Williams/Rufus Wainwright, 4. Place and Space

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.