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Originally Posted by Blitz Lunar
"arrangement" as a definition doesn't mean much without context. you need to look at what it means on a case-per-case basis.
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^This right here.
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It sounds like the arranger uses the original composition as a basis for development in a variety of directions. Is that a good general description?
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It's OK for a general description. But as others have mentioned above, arrangement may just refer to the preparation of MIDI data for recording by live performers.
I haven't read the commentaries on FFXIII, but I'll make a conjecture anyway. I'll just pick a few tracks for an example. Chances are, Hamauzu's composition (all the data) was already perfectly in place for "Sazh's Theme" and the arranger needed only to put the MIDI data to paper for the chamber group that performed it. "Afro Blues", on the other hand, is more difficult to discern because it sounds mostly like improvisation from the harmonica player. Where Hamauzu would have probably needed the help arranging is in special cases like this where scoring for particular instruments (like harmonica) and a particular style of playing, like the bluegrass guitar, requires someone experienced with said specialized scoring.
As for the live orchestral tracks... I doubt much had to be contributed by the orchestrators. Hamauzu knows orchestration backwards and forwards, and has since he started at Square years and years ago.
Then there's those pesky synth tracks that are credited with an arranger attached. Well, I'd put down money that most only needed an arranger for some live instruments and perhaps some extra mixing; but some tracks could be more the work of the arranger just as Hamauzu and Nakano's work in FFX were almost always highly derivative of (and superior to) Uematsu's original themes. As for FFXIII, take "Tension"--I'm willing to bet that track belongs mostly to Nakano, with a brief appearance by a Hamauzu melody toward the end. Otherwise, the track is stylistically identical to Nakano's own style.
(Cedille, I'd be very interested in a complete and accurate translation of those track-by-track commentaries... does one exist yet?)