iego Navarro is one of the few professional composers in Spain that controls all matters in the musical production he directs. Therefore he composes, orchestrates and conducts the orchestra during the rehearsals and recordings. Supported by a team of editors, he personally supervises the accuracy of the scores’ edition, the full orchestra’s for himself as a conductor as well as the ones for each musician. On the other hand, he counts on a technical team made of 1 musical producer and 2 sound engineers.

He has produced and directed the project of La Tercera Cruzada, widely developed under Compositions.

He considers orchestration as an art itself that also shows the composer’s style. For this reason he would always orchestrate himself. He admits the huge influence he has had from the American school in his understanding of orchestration.

We may say, for example, how important the brass section is when it comes to action scenes, without forgetting the leading role of the percussion in his orchestrations. Navarro tries to balance all different orchestra sections. The possible combination between instruments will achieve the effects the composer wants to give, making the music go with the dramatic feelings of the scene.

When it comes to slow and intimate tempos, he tends mostly to a chamber formation (string orchestra and wood instruments) according to the treatment that composers like Morricone usually give. This, of course, does not mean that he does not use a full orchestra.

Once he decides what scenes need music, he really feels it should describe the action perfectly, thereafter he synchronizes it with the images. Navarro believes that conducting the orchestra himself is vitally important since no one better than the author, the composer, to know what color he should give to his work.

We can see Navarro himself talking about these matters at the video section, watching an extract from the documentary film La Tercera Cruzada.