ABSTRACT
The definition is a soft one, but, it means that the instruments being used each transparently express their individualistic character. Transparency thus becomes a synonym for exposure. “Easy listening” or “middle-of-the-road” songwriting was still a vital part of pop music and Bacharach was among the last of its musical innovators. Stephen Sondheim, having now been impressed twice by Tunick, asked him to orchestrate Company, which was Sondheim’s pivot point show—and the perfect alchemy of composer and orchestrator became immediately legendary. The orchestra pit as a studio environment. It didn’t quite explode onto the scene the way Tunick’s impact as an orchestrator did. Especially in the nascent late 1960s, early 1970s stages, before theatrical sound engineering became a theatrical specialty unto itself, the studio-type sound-balance of a show could be a pain to maintain over the haul of a long run.
