On Friday, February 7, 2014 8:37:07 PM UTC-5, Gerry wrote:
> On 2014-02-08 01:26:25 +0000, thomas said:
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> > I have a Sarah Vaughan album credited to Q, in which the reissue CD
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> > liner notes name the arrangers who actually wrote the charts.
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> Interesting. What's the album?
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> > I learned about the arranging business from Dick Grove. Typically
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> > ghosting was not a matter of incompetence, but rather because the name
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> > guy didn't have the time to do all the work that was coming his way. I
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> > also knew the film composer Gerry Fried, who told me about ghosting for
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> > Quincy on "Roots".
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> I'm not sure that the word "ghost writer" here works quite the way it
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> does in literature. In literature, it is generally indicates the guy
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> who actually wrote the book though through the process of interviews,
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> notes and discussion and planning with the purported author who likely
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> exerts a lot of the final over-all control of the project--just no
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> writing.
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> With film scoring, and even with classical/romantic composers of old,
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> they would write sketches of what they wanted and give indications
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> regarding how they wanted things voiced and an "orchestrator" (and/or
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> other descriptions such as "copyist") were used to complete the partial
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> material; fill it in. Then the composer asks for rewrites and
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> modifications and/or does them himself. In that situation it's not
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> really like he farms out the entire job to someone else.
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> [ Disclaimer: The above does not purport to be an opinion on Billy
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> Byers about whom I know nothing. ]
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> --
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> Those who wish to sing always find a song. -- Swedish proverb
Most of the Hollywood composers would work the way described above by G, but Bernard Herrmann refused to let anyone orchestrate his work, and looked down on all of the film composers of his time because they didn't orchestrate their own work.
I did some gigs with the pianist/composer/producer/arranger Herb Bernstein, and he told me that he ghost-wrote "Lady in Cement" for another film composer.