Herbert Spencer


Herbert Spencer (1905-1992) (right)	Herbert Spencer orchestrated much of John Williams's score for Jaws (1975), for the original Star Wars trilogy (1977-83), for Superman (1978), ET (1982) and Dracula (1979) directed by John Badham. He also orchestrated Cleopatra (1963) for Alex North. It was said he was so gifted at his craft that he was as good as Richard Strauss. As a professional, John Williams knows exactly what he wants, and Spencer could work with him to get there. The detail, power and colour of the Star Wars music is down in large part to the contribution of Mr Spencer. I learned a great deal from listening to the way he combines and handles his orchestral colours.
Not many people have come across Herbert Spencer, but they will have heard his art. He was a Hollywood orchestrator. An orchestrator is a person who takes a composer's sketches and turns them into a form which live musicians can play. Composers worth their salt can and do orchestrate their own music, because orchestration is as much a part of composing as choosing the notes. An orchestrator can be useful to a professional composer when there is a lot of large-scale film music to write in a very short time.