A singer/songwriter/guitarist writes a tune. Just the guitar and the lyrics.
When I hear the recording, I wonder how did they know to add a french horn for a few bars? It sounds so perfect there. Or a harpsichord? A flute?
And who is the person that makes these decisions? And how do they choose one instrument over another?
And thank you.
You are referring to the Arrangement of the song - what instrumentation is used, and when, in the song.
In modern pop music, the musician can also be the arranger, or an arranger can be brought in. With Zep, Jimmy Page wrote the songs, but when strings or horns were to be included, John Paul Jones did those arrangements. George Martin famously arranged the strings on Beatles tunes; by the same token Paul saw a piccolo trumpet used on the BBC (I think) and asked for it to be included on Penny Lane. Prince would often have himself credited “Composed, Produced, Arranged and Performed by Prince”
Producers can also add to musical content, to give the music a certain genre of sound by increasing bass, adding more types of percussion, calling up backup musicians and orchestras, etc. Each song has plenty of variations, experimenting with new sounds and techniques. Sometimes demos (original versions) sound nothing like the end product.
Reminds me of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells where each instrument is announced just before it’s entry at the end of side one. The first time I heard it was over headphones and I was, IIRC, a bit stoned. When Vivian Stanshall said, “Grand piano” I almost jumped out of my skin.
^ After about the 50th time through the stereo, my brother was sick of TB and would say ridiculous instruments in a fair Stanshall imitation: “Comb and tissue paper.”
Sometimes more than one arranger is involved. Some arranger/composers specialize in string sections or horn sections or rhythm or whatever.
The final product, a composite of many layers of sound, might not be known in advance before the first recording, but developed as things were added. Some rock groups are notorious for this; reportedly Brian Wilson spent hours, days, weeks and months diddling with sounds for one song until he got what he wanted.
I have participated in recording sessions where the opposite was the case. These tended to be either classical or country. Classical makes sense, as the performance is expected to echo 17th or 18th Century written compositions, fixed long ago, but I can’t explain why some country artists do it that way. Maybe just a personal preference.
And artists like Barbra Streisand aren’t concerned about the high cost of hiring a vast orchestra, and may not want to spend the extra studio time needed for repeated track adding; just do it all at once.
Even when an entire orchestra is recorded together as one take, vocals are often added later, replacing a scratch vocal done (in an isolation booth) during the main recording. I have seen Streisand do exactly that.
And even classical compositions can be patched up and mistakes fixed at a re-recording session.
I’m in a band and we do all originals. Our process - which I’m betting is pretty common - is whomever brings in a song plays it out for the group, defining parts of the song - verses, choruses, bridges, etc. and the chord progressions. Most of the time the song is fully realized, as in … “dudes, it’s verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/out.” From then on out it gets tinkered with.
Then it gets recorded – which we’ve sort of managed. I can’t really speak with any authority on how arrangements work normally. For us it was pretty chaotic. Our front-guy loves to produce and he gets going … “French horn, this song screams for a French horn, and a tympani and B3 and a fiddle and a balalaika and a dog howling and a jet engine…” and then the tech at the studio gets to work on it for us. But fur the most part we’re all equally invested in the song no matter who the main writer is and all suggestions are entertained – though some are shot down pretty quickly. I mean really. I can see a dog howling, but a fucking fiddle? God I hate fiddles.
TL;DR version: arrangement is all one big collaboration for the boys in I Suppose You Know Karate.
This thread reminds me of the scene in Amedeus where Mozart is on his deathbed describing an arrangement to Salieri that he has completely in his head.
I thought we were talking Club Silenzio when I saw the thread title. No hay banda!
Thank you all for your replies. And thank you WordMan for the link.
I was sad to learn that arrangers normally don’t get any royalties. Too bad. What would we hear without them?
Recently I saw and heard Wynton Marsalis’ Spaces. Given Wynton is a genius. He is listed as the composer. He would have to know which instruments in the jazz orchestra can sound like a chicken, elephant, bee, tiger, etc. Quite incredible.
Have a look and a listen.
Again, thank you to everyone.
Bruce Dickinson: I’ll be honest… fellas, it was sounding great. But… I could’ve used a little more cowbell.
CMC fnord!