The song that got me wondering about this was The Long And Winding Road. Apparently Phil Spector had the orchestral parts added after the fact and it wasn’t part of the original composition.
But besides that particular turning point which was done without Paul’s consent, there were a lot of other horns and whatnot, such as the trumpet solo (or is it cornet? fluglehorn?) on Penny Lane, the rising symphonic swirl in A Day In The Life, the strings in Eleanor Rigby and Yesterday, etc., etc.
Paul is famously musically illiterate, though that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have composed those parts and had someone transcribe them. But do write these kids of parts you have to have some knowledge of orhestration/arranging.
George Martin wrote most of those bits, I believe. In most if not all cases, he was working from direction that the Beatles gave him as to the melody or the instrument they wanted. The Penny Lane horn is a good example - Paul had heard the instrument on a TV show and specifically requested that for the solo.
The Let it Be album is different in that George Martin wasn’t involved in the final mix, so far as I know.
That’ll be SirGeorge Martin. Early on John and Paul couldn’t/didn’t play keyboards so he also played those parts on their first albums. Funnily enough (as it says in wiki) he made his name recording comedy records with people like Spike Milligan.
Martin’s comedy background was a big plus- he signed the Beatles at LEAST as much because they were funny as because they were good musicians and songwriters.
Martins background was in classical music, and he recorded it while at Parlophone, but he gravitated to comedy because they were cheap to record (evidently, he just recorded the live show).* Parlophone was the bargain basement record company – something of a joke in the industry – but Martin kept it alive while looking for an act to break into the rock music market.
Martin definitely appreciated the Beatles’ sense of humor. One reason he signed them was the incident when, after the audition, he told them all that he thought was wrong about the act. Then he asked if they had anything to say, and George said, “I don’t like your tie.” Martin’s assistants were scandalized – Martin was a very respected name in the field and rarely got treated like that – but Martin took it for what it was – a joke. He thought that sense of humor would work well for the group.
Martin wrote a series of orchestral suites as incidental music for the movie Yellow Submarine which were included on the album to fill it out.
*Flanders and Swann’s “At the Drop of a Hat” is a terrible recording – the audience laughter (especially one guy) overwhelms the singing. But Martin probably didn’t have the budget to record it over, and the technology to fix it was years away.
Other than the “Let It Be” tracks, I think the only Beatles track with orchestration arranged by someone other than George Martin was “She’s Leaving Home”. Martin wasn’t available, so McCartney asked Mike Leander to do the score instead. (By the way, that’s one of the few Beatles tracks on which none of the instruments were played by a Beatle.)
One other factoid… the instrumental swells on “A Day in the Life” weren’t arranged. The musicians were simply told to go from the lowest note on their instrument to the highest within a certain number of measures.
Paul did compose (but not actually notate) the solos for Penny Lane and For No One. The solo he came up with for the latter song includes a note that is technically higher than the horn can play, but George Martin mentioned that a good player would be able to manage it and so it stayed in. I think it’s interesting in that, had the musically literate Martin composed the solo, he probably would have automatically shied away from using anything outside the instrument’s range.
Huh. I can’t see how a horn would have a theoretical top note. Is there a limit to how fast one’s lips can buzz? I wouldn’t think so from hearing jazz trumpetists always comparing themselves by the highest note they can acheive…
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that’s true. I believe I had read once that that was what Martin TOLD the orchestra to do, but they were so well trained they just naturally fell into sync with each other. Martin ended up having to score the swells so it would sound as discordant as it did.
He’s not, it actually goes up to a G-sharp. But, it should be said that the four highest notes in the solo (F#-G#-F#-D#) are staccato eighth notes, meaning they’re quick and they’re not held for very long. It would be very difficult (although not impossible, I suppose) to sustain notes that high for very long.
I don’t think so. It doesn’t sound like him and, on the headset, it seems to come from a different direction. The videos (and the time I saw them on TV) don’t show him laughing.
I am not an orchestral musician, but I am an amateur musician with a modicum of training, and I have heard orchestras warming up. This is not an orchestra warming up.
There is a limit as to how fast lips can “buzz” with regard to a specific instrument. Jazz trumpet players who specialize in high-note playing (“screech” players, notably Maynard Ferguson) use special mouthpieces designed for that style that allows faster buzzing. It does take more skill but the mouthpiece makes it feasible.