I was thinking as I watched The Company while each different version of My Funny Valentine played, that in “arranging” a song there must also be some writing going on. Some versions of a song can get quite unique, yet the writing credits never change. For instance, the string quartet version of My Funny Valentine used in the movie, did Rogers and Hart actually ever write a version for a quartet? The performance was less of a cover version and actually ended up being more like the individual arranger’s own variations on the themes set down by Rogers/Hart. But the arranger doesn’t take writing credits for writing the viola parts.
Now, I’m not suggesting that each new performer should take writing credits. But it makes me wonder if to write a song is indeed to simply write a melody and lyrics. Irving Berlin never really did any more than this did he? He couldn’t even play an instrument. I often wonder how much credit should have been given to Irving Berlin’s uncredited forgotten collaborators. As the collaborator sat at the piano interpreting what Berlin was trying to communicate, did the collaborator perhaps do a bit of “doctoring” of the song?
The arranger of a song is often mentioned, especially if the song was, say, written originally for voice but later used by a marching band. The actual sheet music gives credit to the arranger.
Arranging is considered less creative than actually writing the song. I tend to agree with this – it’s like traveling with a well-marked map instead of trailblazing the way.
The arranger sticks very close to whatever the composer has written, and often runs things by him.
As for any particular song, I guess it depends on how it was created. If the composer oversees the arranger’s work and sets up guidelines for what the sound should be like, then yeah, you can consider the arranger to be a sort of music engineer working for the architect. But if the arranger is just given a couple of melody lines and not only fills in it but adds beauty and depth not originally there, he would have to be considered an artiste. If this is primarily where the power of the song comes from, he is the artiste.
The first movement of Beethoven’s 5th has parts with recognizable melody lines (including the infamous da-da-da-dums); however, it is the arrangement that gives it most of its breathtaking power. I could come up with similar nifty melodies, but there’s no way in hell I could compose a piece like that. Songs are more melody dependent, but a lot of pop tunes have similar melodies and yet vary a lot in how successful they are as art/products; I believe the main reason (besides general band popularity and performance ability) is in the quality of the arrangements.
It’s usually a moot point, since the melody and original arrangement are rarely split in creation, but just sayin…
In college a cappella (and in groups like Rockapella, Da Vinci’s Notebook, etc.), the difference between a good cover and a bad one is all in the arrangement. A good soloist is one person, singing the words and melody. The rest of your group needs to cover each of the other instrumental parts in the song, and while this isn’t the same kind of challenge as coming up with a melody, it is still technically demanding.
I would compare it to the difference between Dali, who came up with the idea of melting watches and painted it in his style, and the technical challenge of drawing a near-copy of “The Persistence of Memory” with melting… Stop signs, or similar. Take the theme, copy Dali’s style with enough fidelity to be recognizable, but add something all your own to it.
I’ll revert to the a cappella analogy: for the beginning guitar line of Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On”, our arranger transcribed the hook as “jin da-jit dan-dan digga-digga-dan, jit dan dinna-linna jit dan digga-dan” for one voice, and had a different voice part singing “jin da-jit dan digga dan-dan jigga, jit jan jigga-dan jin jin jin dan”. The combination of these two different syllable sets was a remarkably good approximation of the weird strum/pick pattern in the guitar line. On our CD liner notes, we always credited Original Artist, then Arranger, then Soloist, then Vocal Percussion.
A song writer is a bit like a screenwriter to an arranger’s director. Both can make or break a song/movie. The songwriter can write arrangement into the song though someone can always extract the melody for a fake book. Listen to how different jazz standards sound depending on who arranges/plays them. If you’re not familiar with jazz, think of how different the “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” cover from Taxicab Confessions (HBO) sounds as compared to Judy Garland.
Isn’t this called “orchestrating,” or figuring out who plays what when? The orchestrater is always given credit in a stage show, as the musical instruments can make or break the actual melody and lyrics.