Klarinet Archive - Posting 001031.txt from 2000/01

From: "Dodgshun family" <dodgshun@-----.nz>
Subj: Re: [kl] Children of Eden
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 07:54:12 -0500

> Has anyone played any of the woodwind books for the musical Children of
> Eden? My high school is doing it this spring, and I'd like to know what
> kind of instrumentation it has along with the level of difficulty.

I haven't played it, but my brother's school in conjunction with my old
school gave the NZ premiere of the show last year. The woodwind parts were
two flutes (one playing piccolo), two clarinets (one doubling alto sax -
this part had a fantastic dixie clarinet solo in it!) and an oboe. I don't
know whether these parts had been re-written at all, but I suspect they
hadn't. The clt/alto sax part was played by a teacher (but it's not so
difficult that a high school student couldn't play it), the rest by
students. The orchestration as a whole is a bit strange - three keyboard
parts, drums, bass, guitar, aux percussion, the woodwind mentioned, french
horn and cello (my brother played the cello part - there are some gorgeous
solo lines for it).

The show itself is not easy at all, but it's a magical show. Mama Noah's
gospel/jazz song "Ain't It Good" at the end of Act II is a showstopper if
you get the right person singing it - the production I saw had a girl with a
voice which I imagine Aretha Franklin would have had at 17 - with one song
she stole the show! It's a great show for a school to do (provided they can
cope with it) because there are so many parts - there can be as many
storytellers as there are people to play them, plus a large chorus, and a
good fifteen or sixteen leading roles, all of which require strong singers,
particularly God, Eve, Cain, Mama Noah and one of Noah's sons (Japheth?).
And there's a lot of room for a good choreographer - heaps of good danceable
songs. I was annoyed that they decided to do the show AFTER I'd left - I
would have loved to be involved in such a great show. So have fun with it!
I'd be interested to hear how you get on. Good luck.

Anna

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