What exactly is the difference between arranging a piece of music and composing it?
I was always under the impression that the composer wrote the piece, and the "arranger" was the one who made it "fuller" by arranging additional instruments for the piece, adding chords behind the basic melody, etc, but I wanted to know for sure and get a definitive answer.
I was wondering this after watching the credits and hearing the theme from the film Unforgiven Listen here
In the credits it says the score was written by Clint Eastwood and arranged by Lennie Niehaus. I imagine Clint Eastwood was plucking a guitar and came up with the simple melody, and then Lennie Niehaus arranged (composed?) the final composition with accompanying strings, percussion and backing chords.
Three questions I'm hoping to have answered in one reply:
1. Is Lennie Niehaus considered both the arranger and composer?
2. Is this a common way for scores/classical compositions to be written? With someone who is very good at writing basic melodies writing the melody, and a professional musician (usually with a degree in music composition I assume) composing the piece for a full orchestra?
3. If yes to the last question, can one be considered a great musician if he or she simply writes the melody and has other more learned musicians "fine tune" and orchestrate the piece?
For example (in regards to number three), Franz Liszt was an incredible virtuoso pianist and could arrange pieces brilliantly, but as for his completely original compositions, I do not know of any being considered that "great" (The Hungarian Rhapsodies were almost entirely based off gypsy folk tunes). He just (re)arranged the original melody.
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A composer may need an arranger. An arranger always needs a composer!
'Composing' may consist of whistling a tune. The arranger takes it from there (and may feel he deserves more recognition than just 'arranger'). I imagine this was the situation with Clint Eastwood and Lennie Niehaus.
Or a modern-day 'arranger' may concoct a piece for wind band using themes from Beethoven's symphonies.
Note that if he had merely re-written a complete symphony for the instruments of a wind band he would have been 'orchestrating' rather than 'arranging'.
Even the film composers who are perfectly capable of doing the whole job themselves often cope with the workload by delivering a complete sketch, with indications of the required instrumentation, to a team of 'orchestrators'.
This is not always separable. As an extreme case, take "The Musical Offering" by Bach. Nobody would claim that Frederick the Great was the composer and Bach the arranger, even though the former pitched the theme pervading all of the composition.
Then take something like "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" in the version of Michael Praetorius: the melody was preexistent, but the four-voice choral setting is definitely very much more than an "arrangement" of melody/harmony.
The German description would be "Melodie: traditionell, Satz: Michael Praetorius". "Satz" is more than "arrangement": it is basically creating something musically unique out of a given material. It is also used for the (usually) more constrained task of converting a figured bass harmonic description into a full version, something that was expected to be done on the fly from contemporary Baroque musicians in their own time, just like one expects Jazz musicians to get along with a lead sheet in our times.
The mark of a "mere" arrangement tends to be that it does not add significant musical material. Something like Ravel's Bolero or Mussorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition started out as piano pieces but were later arranged for orchestra. Of course, the original did not have a percussion group (even though the piano is an instrument with percussive attack, so usually there are good pointers). And the variation in loudness and timbre and the ability to sustain long notes (and consequently the potential for slow speed) is so much greater that there are a lot of subtleties to explore and make sensible use of that just aren't there in the original.
An arrangement may add "filler" voices that don't contain harmonical information of its own ("orchestration" would not do that). And may add repetitions and stuff. Jazz "arrangements" may add bridges, other phrasing, other harmonies, particularly other bass lines: that again goes more in the direction of "version" than "arrangement".
So there is quite a bit of leeway of where one starts and one stops.
There doesn't necessarily have to be separate people for arranging, composing, writing, etc. Whoever does any of it becomes the doer. However, I'd define to you in my own words composing, arranging and writing.
Writing: Writing may mean writing the lyrics of a song. Maybe a poetic person is asked to write the lyrics of a song that would have deep philosophical/literal meaning. Suppose Beethoven wanted to compose a song but he's real bad at writing deep meaningful lyrics. So he approaches Wordsworth and asks him to write. In this situation, Wordsworth will be the writer.
Composing: Consider the situation above. Beethoven tries his hands on the piano and comes up with a great music. He just created a melody. And he's already got the lyrics from Wordsworth. So, a song is made. Beethoven is the composer.
Arranging: So Beethoven has given the song it's melody and Wordsworth gave the lyrics. But still, these two guys are not sure how to actually record the song or how the song will be, i.e., where to put instrumental solos, how to repeat the chorus, etc. So these two guys approach Ludovico Einaudi and ask him to arrange the song for them. He readily agrees to do so and maybe this is what his homework would look like:
1 - Beethoven's solo (intro)
2 - 1st verse
3 - chorus
4 - Piano + violin instrumental
5 - verse
6 - chorus
...
so, as a result of the joint effort put in by the arranger, composer and the writer, a song is finally made.
Well, an arranger doesn't necessarily have to be part of the team that creates the song. Suppose Beethoven alone composed and arranged the song,. So the two guys (Beethoven+Wordsworth) have made the song. But someone wanted to perform the song in 2016, in the (real) time of Einaudi. So Einaudi re-arranges the song for whoever is going to perform it in 2016. So an arranger could be seen to work at a number of places.
I hope that this comical explanation of mine gave you a clear idea of the roles of a writer, composer and arranger in music.
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