Pierpaolo Lucca he is a refined musician but, above all, an exquisite person with whom it is amiable to converse.
– COMPOSER, ORCHESTRATOR, ARRANGER. DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES This is a great question, Roberto. Yes, this is what I do. How to explain them? It’s not very simple, let’s say that often, especially for non-experts, there is a bit of confusion or, at least, there isn’t much clarity on the differences.
The Composer, in fact, is the one who composes (the word itself says so), or invents what we can call a Melody or a Theme, but not only that. In fact, it often happens that the Composer is also the Orchestrator of his own compositions (when we are obviously talking about an Orchestra, in other cases the Arranger), that is, he arranges for the Orchestra the Theme or Melody created by him/her. On this occasion the Composer is to all intents and purposes all three things.
The Orchestrator, differently, is the one who is entrusted with a simple invented Theme (or a melody, or a song) which he will then have to arrange for the Orchestra, which can be done in complete freedom or following indications given by the composer or by a possible production. Now, here we should be able to explain exactly what arranging for orchestra means, but I don’t think it can be done at this moment. Therefore, we try to make it clear that a single melody that can be played by a single instrument (the whistled tune, so to speak) must be enriched, elaborated, accompanied and developed in its expository beauty by as many instruments as there are those of the orchestra that it is used. Obviously, in doing this there are rules, formulas, schemes, studies and tricks that come from the great cultural background of Classical Music (for example, which instruments play best together, which ones and when they have to do this or that, which ones have and make a certain sought-after expressive effect, etc.). It is, in practice, a great and delicate process of elaboration and development of an initial starting idea which often leads to a composition on the original composition. Many do not know that even famous Hollywood composers often have orchestrators to whom they entrust this work, and this is due to a series of practical factors (often the little time available to deliver the works given the amount of music to be written, other sometimes instead because they rely on specialists in a style or musical genre that is not their own, or something else). In practice, even the Orchestrator is in a certain sense a second composer.
By Arranger, however, we generally mean someone who embellishes (especially in modern music) the melody with an accompaniment of other instruments, without however interfering in the initial melody or theme in development mode and keeping the initial idea more or less unchanged. In other words, the Arrangement functions more as an accompaniment and embellishment but in a much more limited way than an Orchestra.
– IN MY FREE TIME I DEDICATE myself to…
In reality, since this is one of those jobs where you don’t clock in (as they usually say) in the end you always remain active in one way or another, even working on new ideas which, even if not commissioned at the moment , they can still be used in the future. This is something that happens very often, music has no expiration date and ideas, when they arrive, have to be written down or sketched out because you never know. It’s part of the practice. Many composers have used and adapted even famous ideas composed years before, and this has also happened in Pop Music and in various other musical genres.
However, sometimes it is also necessary to distract the mind and relax and I usually do it as more or less everyone does, listening to music (of a different type) or other, or even dedicating myself to small projects of another kind that are not mine. main activity. Every now and then I also sit at the piano and sing something, other times I watch a film, which always fits…
– WHAT’S AROUND THE CORNER? (A BOOK, ENGRAVINGS, TOUR?)
Making a joke, Roberto, no one can know what’s around the corner, perhaps not even Destiny. I hope there are many beautiful things and for what I’m allowed I’m committed to making this happen…
As far as work is concerned, there are several projects that should be completed soon but the implementation times are not yet well defined. In the meantime, we continue to sow, not only on a cinematic level. There are probable collaborations of different types that I hope will come to fruition soon.
A book, you were saying? Yes, it’s one of the things I occasionally dedicate myself to in my free time. A novel that I have been carrying on for almost twenty years, picked up several times for revision and much more often left there due to the impossibility of dedicating myself to it. Who knows, maybe before too long I’ll be able to finish it and propose it to some publisher…
by Roberto Dall’Acqua
