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As the Beatles’ producer, George Martin became the most legendary figure in his field – a studio magician who, together with four young musicians from Liverpool, transformed music history. Now his musical work is collected in a lavishly designed new book: “George Martin: The Scores”, which will be published in April by Curvebender (the publisher for German-speaking countries is not yet known).
It is the first collection of his music manuscripts and opens his personal archives for the first time. The work honors the late Sir George Martin on the occasion of his 100th birthday. He was born on January 3, 1926.
The three-volume book contains dozens of original handwritten scores for classics such as “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “A Day in the Life,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Yesterday,” “Live and Let Die,” and many more. There is also a foreword by one of his greatest admirers and closest companions: Paul McCartney.
An art book made from sheet music
George Martin’s son Giles Martin, himself an award-winning producer, tells Rolling Stone: “It’s an art book, if you will, because its scores are very beautiful. There’s a fluidity to it. There’s a special liveliness to seeing this music on paper.”
The Scores is a project that began in the last years of the producer’s life, before his death in 2016. “It was a very moving project,” says Giles Martin. “It was an idea I had with the people at Curvebender. When my father was sick, I thought this would be something good to keep him entertained. A book of his scores.”
Work until the end
Martin was intensively involved in the project despite his deteriorating health. “He liked the idea. And then he died. I mean, he was 90,” says Giles Martin. But the producer searched his archives thoroughly. “It’s basically a selection of his scores that we took and reproduced perfectly – just like the score of ‘Yesterday’ back then. It’s a book with his notes and comments – a deep insight into each arrangement, the history of how it was created and how it was implemented.”
These are the manuscripts that Martin kept after the recording sessions. Because they were his working notes in the studio, they contain handwritten changes and provide an immediate look at his creative process. Some show alternative arrangement ideas that didn’t make it into the final versions. The book also includes an album with new orchestral recordings of his scores, which enable particularly close listening. The recordings were made in Studio Two at Abbey Road Studios. The room in which Martin wrote music history with the Beatles.
Luxury editions for collectors
The standard output contains a USB stick with audio files. The Deluxe Edition comes in a box and includes a CD, a conductor’s baton, a self-contained reproduction of a Martin score and a Blu-ray with documentary recordings of the new recordings at Abbey Road Studios. For particularly ambitious collectors, there is also a limited signature edition that was personally signed by George Martin. Eer signed her at the beginning of the project, but did not live to see the finished book. All three editions are available to pre-order now from Curvebender.
Sir George – always respectfully called “Mr. Martin” by the band – was the producer who signed John, Paul, George and Ringo. But more than that: he made the courageous decision to allow them to write their own songs – almost unthinkable in the pop business at the time. His background was in classical music. “I’m not a rock & roll person,” he once said. “I liked turtlenecks. I still do. And I have a weakness for the odd blazer. But it was a conscious decision on my part not to conform by not joining them. I didn’t grow my hair out until after the Beatles were over.”
The architect of the Beatles sound
But it was his expertise that helped the band evolve and experiment – and bring their craziest ideas to life at Abbey Road Studio. A famous example: He composed and played the piano solo in “In My Life” himself and then sped it up so that it sounded almost like a harpsichord. From “Yesterday” to “Eleanor Rigby” to “I Am the Walrus,” his orchestrations were an integral part of the Beatles sound.
“It’s beautiful to see it on paper, in his handwriting,” says Giles Martin. “For a big man, he wrote very small notes.” But these notes wrote music history. “When you see it written down, you realize that no one could hear this music – not even himself – before it was played. And now it’s the other way around: you see the music that was played.”