Kudos for the B&C Drama Desk Award nominations.
Somewhat related, Jason Robert Brown, of whom I'm a fan, discussed the lack of recognition for orchestrators with this year's nominations. Though I agree with his overall points, he made some blunt assessments about his fellow composers. Possibly true to some extent based on hearsay - I think he should have used better words (e.g., no musical language to communicate to an orchestra, no vocabulary to build a cohesive musical universe), especially when he's basing them on “the best of his knowledge.” Nonetheless, congrats to both John McDaniel and Frank Wildhorn for a job well done with B&C and the album.
"I doubt that most non-musicians are aware of the extent to which the music directors and orchestrators shape the scores of shows. In the case of Bonnie and Clyde and Once, for example, the composers of those shows cannot (to the best of my knowledge) read or notate music. They do not have the language to communicate with an orchestra how to play their songs. They don't have any vocabulary about building a cohesive musical universe on stage. There is a vast reservoir of technical and theatrical information that the music staff brings to bear on the songs those composers write in order to make a 'score' out of them."
JRB blog
Updated On: 4/28/12 at 12:50 PM