On Jun 17, 2006, at 10:07 AM, Christopher Smith wrote:
On Jun 17, 2006, at 11:44 AM, Chuck Israels wrote:
On Jun 16, 2006, at 5:12 PM, Christopher Smith wrote:
I see it quite a bit in the shows I have done or checked out.
Kiss of the Spider Woman, the Producers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,
all use violin/viola doublers. I think they really try to squeeze
as many different colours out of the few players they have as is
humanly possible, and make a nice taste for the guys who are
making doubling money.
IMO -and experience, this is a compelling reason. Better
musicians can be kept in mind numbing pit jobs if they are being
paid for a lot of doubles.
Good point.
Another thing I see quite a bit - the single passage (or two, or
three) in each musician's book that is an absolute bear to play.
This is the detail that caused my brother to characterise pit gigs
as "two hours of sheer boredom, interspersed with thirty seconds of
sheer terror."
I think Bdway orchestrators put these passages in to keep the
musicians practicing. It is an easy way for the musical director to
tell if the player is in shape or not.
The worst of these I saw (in my book) was in Company. There is a
solo trombone obbligato in solotone mute that sits up around C, and
hits high E (a 10th above middle C) with lots of large leaps to
start off "Side By Side By Side". I am both proud and ashamed to
say that I nailed it night after night for about twenty shows -
except for one night when I crashed and burned so spectacularly
that the other musicians (professionals, all) had trouble keeping
from dissolving into giggles for the rest of the tune. Thanks,
guys! 8-(
My old friend Johnny Tunick orchestrated that show. There's a D. A.
Pennebaker video of the recording session for that show in which you
can see who is playing in the band. I recognize Joel Kaye in one of
the reed chairs, Brooks Tillotson and Dick Berg in the horn section,
and a couple of the trumpet players, but I don't recognize the
trombone guys.
If you think that little trombone passage is a challenge, how about
that "I'm not Gonna Get Married Today" song for the actress that
preformed that! (Pamela Meyers, I think. She was sensational.)
Anyway, the video is an education for young people who think that
playing music looks like what you see on MTV, or most of the bands
that play on SNL. It's a wonderful example of professional
concentration on the part of almost everyone involved, and a
devastating exposure of the character of the idiot record producer.
(How do people get those jobs?) You can find out about it on IMDB.
Chuck
Christopher
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Chuck Israels
230 North Garden Terrace
Bellingham, WA 98225-5836
phone (360) 671-3402
fax (360) 676-6055
www.chuckisraels.com
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
