Concert music composers have, over time, had some assistance in orchestration and copying. Bach was known to have his students help with copying parts, but the best example is the "studio" approach that many 19th-century Italian opera composers took. Rossini, for example, composed only the overture and principal arias for his operas. The arias for the lesser roles were often given over to associates to compose. Rossini understood his audience. They came to see and hear the star singers. When a supporting character had an aria, the audience members would close the curtain to their box and enjoy a sorbet or a glass of wine and conversation. These lesser arias came to be called "sorbet arias". Wagner was appalled at this practice (and most Italian music in general) and advocated for the composer to be involved in every aspect of the production. That's another story though.
Mike ***************** Michael O'Connor [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Raymond Horton Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 10:04 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Finale] MIDI transcriptionism I had always read that Mozart wrote the bass, first violin, and _second_ violin parts out on the first pass. Is this incorrect? I only know of film composers getting assistance with orchestration. In interviews, they usually claim that they specify all the necessary details in the sketch scores, but, as we all know, important decisions need to be made by the guy in the trenches. RBH David W. Fenton wrote: >On 29 Dec 2004 at 16:44, Dean M. Estabrook wrote: > > > >>Very interesting ... I was unaware of the complex relationship between >>composer/arr./orchestrator. Now I'm thinking, did any of the "Great" >>composers farm out their work to orchestrators, e.g., Beethoven, >>Mozart, etc..? >> >> > >I'm unaware of any completed works of Mozart in which he did not do >the orchestration. > >His method of writing was quite systematic, and based in Italian >practice. He wrote first the bass line and the first violin, which, >in the Italian style, was the top line of his orchestral score. He >then filled in the orchestration in a second pass. > >Of course, sometimes he'd fill in some of the orchestration on the >first pass, but this was basically the way it was done. > >It was so clear that the publisher Andr� printed a score of the >overture to Don Giovanni that was in two colors of ink, black and >red, that showed the two layers, with black being the first layer, >red being the 2nd pass for orchestration. > >(it's actually a bit more complicated than that in the original MS, >in that there seem to have been multiple pens used in the >orchestration pass, to a lesser degree than in the original skeleton >score, but it's still pretty clear that the was an initial full pass, >then additional passes to fill in) > >The only case I can think of where Mozart had help (other than the >complicated situation with the Requiem, which was obviously not his >usual practice, since he generally didn't compose while dead) was in >secco recitatives, not all of which he wrote. I believe that most of >the secco recits in La Clemenza di Tito are not by Mozart, though >they were, of course, considered by him to be satisfactory enough to >have been used in performance. > > > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
