Biog of ED WILSON at his home site. Ed (formerly with the Daley-Wilson big band) - creates good arrangements for many styles and technical levels
GORDON KERRY is a composer who writes very well for woodwind - site includes an audio of Kerry's Clarinet Concerto, played by the Sydney Symph's Frank Celata.
ANDY FIRTH - clarinet/sax virtuoso who creates very professional arrangements for his big band.
Wiki entry for
Jerry Goldsmith, one of the great twentieth century composers for film and TV
Extensive biography of
Alfred Newman, who composed music for films only (250 of them!), but also worked as an arranger and conductor.
Bernard Hermann, composer of film music, including for "Psycho" and many other Hitchcock movies
Brief UK list of biogs of some contemporary British composers/arrangers.
Alex Heffes, composer/arranger who knows how to score for any music, from electronic to symphony orchestra. He has created powerful music for TV and film.
Dru Masters. One of many British composers/arrangers who create beautiful soundscapes for documentaries for TV.
The music of HEITOR VILLA-LOBOS - a very neglected composer - who wrote more than 2000 colourful scores, many featuring brass and woodwind
Wiki entry for
Russel Garcia, who created copious arrangements for Hollywood and for the jazz greats. Garcia spent his later life in New Zealand
Official family site for
Nelson Riddle - another giant of orchestral arranging
Noel Wedder's excellent site for info on
Stan Kenton, his music and musicians.
Wiki info on
Bill Russo, who produced many jazz compositions and arrangements, particularly for the Stan Kenton orchestra.
You would need to be totally deaf not to hear music throughout our environment
these days. So much so, it is sometimes difficult to avoid.
The downside of that is we tend to become desensitised to
the more subtle aspects of music by over-exposure to music
that is too loud or too superficial.
However, the upside of this exposure is increased
opportunity to hear the results of the work of great music
creators.
Whether listening to radio stations featuring music, going to
concerts or listening to/watching TV or movies, the work of many brilliant composers, arrangers, orchestrators and jazz
improvisers - the creative heart of music perfomance - it's
all there to be listened to, savoured, appreciated and wondered at.
The list of links on this page contains pointers to info on
just a small selection of those creative people who make life so much richer for the rest of us.
The IMSLP listings provide a wealth of resources, in either manuscript or recorded form, of composers over the centuries of Western music. I have made a point of including links to the baroque period because so much of this lends itself to transcription for modern brass instruments, and is also worth studying as an illustration of the beginnings of instrumental music and orchestration.
The IMSLP site is a real treasure trove of printed and recorded music (mainly of 'classical' composers) which is out of copyright.
A great example of those creative musicians who are/were performers, composers, arrangers and orchestrators all rolled into one was Tommy Tycho - a Hungarian-born musician who came to Australia in 1951, having been a pianist child prodigy. During his life in Australia, he worked with virtually all the 'big names' in Australian light music - writing beautiful accompaniments for large orchestras (which he conducted) to show the stars in their best light. He always won the respect of the musicians he worked with for the quality of his orchestrations and the respect he always showed to his colleagues. Tommy died in 2013 - a great loss for Australian music.
Tommy Tycho [photo courtesy Ken Laing AM, Media Music]
Kevin Hocking was a Melbourne-based pianist/conductor/arranger/composer who not only wrote brilliantly for instruments, but also created beautiful scores using voices, - either solo or in vocal groupings. He re-orchestrated some of the G&S repertoire enabling performances using a much smaller orchestra than the original scoring.
Kevin Hocking [photo courtesy David Spicer Productions]
In the days when radio and tv stations had their own in-house orchestras ( Yes, Virginia, there was such a time! ), there were many opportunities for composer/arrangers to perform their art. Graeme Lyall, Tommy Tycho, Julian Lee, Brian May and Kevin Hocking were prominent names of those days in Australia. Slowly, however, the musical scene has changed, and fewer and fewer resources are allocated to quality in-house-produced music. Most of the 'serious' music composition at the moment is for either the concert hall, or film and tv soundtracks. This has seen the rise of composers such as Nigel Westlake, who is highly regarded across many genres of music.