Author: Merlin_Williams
Date: 2010-06-07 18:48
It's staggeringly common.
I did a show for a music theatre school in a large city. The MD wanted to use just the first and third books, since he wanted to make sure the oboe parts were covered. Unfortunately, that meant that all of the significant clarinet solos were gone, because they were in the second book. I ended up re-writing the reed books myself to make it work with two players. No extra pay, of course.
I've turned down a lot of shows lately that have been arbitrarily cutting books. I even offered to re-score a show completely for an amateur theatre group. It would have meant having a period appropriate society band (3 reeds, 3 brass, violin, rhythm section) with good sounding charts. They would not agree to the instrumentation, saying they wanted only one trumpet. I refused to compromise and walked away.
It saved a lot of time for me, but I think that the production would have sounded so much better with the re-write.
Remember, there's three reasons to take a gig:
1. Money
2. Good contacts
3. Fun
If it doesn't have 1 (preferably 2!) of those, just say no.
Jupiter Canada Artist/Clinician
Stratford Shakespeare Festival musician
Woodwind Doubling Channel Creator on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/WoodwindDoubling
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The Clarinet BBoard
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