Martin, George Henry

Even before The Beatles, George Martin produced recordings by Shirley Bassey and Matt Monroe , skiffle and jazz groups, and recordings of comedians. After the Beatles manager Brian Epstein brought Parlophone to Martin, Cilla Black , Gerry & The Pacemakers , Billy J. Kramer And The Dakotas , Martin also produced their records. In 1965, Martin created his own studio AIR London . In the 1970s, was the producer of a number of America's hit albums, and also worked with Neil Sedaka , Mahavishnu Orchestra , Ringo Starr , Paul Winter , Jimmy Webb and Jeff Beck .

He continued to maintain relations with all former members of The Beatles , in 1977 he prepared the release of the live album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl , was the producer of the solo albums of Paul McCartney , the soundtrack for his film. Give my regards to Broad Street . . In the late 70s he built a studio on the Caribbean island of Montserrat , it recorded Paul McCartney , Dire Straits , Rolling Stones . In 1989, a hurricane destroyed the studio, and many musicians gave their recordings for Martin's charity album After The Hurricane ( Russian after the Hurricane ). George Martin was also the producer of the television documentary on the 25th anniversary of the Sgt album . Pepper`s Lonely Hearts Club Band , produced three double CDs The Beatles Anthology . His last work (with his son Giles) is the Love album, for which he received Grammy in 2008.

Each newly created song, the Beatles musicians (primarily Lennon and McCartney) presented to Martin, who he evaluated (as a producer) not only from the point of view of commercial attractiveness, but also carried out her general musical expertise. The difference between the "Lennon method" and the "McCartney method" Martin described with these words:

If they asked me which of them was easier to understand, I would say that John’s explanations were the least understood. He talked about mood, about color, about everything, but never specified specifically which instrument should execute a particular line. In all this I had to figure it out myself. And Paul just sat down at the piano next to me, and we worked together. John often said (as when working on Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! ): “This is an absolutely fair passage. I want to create an atmosphere of the circus, I want the smell of sawdust to be felt during this song. ” And provided me with this.

- The Beatles Anthology , digitized, see here .

Martin’s role in the collective work on the composition has increased even more since (approximately since 1966), when the group abandoned live concerts, focusing on working in a recording studio (when it became possible to overlay audio tracks, experiments with tape and other special recording features unrepresentable in live concert sound). Musical professionalism of Martin (who knew instrumentation and had mastery of academic orchestration ) contributed to the fact that the "raw" blanks of songs acquired a formally finished look and professional gloss.

Most of the arrangements recorded in the Beatles' audio recordings were written by Martin for various instrumental compositions, down to a small symphony orchestra (in the early recordings Martin also often figured as a pianist, and in the song “ In My Life ” he performed a virtuoso solo on a baroque harpsichord , in reality this the solo was played on the piano in slow motion twice as Martin could not play it in the tempo of the song, after which the recording was accelerated and the pitch of the part was raised by an octave).

It was on his initiative (which McCartney initially opposed) that the string quartet appeared in the recording “ Yesterday ”.

In the song “ Penny Lane ” Martin introduced the part of the piccolo trumpet , designing the melody (which McCartney sang) as a virtuoso solo stylized as Bach Brandenburg concerts ^[6] .

Martin orchestrated the song “ Eleanor Rigby ” for a string orchestra and performed as a conductor ^[7] .

For the song “ I Am the Walrus ”, he wrote an original arrangement with the ensemble of brass instruments, violins, cellos and a vocal ensemble.

In the song “ A Day in the Life ”, Martin realized the famous “apocalyptic” culmination of the composition (using aleatorics ), which it was decided to translate into the sound of a symphony orchestra ^[8] .

In his arrangements, Martin weaved experiments with the tape, including backwards and changing the playback speed (" Strawberry Fields Forever "). Creating the circus atmosphere Lennon required in Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! ", He came up with a film loop with fragments of organ loss (Martin and Lennon played the organs).

Martin also did orchestral processing of the song “ Good Night ”, wrote the orchestral score for the film “ Yellow Submarine ”, participated in many other compositions in which academic musical instruments were occupied (in addition to members of the group) ^[9] .

George Martin is also the author of a book of memoirs entitled "All you need is ears", a series of chapters of which are devoted to his work with the Beatles. Martin was not inclined to exaggerate his role as the “fifth Beatle." On the contrary, he modestly claims that during the years of his work with the group there was no rigid professional specialization:

... There was no clear line of demarcation. Then it was more a matter of good teamwork than the work of individuals - producer, arranger, songwriter. When I wrote the arrangements, I worked closely with John, Paul or someone else, and they arranged with me. For example, you can recall the piccolo-pipe solo in Penny Lane. It is true to say that it was I who arranged it, but it is also true that Paul composed the melody. If I had to compose myself, to be honest, I don’t think I could write such good music for the trumpeter who performed it, David Mason.

- All you need is ears, chap.13 ^[10]

• Martin G., Hornsby J. All you need is ears. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979; reprint 1994. 285 pp.

• Category: Albums Produced by George Martin

• The beatles. Anthology. Translated from English by W. V. Saptsina. M .: Rosman, 2002. ISBN 5-353-00285-7 .
• Emerick G., Massey H. Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. New York: Gotham Books, 2006.xi, 387 pp.