Among the highlights of the AICP Show on June 14 was the debut of its musical arrangement category. This became the third audio category in the competition, the others being original music and sound design.
This week’s lead story runs down the honorees of the 13th annual AICP Show, including the work recognized in the musical arrangement category. But beyond the honored spots and artisans behind them in this new category, the overall sound industry came away with a victory.
The musical arrangement category was proposed to the AICP Show board of governors last year by members of the Association of Music Producers (AMP), which is a sister affiliate of the AICP. The category recognizes what’s defined as "uniquely" creative arrangements or adaptations of "a pre-existing musical work with or without lyrics."
The rationale behind AMP’s lobbying for the recognition of musical arrangements was articulated by organization leaders in SHOOT’s Music & Sound Design/Winter edition Special Report (1/23, p. 17). AMP president Jeff Rosner, owner/executive producer of Sacred Noise, New York, explained that in recent years, as he and others in the music business mulled over what they thought was their best work, often it was an arrangement of existing music—work that didn’t fit what had been the then lone AICP Show audio categories of original music or sound design.
"You look at some of the best stuff you’ve done, and you think, ‘I have no place to put this,’ " said Rosner. "AICP is such an incredible show. It carries such weight in the industry that not to be a part of it, for the work you are proudest of, seemed to be a concern to us."
A significant portion of the work done by music houses specializing in commercials is adapting and arranging licensed music. "Music companies are reinterpreting existing music in a way that reinvigorates whatever the piece is," related Rosner. "There were so many pieces of music that could not be submitted because they were arrangements of other original tunes."
"Over the past ten years, the entire structure of music for advertising has been shifting so that any musical source in the world is fair game," noted AMP secretary Jan Horowitz, VP of David Horowitz Music Associates (DHMA), New York. "We particularly like it when it calls for our expertise as musical producers to either bring fresh insight and musical dimension, or to cross a style. With AMP and AICP now being sister organizations for three years, it only makes sense to showcase a little broader picture of what the AMP member companies bring to the art and technique of commercial filmmaking."
"The addition of musical arrangement rounds out our other musical honors—original music and sound design—and fills in what the music industry saw as a gap in our music honors," related AICP Show chairperson Joanne Ferraro, managing director of bicoastal production house Coppos.
The honored spot musical arrangements will also gain recognition that extends well beyond this week’s AICP Show gala in New York. Like all AICP Show-honored commercials, the work singled out in the musical arrangement category will become part of the permanent archives of the Department of Film and Media at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Furthermore, the AICP Show now goes on tour, providing exposure for honorees throughout the U.S. and internationally.
