 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bret Pimentel
Date: 2005-10-08 23:10
There have been several inquiries in the last few days about reed book instrumentations for various Broadway shows. I maintain something of a list here:
http://www.geocities.com/bpimentel/articles/shows.htm
This is mostly information you can find elsewhere on the web, but I've compiled it into one place. Submissions and corrections are welcome (bpimenteljunk at gmail.com).
Best,
Bret
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Author: noahbob
Date: 2005-10-09 05:05
Now this may sound like a stupid question but the orchestration for ctas reads
Reed 1: Flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
Reed 2: Clarinet, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone
Does that mean it recquires two clarinets or two books for one clarinet, could you explain because my school will be performing cats and I was wondering how many clarinet players willl be recquired.
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Author: Max S-D
Date: 2005-10-09 06:40
That means that there are two reed parts. One of them is supposed to be covered by one person playing flute, clarinet, soprano sax, and tenor sax. The other is to be covered by one person playign clarinet, soprano and baritone sax. At any given time, one instrument from each of the parts is playing, i.e. flute and clarinet.
That second book sounds pretty fun.
If you were splitting the parts up within each book you would probably end up with some pretty bored musicians who would just have to sit around until a song came up with their instrument in it.
You will probably need two clarinetists, but you might want to find people who can play as many of those instruments as possible. And lose the soprano sax parts, give em to the clarinets.
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Author: anonrob
Date: 2005-10-09 13:38
If this is the same orcestration of Cats I played in the summer of 2004, you do not want to use clarinet on the soprano parts. It will not blend with the synth patches in any sensible way. We can all hope that the show will appear with a more acoustic orcestration soon.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-10-09 15:43
There are different sets of "reality" operating here. On one hand, the economics of musical theater (or should that be "theatre") mandates that you have as many horns covered by as few players as possible. On the other, you have a high school music program with lots of clarinet and sax players who would like to participate. The first situation cries out for the minimum number of bodies; the second for the maximum.
If I were doing the school production, I'd do what I've seen in a number of high school productions with the on-stage talent: duplicate the people doing the parts, but only have them perform at half (or a third, or a quarter) of the performances. This way, you get maximum exposure to the music plus all get a chance at performing. But, the realities of rehearsal and class size might mitigate against that.
Personally, I believe that there's no better "school" for learning the music trade than playing in a pit situation. Unlike the symphonic orchestra or band or chamber music route, you learn that your music, while an important part of the whole, is not the only attraction. (This is a much more realistic appraisal of how the public perceives music than the typical orchestra performance.) I also know that, were it not for pit work, I never would have become proficient on the bassoon, any sax, an English horn or a flute on my own. The "doubling" experience will make a good clarinet player a much better musician, as the "real world" is full of doubling opportunities and much less awash with "You'll only play soprano clarinet here" gigs.
A FEW WORDS ON "NEWBIES"
Over the past five years, I've worked with players who are "less enabled" in music just as I've worked at developing vocalists who have a voice but not the skills and discipline to perform in front of a group. In both cases, it involves a lot of holding hands, but the needs of the two groups are different.
With vocalists, it's often a matter of dealing with an excellent voice but in a person who does not really read music. Most vocalists only read "rhythm" and sing in intervals rather than at a specific pitch for a symbol on the chart. Needless to say, this sort of skill level does not always blend well with musicians who are used to pushing a button and getting a particular pitch.
To accommodate them, I work with them (and have my "musician/vocalists" who can read music work with them even more) to understand the rests and the notes, so they at least can figure out where in the beat pattern they have to enter. The pitches of the various notes are only used as a mnemonic for these singers, indicating in a visual way the general "outline" of the melody to help them remember it.
I don't claim to be a choir instructor, but this approach works well enough to "bring in" a karaoke veteran who is a music reading novice. I've "reprogrammed" two such singers in the past, and both ended up as excellent, well rounded performers. Then they move and that's that...
The sax player who has never played clarinet (and their numbers are legion) is a greater problem. Here, the initial hurdle is to get them an adequate horn (and stand) up front, and then just make them do it.
I prefer that my kids who play sax and are learning clarinet (we've got one on board at present, a college student, who is a sub at this point) do so on a Vito horn. As much as I dislike Leblanc products in general, I've found that the key height, hole diameter and low price of the Vito clarinet shaped product is the best way to go, particularly for someone who might end up quitting in frustration before they realize any gains. There's time enough for Buffet down the road...
I then give them the non-player's guide to the clarinet, which explains about how the horns are similar in many ways and builds on that to a full "mechanical" knowledge of the register key difference, the dreaded break and so forth. While the first "assignments" might be to learn a part note by note so as to be able to use their already excellent rhythm skills to play it along with the others, I also suggest that they work scales and chromatic scales in a big way (the better to handle the breaks). Finally, I schedule simple clarinet numbers for rehearsal to get them into ensemble play at least once a week.
A month or so of this and a decent sax player who applies him or her self will gain a decent "working knowledge" of "basic" clarinet playing that will allow them to be useful, if not performance stars.
Once this is accomplished, I jig the parts around so that the Second Tenor clarinet part is combined with the sax part that the newbie happens to be playing. The way that our arrangements are set up, the Second Tenor clarinet inserts are the easiest of the bunch (the difficult ones being in First Alto and Baritone), usually staying in the mid range of the instrument and being harmonic rather than lead components of the whole.
We've got three arrangements where the "newbie" player doesn't even have to negotiate the break, and it is encouraging to them to be able to perform as a "full partner" on these three along side of the rest of the group. With encouragement comes more motivation, and so it goes.
Once a player gets confident enough to play over both breaks, then I shift the parts back the way they were originally. The twenty or so extra arrangements that I have to prepare (cut and paste, then copy and tape into charts) are well worth the effort when you see the improvements that you get.
You're not likely to turn out a Benny Goodman or Eddie Daniels this way, but you can produce a serviceable clarinet player who can hack the harmony parts when they are needed. Further development then devolves upon them.
(Over our 800 plus arrangements, I'd estimate that we've got perhaps 15% that have call for doubling. Not as much as a show, but enough that it mandates good, "basic" clarinet skills (and flute (ugh!)).
In both situations, this is far more trouble than most high school programs would want to take, but they've got to start sometime. If nothing else, a director who has a "motivated player" should encourage this sort of approach in addition to the base skills on the "assigned" horn.
(For the record, I started on bassoon as a "project" while in high school, and by my last year was doing well enough to play the second desk in the All County Orchestra. Sax came about the same way, only there were too many sax players in the available venues at the time for me to play it at school. The big breakthrough for me there came with the pit orchestra work that started at the college level.)
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: allencole
Date: 2005-10-09 16:45
This is so true. Most of my best sax jobs have come via clarinet/flute skills. It really disturbs me when I see a middle school band with nine saxes and four clarinets. I know some of those saxes are going to go up in smoke, and wonder if the clarinets will be prepared when opportunity knocks.
Allen Cole
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Author: noahbob
Date: 2005-10-10 01:14
Like you were syaing terry about the pit type set-up, we will be playing with that type of set up. My school is a performing arts magnet so every year we do a musical , so we set up a sort of "pit" on the bottom of the stage. But we dont have many clarinet players that double on sax and sax that double on clarinet. I was wondering would the set up be 2 clarinets, 1 sax player, and 1 flute, that was all we used for oaklahoma, and this play sounds that it may use the same amount of winds.
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