Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Okay, I guess it's taken me a long time to answer (you've all been waiting for me to weigh in, admit it!) because I'm not sure I understand. Some here have answered as if the question were "How important is the orchestrator?" but unless I've missed it, that is not the question.

To me, the orchestration is the composition. Okay, not entirely. Sometimes a good tune can live and delight in a variety of orchestrations. The other day, I heard a new (to me) arrangement of Gershwin's great song "Love Walked In," and it retained its essential Gershwin goodness in the fresh orchestration, but sounded quite different.

But for so many film compositions, it is so often not a melody that persuades but rather a specific sound. I suppose the theme from "Psycho" could be played on flutes, but the strings give it its terror. The grandeur of Herrmann's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" comes from its grumbling orchestration -- it would not be it arranged differently. Goldsmith's score for "Magic" would lose so much of its… er… magic without that harmonica. The muted trumpet and saxophone provide the sultry quality of North's "Streetcar Named Desire" as much if not more than the notes themselves.

How can you separate orchestration from composition? Doesn't the latter require the former?

My short answer, then: Very!

I agree, Paul! So much film scoring these days is very skillfully orchestrated, professionally polished, and absolutely uninteresting!

But as to that piano music point, that music is orchestrated, isn't it? It's just orchestrated for solo piano! I mean, the score for "The Conversation" is all piano, and that is the orchestration, and that orchestrational choice speaks volumes about that film's main character.

Perhaps I'm defining "orchestration" too broadly -- I suppose one could say it only applies to arranging music for an orchestra (and hence, the word). But I took Doug's original question to mean "How important is the choice of ensemble, or of instrumentation?" Apologies to Doug if I've overcomplicated this!