CD-Text fields include both Songwriter and Composer as separate entries. I did some queries in Google and found quite a bit of philosophical discussion on the differences in defining each term. I also realize that the CD-Text database indexes are a fairly recent creation driven by the music/entertainment industry which assumes that each of the stages in the production of a musical work are distributed/assigned to many, many more titled individuals than in Mozart’s time (apparently thanks to Sir Robert Russell Bennett). So, I realize that the current hollywood/music industry view is that everything needs a publisher, orchestrator, arranger, producer, etc. but going through piles of non-pop music, I am puzzled as to how I should interpret completing the CD-text info.
Should the Lyricist be used as the songwriter and the composer be just the writer of the music? I’m looking at standard religious music here, like Hark the Herald Angels Sing, or Now Thank We All Our God - songs that have known tunesmith and lyricist.
I just find ‘songwriter’ totally useless as a role. Either they wrote the music, or they are an arranger of someone elses music … which is a field not tracked by CD-Text.
Comments?