 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-03-26 02:14
Kal Opperman was very active in Broadway theater pits during the mid-1900s. I've found myself wondering from time to time if he doubled on other woodwinds to do this or only played clarinet. I don't know any theater woodwind players in the Philadelphia area who don't also play the saxes, often flute and less often double reeds, whether their major instrument is clarinet or not. Has pit scoring changed that much since the '50s and '60s that a clarinetist could make a living on Broadway without the doubles. Can it be done today in New York? Or is doubling something I just never read about in connection with Opperman?
Karl
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-03-26 02:25
The same question could be asked of Bernard Portnoy. In addition to playing just clarinet in the NBC Symphony, and the Philadelphia, Cleveland and WOR Orchestras, he is said to have played in the Broadway productions of My Fair Lady and Kismet. Did Portnoy double for those engagements?
Post Edited (2017-03-26 02:28)
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2017-03-26 02:56
My admittedly limited experience of playing in shows of the 50s/60s was that most were scored for a small "traditional" orchestra, not for the typical pit bands of today.
It is only in more recent years that the music for many of those shows has been rescored to work with the reduced forces and multiple doublings of today.
Certainly the Kismet and Oklahoma shows I played in back then had no doubling for the clarinetist.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-03-26 06:55
Caroline Smale wrote:
> My admittedly limited experience of playing in shows of the
> 50s/60s was that most were scored for a small "traditional"
> orchestra, not for the typical pit bands of today.
>
The R&H shows (up until, I think, State Fair) were indeed scored for traditional woodwinds - I think maybe 1 flute, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets and 1 bassoon. Lerner & Lowe also were. They weren't all being done at the same time, though. Maybe enough were to keep non-doublers employed. I guess that's part of my question. Maybe those shows were enough to keep at least a few non-doublers busy.
Karl
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2017-03-26 19:53
Russianoff was also active on Broadway, and he did not double either.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2017-03-26 20:58
Kal doubled regularly on alto sax and probably also on tenor and bari.
His brother George made superior bass flutes, which Kal may have played. I doubt that he played other woodwinds. I never saw any of them around his studio.
Ken Shaw
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