Musical question

[jean-baptiste]

I was gonna ask in a certain thread but to avoid any off-topic-ness I decided to just make a separate thread.

What is the difference between a composition and an arrangement?

[Piccolo]

In the most basic sense, the composer writes the original piece of music, and the arranger tweaks it.

[jean-baptiste]

So a composition is the music itself (instruments and all) including or excluding the melody of the the lyrics?

[emi♡]

No. The composition IS the melody. It is the original written music, notes on sheet music.


In pop music, the arrangement is everything else. The backing tracks. Percussion tracks, the beat, guitar tracks, synth tracks, piano, effects, etc.

With the main vocals usually making up the composition.

Sometimes, the composer simply comes up with the melody, and the arranger decides what instruments go where.

Some people refer to this as the mix of a track (even though the term "mixing" means something else), but, hence why we have remixes.


So, at the most basic, for example, Ayu's M has an original composition/melody, and an arrangement.

A remix of M has the original melody, but has a different arrangement.


Or maybe a better example, over remixes, is Koda's ~eternity and love songs~ album. Those are covers, with all of the original melodies and compositions, but Koda changed all of the arrangements, so they are almost like new songs.

[ExodusUK]

Like said in the post above, the composition is the melody and the arrangement is exactly that..the arrangement of music, instruments, melody, etc.

These songs have the same melody/composition but different arrangements for example
The composition

The different arrangements -




The arrangement is the interpretation of music.

[jean-baptiste]

Thank you for the in depth yet simple answers guys.

And sorry for the sorta elementary question. Never too late to learn anything, haha.