Tango Orchestra Spectrotone

The Spectrotone Chart™ was created by Academy Award® nominee Arthur Lange, the former head of the MGM Music Department.

Arthur Lange was a songwriter, composer, orchestrator, and conductor. He composed music for over 120 films and orchestrated 105 more. He was nominated four times for an Oscar. In 1929, he became head of the music department at MGM. Throughout his career, he was music director at several studios and in 1947 organized the Santa Monica Civic Symphony which he conducted. He also helped create ASMAC, the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. He taught at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music which later became Cal Arts.

Known chiefly as an arranger of popular songs and as a composer of music for films, American musician Arthur Lange was also a pianist, a conductor, and a composer of concert works. He wrote the books: Arranging for the Modern Dance Orchestra, and A New and Practical Approach to Harmony.

Arthur Lange's Spectrotone Chart has a daily practical use for both live and electronic scoring, and mixing, and is nothing less than the Rosetta Stone of orchestration.

The tone-color choices make a lot of sense enabling not only precision orchestral combinations, live and electronic but also providing a gracious way to communicate with producers and directors in a language they’ll understand since each color has a single adjective to describe it:

White = Brilliant
Yellow = Bright
Green = Pleasant
Blue = Rich
Orange = Golden
Red = Glowing
Brown = Warm
Purple = Mellow
Grey = Dull
Black = Indefinite

The new and updated version of the Spectrotone can be obtained through Alexander Publishing here.

Here is my adaptation of the Spectrotone for TANGO ORCHESTRA which includes:
1) Bandoneon
2) Rhythm section: piano and bass.
3) String section: violin, viola, cello.
4) Woodwinds: flute, piccolo, oboes, and clarinets.


For tango books and orchestrations visit: www.tangoscores.com


Comments

Popular Posts