 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Lisa
Date: 2007-02-03 03:25
This is driving me crazy, and maybe one of you might know the answer to my question. (Anybody, anybody? Hello, John Moses? Anybody?)
I haven't seen/heard/played the band arrangement of the tunes to My Fair Lady since I was in high school over half my life ago (!), and we're now playing it in community band. The last couple measures of this wonderful arrangement is to the tune of the final lyrics ("...my fair lady") to London Bridges (...falling down...).
Is anyone familiar with the actual show music?? Did the original composer actually write it like that, maybe to end the overture, entre'act, bows/exit music or finale? I just think it's the coolest thing and remembered the ending from when I was a kid.
Funny thing is, when I asked our conductor, John Wakefield (director emeritus at the U of MD), about it as we finished our first read-thru, he looked at the score to see what in the world I was talking about, and he said he'd "never noticed that before." To me, it's as plain as day if you're familiar with the chart, but it floored me that Wakefield who honestly knows everything about everything never picked up on that.
So, is it in the show like that, or is it the arranger's sense of humor? ![[huh]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie11.gif)
Oh yeah, and to address the topic of this board, if you've played the show, are the clarinet parts fun to play??
-Lisa
Post Edited (2007-02-03 11:38)
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2007-02-03 04:03
I don't recall any such trick from the show, but it's been many a year so my memory could fail me on this one. However, it would be pretty obvious, so maybe not.
Another neat little trick pulled by the composer for The Music Man is the "two arrangements of the same tune" that he pulls off with "Goodnight My Someone" and "Seventy Six Trombones". Both are introduced in the first act, and at first blush they sound like two different tunes, plain and simple.
However, the "remote" duet that Marian and Professor Harold Hill sing on opposite sides of the stage in the second act gives it all away, and they transpose their two songs until Hill is finishing up "Goodnight My Someone" while Marian puts the ending on "Seventy Six Trombones". It's only at that point that most recognize that they are singing the same tune only each in their own style. A bit corny, perhaps, but well executed when all is said and done.
Having pulled that little trick off, Meredith Wilson drew down his musical well to the dry point, and didn't do much that was clever ever again...
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2007-02-03 05:41
I haven't seen/heard/played the band arrangement of the tunes to My Fair Lady since I was in high school over half my life ago (!), and we're now playing it in community band. The last couple measures of this wonderful arrangement is to the tune of the final lyrics ("...my fair lady") to London Bridges (...falling down...).
It is probably only in your current "band arrangement", which I have never heard. The OBC recording, and the woodwind parts do not include that lick.
Robert Russell Bennett and Phil Lang did a wonderful job of orchestrating the MY FAIR LADY I did in 1981.
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
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Author: kilo
Date: 2007-02-03 09:21
I'm gearing up for the 2nd reed part in "The Music Man" for a community production to be done in March. Say, Terry, any other particularly clever parts, pitfalls, or passages of interest?
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Author: Lisa
Date: 2007-02-03 12:46
Quote:
Another neat little trick...is the "two arrangements of the same tune" that he pulls off with "Goodnight My Someone" and "Seventy Six Trombones". ..they transpose their two songs until Hill is finishing up "Goodnight My Someone" while Marian puts the ending on "Seventy Six Trombones". It's only at that point that most recognize that they are singing the same tune only each in their own style.
<gasp> Oh my gosh -- I never noticed that before reading it here! While I'm sure it's obvious to the audience in the theater (and probably to many here already) this is the very first time I'm making the connection, and I thought I knew the tunes from The Music Man pretty well.
Quote:
It is probably only in your current "band arrangement", which I have never heard. The OBC recording, and the woodwind parts do not include that lick.
Robert Russell Bennett and Phil Lang did a wonderful job of orchestrating the MY FAIR LADY I did in 1981.
Thanks, John. I knew you'd come thru on this for me!
The band arrangement is "transcribed for concert band by Robert Russell Bennett", copyrighted 1956 by Lerner and Loewe. The previous owner of my part wrote "practice" on the front page, and while it's not giving me any major problems because I already know the arrangement, the overture to Pique Dame (also in the folder) is the one that's giving me nightmares. It's another one I remember from when I was a kid, but in that community band I sat comfortably "back there" and remember being envious of those who got to play all the fun parts up front. Now that I've since graduated up to the front row, I'm not particularly having fun playing overtures. Light stuff like marches, show tunes, Joplin and Mozart are all fine, but now I'm having to relearn higher, harder parts to all those pesky overtures I've played in the past!
I do know how to get to Carnegie Hall, I just frequently need to pull over to the side of the road and ask for directions or take a pit stop! 
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Author: Alseg
Date: 2007-02-03 14:13
Slightly OT, but listen to the original B-way soundtrack recording. ...Some of the finest clarinet solos on record.
GBK states it is none other than Bernard Portnoy. Listen esp. to the exposed solos in Higgins soliloquy ("I'm a most forgiving man....never could, never would.......") answered by a lone clarinet
slow descending line....beautiful sound.
Former creator of CUSTOM CLARINET TUNING BARRELS by DR. ALLAN SEGAL
-Where the Sound Matters Most(tm)-
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2007-02-03 14:23
GBK states it is none other than Bernard Portnoy. Listen esp. to the exposed solos in Higgins soliloquy ("I'm a most forgiving man....never could, never would.......") answered by a lone clarinet
slow descending line....beautiful sound.
Strange coincidence:
I had studied with Bernie at Juilliard for a while, before moving on to Joe Allard. Bernie recommended me for the 1981 revival of MY FAIR LADY when they were looking for a clarinetist...and I didn't ever realize he had done the OBC...! Bernie was very friendly with the famous B'way conductor, Franz Allers, who conducted both the original and the revival of MFL...fun stuff...!
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
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