 The Doublers BBoard
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Author: marcgilly
Date: 2007-05-08 21:55
I've been asked provisionally to play in a University society production of Crazy For You in January 2008 and I've been looking through the reed parts with the MD on the Tams-Witmark homepage where they're listed as follows:
Reed I - Piccolo, Flute, Clarinet, Soprano & Alto Saxophone
Reed II - Piccolo, Flute, Eb Clarinet (or Bb Clarinet), Clarinet, Alto Saxophone and Ocarina in C (or Pennywhistle in G)
Reed III - Oboe, English Horn, Clarinet and Tenor Saxophone
Reed IV - Piccolo, Flute, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet and Tenor Saxophone
Reed V - Bassoon, Bass Clarinet and Baritone Saxophone
I was wondering whether anybody who has experience of this show can shed some light on what the weighting of instruments are in each part, please?
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Author: Bret Pimentel
Date: 2007-05-08 22:34
Hi Marc,
Some info here.
Best,
Bret
5/11 - link edited to reflect new location
Post Edited (2011-05-17 16:57)
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Author: marcgilly
Date: 2007-05-09 07:09
That's great Bret. I had read that article about 6 months ago but completely forgot about it. Unfortunately it confirms what I feared - that everyone needs to be more than just able to blag their way on their secondary instruments! I'd better get practicing now...
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2007-05-09 13:28
I just got done with a production of this, playing the Reed V book in the arrangement that you are going to be doing.
Based upon my experience, most who can just "get by" on the bassoon could play the show without any troubles. The baritone part is typical of a Broadway show, although the instrument is featured quite a bit during "Slap That Bass". The bass clarinet part is very typical of a show, with no passages that any competent bass clarinet player couldn't manage. The bassoon part has three or four exposed solos in the upper register, riffs that I had to learn by memory as there were plenty of breath support and intonation issues to deal with with each, but the rest of it was simple "continuo" playing that a high school kid could master without difficulty.
There is a limited amount of tenor clef involved (I transposed it all out prior to rehearsals, then found that almost all of it was going to be cut!), but other than that, no problems.
The lead alto/soprano/clarinet/flute book is pretty demanding, but most who play that end of the spectrum will be used to the demands that it contains. Make sure that you can play a rich vibrato on the saxes, however.
In our production, someone transposed the oboe/English horn stuff, but I didn't see anything on the cor part that I couldn't have played with a little preparation on same, and I haven't used one for many years. Don't know about the oboe stuff though.
The primary bass clarinet part is in the Reed V book, the use in the other book is for filling in some harmony here and there.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: sjt
Date: 2007-05-12 03:27
I've done it twice, once on reed II in a three-man section; another time covering III, and IV in a two-man section.
C4U is a brutal orchestration for the section, definitely one of the hardest out there. There's no reason whatsoever to have the 4th woodwind play that sickening piccolo solo in I Got Rhythm except just to give bored professional players something to chew on. Or to have 3 piccolos playing at once in Nice Work If You Can Get It. Nowhere to hide there.
Reed II has a lot saxophone, probably more so than any other show I've. It's pretty equally weighted between alto, lead clarinet, and misc flute/picc parts. By itself it's not terribly hard.
Reed III and IV have more difficult parts, I would say.
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