Did Stephen Oremus Write the 9 to 5 Score with Dolly Parton?- Page 2

[kdogg36]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 1:38pm

No worries! I just wanted to explore the space between orchestrating one's own work, on the one hand, and creating only the melodies, on the other.

[jv92]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 5:18pm

I highly doubt Andrew Lloyd Webber actually orchestrates his scores. I assume he gets credit in the same way Bernstein got credit for West Side Story and Candide.

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 5:23pm

But ALW has credit on ALL of his shows, not just one or two. Even the early ones, when he wouldn't have been able to get away with that.

[jv92]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 5:58pm

That's true. And quick research I should have done earlier shows he got sole credit on Jesus Christ Superstar. I'm probably mistaken.

[Brick]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 6:52pm

Sondheim does more than melody. You try playing some of his chords for SWEENEY TODD. The orchestrations by Tunick are brilliant, but those chords are his.

And Parton has written and registered more than 3,000 songs. It's been reported she writes one or more a day at times.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 7:20pm

Yes, ALW does co-orchestrate with David Cullen - but he definitely does have a very hands-on approach to it, and knows exactly how he wants it to sound.

Makes me wonder, when he writes a song, does he begin orchestrating it there and then (as some composers do - in their head) or does that come later for him?

There's loads of stuff to read and see about how Stephen Sondheim works and writes out there, but I'd love to see a documentary on Andrew Lloyd Webber and see how he actually writes. Especially when he was with Tim Rice.

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 7:54pm

"I'd love to see a documentary on Andrew Lloyd Webber and see how he actually writes."


Here ya go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoVccXgAy6U

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 8:02pm

Haha, very funny.

Seriously though...

[Urban]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 8:15pm

Maybe I am just misinterepting the phrase of 'reading and writing music' but I am a little shocked that so many composers listed here can't.

Okay, I was somewhat of a musical child, but that is stuff I was able to do at like... ten... (maybe I was just a freak, I will admit I did go to a primary school (a public school in a decidedly working class town no less) with a good music program and I did have piano lessons through and I played several woodwinds throughout my childhood) but I still can't understand how it is difficult at all to read and write music.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 8:22pm

The thing that most composers like that find, is that they can't get the sound that they want reproduced.

They'll write something, but they need somebody to help them score it, so that whoever plays it after them will create the same sound.

I have the same problem, my scores never sound how I want them to.

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 1/25/11 at 8:51pm

Okay, seriously though... There's really no excuse for a composer not to read and write music, unless it's a rocker like Paul McCartney or somebody who really has no need for it. But in the theatre they should at least have a basic understanding of how to read music.

Orchestration, on the other hand, is completely different because it takes years and years of studying to fully understand the capabilities of it. So it's not (always) necessarily that a composer *couldn't* orchestrate his or her own material, it's just that they haven't dedicated their entire lives to learning the craft (presumably because they've been learning how to write great songs) and they understand that they'll get better results if they pass it on to someone else.

So on the one hand, composers like that are to be commended for swallowing their pride and admitting they're not strong in a musical area, but on the other hand, it does (at least for me, and clearly others here) take away from our perspective of them.

P.S. Of course, sometimes composers aren't even given the chance to orchestrate their own work, and are told by producers that that'll be what's going to happen...