The emergent field of songwriting studies remains under researched, in particular the field of narratology and song. Modern instructional approaches to songwriting do not properly address the nature of narrative flux (Todorov 1961) in lyrics and music, and consequently are unable to properly blend traditional understandings of music theory with coherent storytelling (Negus 2007). In Ward and Luttrell’s (2021) paper on modern music theory, they discuss a new model called Multimodal Narrative Songwriting (MNS). This model positions a song as a multimodal semiotic system directed by the tensions of narrative flux in the musical and lyrical texts. In this way, it does not seek to diminish either lyrics or music, but instead argues for a critical listening model that encompasses both as equals.
Through two years of development, the 2020 work Higher exists as an exemplar of MNS responding to how the model can be used for the construction of popular song. In doing so, the work maps the narrative a love-story lyrics using a Narrative flux model (Ward 2019) then uses this map to deploy musical arrangement and production giving prosody to the song work. In this way, the work explores the non-traditional ideations of music theory and argues for a more versatile musical vocabulary where encompassing production, semiotics, narratology, aesthetics and multimodality. It does so by creating obvious flux in both narrative text and correlative music on a sectional basis to demonstrate the efficacy of the model.
Higher is part of a music publishing agreement with Origin Australia and after being produced for Warner Music Poland, the sound recording received its first Gold Record status (15,000 physical sales) in February of 2021. The work has received over two-million streams on various platforms and was included as a demonstration of the MNS model in an article (2021) for the Songwriting Studies Journal.