies. Popular music studies, opera, queer studies, music and geography, the sound-box: all combine to give a rich biographical and interpretative overview of Wainwright’s life and music. Williams brings together close musical analysis and varied disciplinary perspectives with a tone that is both in-depth and scholarly, and accessible. The book is a must-read for fans, students and scholars alike. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on the Thinking About Music website.
Acknowledgements [+–] viii
Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright is famous around the world for his multi-faceted musical style, shown through both his recorded output and his engaging live performances. In this book, Katherine Williams combines aspects of his life story with scholarly readings drawn from several methodologies. Popular music studies, opera, queer studies, music and geography, the sound-box: all combine to give a rich biographical and interpretative overview of Wainwright’s life and music. Williams brings together close musical analysis and varied disciplinary perspectives with a tone that is both in-depth and scholarly, and accessible. The book is a must-read for fans, students and scholars alike. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on the Thinking About Music website.
Introduction [+–] 1-8
Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright (b. 1973) is famous around the world for his engaging live performances and multi-faceted musical style. Katherine Williams uses several aspects of his musical style persona, and biography as springboards from which to discuss and interrogate musicological and analytical frameworks. A primary theme is the interplay between popular music and Western Art Music: one of Williams’ primary aims in Rufus Wainwright is to show that different techniques of analysing music from a popular musicology standpoint are a valuable contribution to the wider musicological discipline, and conversely that the application of theories from traditional musicology can shed light on popular song. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on Thinking About Music, available here .
1
Family [+–] 9-27
Most of Rufus Wainwright’s songs contain an autobiographical element. When his subject is his family, he continues a long-established tradition. His father, folk singer Loudon Wainwright III and mother Kate McGarrigle, as well as sister Martha Wainwright have all expressed their relationships publicly through song—and in this chapter, I analyse songs that explain these relationships from Rufus’s perspective. Case studies include ‘Beauty Mark’, ‘Little Sister’, ‘Dinner At Eight’, and ‘Want’. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on Thinking About Music, available here .
2
This chapter evaluates the co-existence and inherent tensions between the Western Art Music and popular music worlds in Wainwright’s music and life, using musicological perspectives from both disciplines. I consider Wainwright’s experiences of and attitudes towards music education, and the songwriting technique that he has developed. Songs analysed include ‘Imaginary Love’ and ‘Pretty Things’, and the second half of the chapter is an exploration of his western art music projects: Yellow Lounge, Sonnette, and his 2009 opera Prima Donna. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on Thinking About Music, available here .
3
Opera, Gender and Sexuality [+–] 55-71
Opera is a persistent and pervasive theme throughout Wainwright’s pop songs and western art music projects. Wainwright explicitly connects his discovery of opera with his emerging homosexuality in his teens. In Chapter 3, I draw on multiple methodologies to nuance this connection, considering perspectives from new musicology, literature and philosophy. Songs considered include ‘Damned Ladies’, ‘Barcelona’, ‘Going To A Town’, ‘Greek Song’ and ‘Vibrate’. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on Thinking About Music, available here .
4
Place and Space [+–] 72-87
Evocations of place and space play an important role in Rufus Wainwright’s music. I draw on recent scholarship on music and geography (e.g. Cohen, Krims) to theorise the significance of geographical references in Wainwright’s music, considering music scenes, regional styles associated with particular places (with an extended analysis of ‘The Art Teacher’), and lyrical reference to specific locations. This chapter ends with a detailed proxemic reading (Moore and Dockwray) of ‘Candles’. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on Thinking About Music, available here .
5
The Voice [+–] 88-101
In Chapter 5, I consider extramusical readings of the tonal shade and mix placement of Wainwright’s voice. By adapting another of Moore and Dockwray’s methods (the soundbox), I analyse the placement of the voice in the mix, and depict it visually. I combine these soundbox analyses with psychoanalytical readings of the ego, suggesting how Wainwright’s voice, autobiography, and sense of self work together. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on Thinking About Music, available here .
End Matter
Conclusion [+–] 102-106
Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright (b. 1973) is famous around the world for his engaging live performances and multi-faceted musical style. Katherine Williams uses several aspects of his musical style persona, and biography as springboards from which to discuss and interrogate musicological and analytical frameworks. A primary theme is the interplay between popular music and Western Art Music: one of Williams’ primary aims in Rufus Wainwright is to show that different techniques of analysing music from a popular musicology standpoint are a valuable contribution to the wider musicological discipline, and conversely that the application of theories from traditional musicology can shed light on popular song. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on Thinking About Music, available here .
Notes [+–] 107-116
Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright is famous around the world for his multi-faceted musical style, shown through both his recorded output and his engaging live performances. In this book, Katherine Williams combines aspects of his life story with scholarly readings drawn from several methodologies. Popular music studies, opera, queer studies, music and geography, the sound-box: all combine to give a rich biographical and interpretative overview of Wainwright’s life and music. Williams brings together close musical analysis and varied disciplinary perspectives with a tone that is both in-depth and scholarly, and accessible. The book is a must-read for fans, students and scholars alike. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on the Thinking About Music website.
Bibliography [+–] 117-124
Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright is famous around the world for his multi-faceted musical style, shown through both his recorded output and his engaging live performances. In this book, Katherine Williams combines aspects of his life story with scholarly readings drawn from several methodologies. Popular music studies, opera, queer studies, music and geography, the sound-box: all combine to give a rich biographical and interpretative overview of Wainwright’s life and music. Williams brings together close musical analysis and varied disciplinary perspectives with a tone that is both in-depth and scholarly, and accessible. The book is a must-read for fans, students and scholars alike. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on the Thinking About Music website.
Index [+–] 125-129
Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright is famous around the world for his multi-faceted musical style, shown through both his recorded output and his engaging live performances. In this book, Katherine Williams combines aspects of his life story with scholarly readings drawn from several methodologies. Popular music studies, opera, queer studies, music and geography, the sound-box: all combine to give a rich biographical and interpretative overview of Wainwright’s life and music. Williams brings together close musical analysis and varied disciplinary perspectives with a tone that is both in-depth and scholarly, and accessible. The book is a must-read for fans, students and scholars alike. More details about Rufus Wainwright can be found at Williams’ recent blogpost on the Thinking About Music website.
ISBN-13 (Hardback)
9781845532932
Price (Hardback)
£30.00 / $40.00
ISBN-13 (Paperback)
9781781795194
Price (Paperback)
£24.95 / $29.95
ISBN (eBook)
9781781793954
Price (eBook)
Individual
£24.95 / $29.95
Institutional
£30.00 / $40.00
£24.95 / $29.95
Institutional
£30.00 / $40.00
Publication
15/01/2016
Pages
142
Size
234 x 156mm
Readership
students, scholars and general readers
Illustration
13 musical examples
