First let’s recall that composition and musical recording are not the same thing: a composition is the general concept of a musical piece, often represented in some form of writing (but not always!).

In pop music, musical recordings (single instances of a recording of a composition) are what become famous. Compositions aren’t so much the focus of attention.

Do you know how to tell the difference in pop music?

Let’s look at a famous example.

Well, it depends on what you mean by "by".

Of course, The Beatles are very famous for "Yesterday", but we need to be clear about what that means:

1. The Beatles are very famous for their musical recording called "Yesterday".
2. The Beatles are not famous for the composition "Yesterday".

Why?

Simple: The Beatles didn’t compose "Yesterday".

Have a look at the written sheet music. At the top right of this composition, you see the following text:

Words and music by
JOHN LENNON
PAUL McCARTNEY

So first of all, we know that while The Beatles are famous for the original musical recording of "Yesterday", the composition itself is by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

But we can go further than this on Freebase.

Let’s look at the two kinds of people responsible for creating a composition.

A lyricist is someone who creates words that are put to music.

Looking at our example above, who is the lyricist for "Yesterday"?

Actually, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney are: they are both credited for the words for "Yesterday". They are the lyricists for this composition.

Again: A lyricist is someone who creates words that are put to music.

That means that it doesn’t matter whether they intended their words to be put to music or not. It doesn’t matter when or why the words were written. The writer becomes a lyricist when his or her words are put to music.

Take, for example, the poet Robert Frost’s poem "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening". Frost wrote this famous poem in 1922 (you can read the original poem on Poetry Foundation.

Almost 40 years later, in 1959, composer Randall Thompson wrote music for this poem, which you can listen to on YouTube (♫).

Since Robert Frost wrote the words that are set to this music, Frost is the lyricist. It doesn’t matter that he wrote the words almost 40 years before as a poem.

Not only can writers become lyricists 40 years after they write something, they can even become lyricists long after they die!

A composer is a person or group who has created the music for a musical composition. So who can be a composer?

When you think of the word composer, you might immediately think of someone like Beethoven.

And you are correct!

But it’s not just classical music that needs a composer. All music does. Someone (or some group of people) must create the music for a composition. That person is the composer: all genres of music have composers.

Many people that you might not normally think of in this way actually do create music and are therefore composers:

• Beck is a composer
• Madonna is a composer

But note well that Beck and Madonna (or most musical artists, for that matter) have not composed every song they’ve ever recorded!

Let’s again go back to "Yesterday" (really, go back up and have look at the composition). Who wrote the music for that composition?

Indeed, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney are credited as composers (you know because the composition says "music by").

So if you’re keeping score, "Yesterday" has 2 lyricists (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) and 2 composers (John Lennon and Paul McCartney).

How about the composer for the musical composition "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening?". (Go back up and look for yourself!)

Randall Thompson is the composer because he wrote the music, and Robert Frost is the lyricist because he wrote the words.

Let’s do one more: this time you try to answer it first based on information you find on the web.

Who is the composer for "Nothing Compares 2 U" (♫)?

Hint: While Sinéad O'Connor is singing "Nothing Compares 2 U" in the video above, she is not the composer

Did you find the composer?

If, based on your sources, you thought the answer was Prince, you are correct! Prince is the composer for this composition (if you are completely on board by now, you will have also noticed that Prince is the lyricist too).

When we are talking about creating (composing) a song or a piece of music, we often use phrases like “I’m writing a new song,” or “Lady Gaga wrote that song with her producer”.

We must be careful not to be tricked by the way we express this idea in daily language: “write” in this case does not mean using a pen on a sheet of paper, but "create" or "compose".

A composition is a concept. A composition is not something that you can touch.

Sheet music or any other form of pen-to-paper/fingers-to-keyboard kind of writing is considered a storage format, not a composition.

For now, just keep this in mind: a composition is a concept.

Sometimes the composer and lyricist will be two different people:

1 composer, 1 lyricist

(Note that "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" is this kind of case: 1 lyricist and 1 composer.)

##Case B Sometimes there may be multiple people credited as either composer or lyricist:

3 composers, 2 lyricists

##Case C Sometimes the composer and lyricist are the same person, or people:

2 composer-lyricists or 1 composer-lyricist

(Note that "Yesterday" is this kind of case: 2 people credited as both lyricist and composer. “Nothing Compares 2 U” is also this kind of case: 1 person credited as both lyricist and composer.)

Many compositions will have credits for both composer and lyricist. But not all!

In a general sense, an instrumental is a composition without human voice. Instrumentals are comprised of only instruments playing music.

Since an instrumental doesn’t have words, there is no lyricist, but there is a composer, the person who wrote the music.

"So What" is an instrumental you can listen to on YouTube (♫).

As we learned above, an instrumental uses only instruments to make music. There is no human voice used in instrumental compositions. So in this case, we can only have a composer.

Miles Davis is the composer of "So What".

An a capella is a composition that uses only human voice. Most of the time that means there is a lyricist.

But there will always be a composer no matter what. Why?

Because even if a composition only uses human voice, someone still has to create the music that those voices sing. The person who creates that music is the composer.

"There Are Some Men" is an a capella you can listen to on YouTube (♫).

Philip Glass is the composer of this a capella. Even though there are no instruments in an a capella, the voices are still singing music. The person who creates that music is the composer.

The lyricist is Leonard Cohen. As we know, the lyricist creates the words that are set to music.

You can always reference the schema itself for further examples and more information:

• lyricist

• composer

Use Google search to find the answers to the following questions. If you'd like an extra challenge, try to find musical recordings of the same composition by other artists.

1. Find the composer and lyricist for the composition for "All Along The Watchtower" (♫), recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

2. Find the composer and lyricist for the composition for "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (♫), recorded by Elton John.

3. Find the composer and lyricist for the composition for "What A Wonderful World" (♫), recorded by Louis Armstrong.

4. Find the composer for the composition "Straight, No Chaser" (♫), recorded by Miles Davis.

5. Find the composer and lyricist for the composition for "Something" (♫), recorded by The Beatles.

6. Find the composer and lyricist for the composition for "Behind the Mask" (♫), recorded by Yellow Magic Orchestra.

7. Find the composer and lyricist for the composition for "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" (♫), recorded by Sly and the Family Stone.

8. Find the composer and lyricist for the composition for "Someone to Watch Over Me" (♫), recorded by Ella Fitzgerald.

**Composer**: Bob Dylan  
**Lyricist**: Bob Dylan

2. Composer: Elton John
   Lyricist: Bernie Taupin

**Composers**: Bob Thiele and George David Weiss  
**Lyricists**: Bob Thiele and George David Weiss

**Composer**: Thelonious Monk

**Composer**: George Harrison  
**Lyricist**: George Harrison

**Composer**: Ryuichi Sakamoto  
**Lyricist**: Chris Mosdell

**Composer**: Jay Livingston  
**Lyricist**: Ray Evans

**Composer**: George Gershwin  
**Lyricist**: Ira Gershwin