On Dec 30, 2004, at 8:19 PM, Bruce Petherick wrote:
And to add to the John Williams thing: Having worked in/for Hollywood composers for a while, I can tell you that Williams main way of composing is to write a melody line and then use letters to tell the arrangers/copyists what and how to fill in. I thought that this was rather well known, but it may just be the circle of people I used to work with :-) You can verify this by listening! Almost all of his scores do sound the same. A very important point to make is that the orchestrations are his own, in that he did come up with the original sounds in the first place
Not Holst, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, et al? A master's musicology student I went to school with put together a series of needle drops from famous composers' works that very closely mimicked the Star Wars main title. He played us the tape of Star Wars, then his tape of collected excerpts, and we all laughed at how close it was. I've composed style exercises, too, and I know that it is still composing, even if it is somewhat derivative. EVERYTHING is derivative in some way, and I never held that against anyone.
Yet, and I'm sorry to say it this way, but commissioning work in a certain style does NOT make you the originator; the person who DOES the work is the originator. As much respect as I have for JW, this info diminishes him in my eyes. It pretty much reduces him to the role of a music editor who can write a melody.
This reminds me of a certain jazz singer I worked for who asked me to write her an arrangement of a certain tune "in the style of Kenny Wheeler, you know – with all those cool colours and voicings." She gave me the key and nothing else; I looked up the tune and did everything else, and did not a bad job either, I think, as I am quite a fan of Kenny's and have checked out a lot of his scores and recordings. Then she demanded to be credited as arranger on the parts for the musicians! I think she thought this would increase her reputation in the eyes of her musicians, plus she would be able to write "Arrangements by Jane Blow" on her album and have the sheet music back her up. I refused point blank. I DID write her name under the title on each part, to show that these arrangements were part of her "book", but that wasn't what she wanted; she wanted to co-opt the work I had done and call it hers – for me to be her "ghost writer." I see no difference between that and JW, if indeed this is his usual work method.
I wonder then if the photocopied sketches I saw, purportedly in his hand, were actually the work of one of his assistants?
Or perhaps he sketches himself for the important cues?
Christopher
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