Help! Citing song lyrics (not recordings)

amandap730
Hi! I am editing a dissertation that quotes song lyrics (specifically hymns and praise songs), not recordings. I used the audio recording type to enter info into Zotero, including composer and "words by", but the footnote doesn't seem to pick up the names of the composer/lyricist in Chicago style (17th) (full note). It gives me song title and date of publication only.

I tried adding Type: musical_score in the Extra box but that didn't do anything. All of the discussions about songs seem to use other formats. Is there something I can do to work around it?

Thanks!
  • DWL-SDCA
    edited January 21, 2024
    Are the hymn lyrics published in a hymnal or other book? Maybe use Book Section to enter the composer and lyricist you could also include the compilation editor. I don't know offhand the Chicago style guidance for labeling composer and lyricist. You may need to do some hand editing of your footnotes and bibliography to get the labels right.

    Someone else may have a better idea. I'm responding only because it has been a day and none of the true experts have responded. I have cited poetry and quotes from characters in novels by using book sections, but I used Vancouver style.
  • amandap730
    I thought about the book section but wasn't sure if there was another work around. Thanks for the reply!
  • adamsmith
    I don't see a proper way of doing this -- the item type is secondary, we just don't have a variable for lyricist in citation styles, which would seem to be essential here. You could likely hack something together by experimenting putting "Words by Martin Luther" into a different field, but I don't see how you get proper Chicago Manual for someone writing lyrics.
  • amandap730
    There is a "words by" option under sound recording, but if it isn't a recording, the other fields don't seem applicable, especially if it is from lyrics/sheet music published in a hymnal.

    As an editor, I LOVE how easy Zotero is to use, and I'd love to be able to use it in this case.
  • adamsmith
    Right, I understand that's there in Zotero, but it doesn't go anywhere for the citation styles that Zotero uses (you can look at this mapping, though it's a bit technical) https://aurimasv.github.io/z2csl/typeMap.xml#map-audioRecording
  • bwiernik
    If you want to cite the lyricist, your current best option would be to enter that person as a Performer and then put “(Lyricist)” after the first or last name, depending on your citation style
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