Edward Benson Powell (December 5, 1909, in Savanna, Carroll County, Illinois – February 28, 1984, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles) was an American arranger, orchestrator and composer, who served as Alfred Newman's musical lieutenant at 20th Century Fox film studios for over three decades.
His contributions to the scores of 400 films culminated in the canon of widescreen Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals of the late 1950s, for which his arrangements, such as the extended "Carousel Waltz" (with Gus Levene), continue to be revived in concerts and proms (e.g. John Wilson Orchestra), as well as live-to-classic pictures (Carl Davis Chaplin tour).
In 1933 Powell orchestrated the Gershwin brothers’ Broadway show Let 'Em Eat Cake, using the Schillinger contrapuntal system, and was invited by the composer to handle the same chores for the premiere of Porgy and Bess; however, had to decline when he moved out to Hollywood a year later.
He also ventured out with other composers and musical directors including Max Steiner (The Garden of Allah, 1936), got to work with Fred Astaire in Irving Berlin’s Top Hat and received his first screen credit for Eleanor Powell’s (no relation) Broadway Melody of 1936.
In 1936 he recommended ex-Chappell colleague David Raksin join Newman’s unit and together they shared duties as the arrangers of Charlie Chaplin’s beloved music in his first fully soundtracked (if not very talkie) film Modern Times.
[9] Powell was also a leading member of a close group of Hollywood orchestrators whom Levant identified as “the boys”—principally Friedhofer, Salinger, Spencer and Raksin—that met in each other's homes or lot bungalows to listen to latest overseas symphonic records, break down instrumentations chosen and analyze the effects various combinations produced on the texture and transformation of a theme, phrase or leitmotif (the works of Hindemith, Ravel and Sibelius being particular favorites).
[13] After the studio won filming rights to the Rodgers and Hammerstein oeuvre which was coming out of embargo after first staged productions, it fell to Newman, Powell and their growing team of orchestrators to expand the musical palette from its origins for smaller pit-bands.