The difference between composing and arranging: different responsibilities and different focuses

1. Different responsibilities:

Composer: Responsible for composing melody for music, including one The melody played by the instruments and the melody sung by the human voice in the song.

Arranger: Responsible for composing lyrics for the singer. Most of the lyrics are immediately followed by composing. The lyrics created by the lyricist need to match the rhythm and artistic conception of the song, and control the number of words in the lyrics.

Note: Lyric writing is also lyrics writing.

2. Different emphasis:

Composition: Composition is the most necessary link to complete a song. Without the melody created by composition, there will be no complete song.

Arrangement: In light music style music, the lyrics can be omitted. For example, for the vocal part of the song, lyrics are necessary.

Relevant Definitions

"Arrangement", understood according to the use of vocabulary and working methods in my country's professional music field (as a common phenomenon), refers to the combination of music production (Music The orchestration method of production.

It is not just the arrangement of music from the perspective of musical instruments and timbre matching, nor does it only refer to the production of sound effects using computers, software and hardware. This makes the word "arranger" more like a profession and a job title, rather than a certain musical concept and composition technique.

The composer responsible for the arrangement can be said to be the core figure in the field of commercial songs. Because they may be the only people in the entire business who know how to compose music. Industrialized business operations have also made melody creation (composition, song writing: song writing) become another person.

There is also a more detailed division of labor. Each part and musical element of a song may be assigned to different people for composition. For example, one person is responsible for composing melody and harmony, another person is responsible for composing string band parts, one person is responsible for composing electroacoustic band parts, another person is responsible for composing percussion parts, etc.

Reference for the above information: Baidu Encyclopedia-Arranger