Darcy, I'm a bass clarinetist, and I would ask the contractor about this orchestra's specifics, since it will vary greatly between orchestras. I think you can count on 2 bass clarinets (2nd and 3rd player) but in some cities contrabass clarinets may be hard to locate. 1st-chair players might resist more than 2nds, but again that depends. Similar with contrabassoons, you might have more trouble finding the instruments than getting players to agree, depending on where you are.
Another issue for the contractor is doublers' fees. If all 6 clar and bn players will get doublers' fees, they'll be happy but management won't. If their contract doesn't give doubling fees, then management will be happy but the players might not be. In a pops orchestra, doubling is probably standard for clarinets who may bring saxophones to work routinely. Sounds like an interesting sound - what kind of pops music needs that dark scoring? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darcy James Argue" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 10:16 PM Subject: [Finale] Doubling for Pops Orchestra Wind Players > Okay, > > In the pops orchestra project I'm currently working on, there's a piece > I'm arranging where I'd like to use a lot of low wind instruments. I > mean, a lot. The winds are 3/3/3/3. If I could get away with it, I > would probably want three contrabassoons and three contrabass > clarinets. Or maybe a contrabass clarinet, a contra-alto clarinet, and > a bass clarinet. (Don't ask why, it's just right for this particular > piece.) Yeah, I know this is almost certainly not a realistic request > for this sort of situation. > > But what would be a reasonable request? I know that (for instance) it > says right in the timpanist's contract that he plays *only* timpani, > and cannot be asked to play any other percussion instruments. I am > told this is usual. So is it usual for the first (and second of > three?) bassoonist(s), and/or the first (and second of three?) > clarinetist(s) to have written into their contracts that they can't be > forced to play the low winds? > > I can, of course, ask the contractor about this (and I will), but I > don't want to bother asking for something totally impossible. What > about this: 2 bass clarinets/1 contrabass clarinet/1 bassoon/2 > contrabassons? Still ridiculous/unreasonable? > > - Darcy > > ----- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Boston MA > > No one likes us > I don't know why > We may not be perfect > But heaven knows we try > But all around, even our old friends put us down > Let's drop the Big One and see what happens > > - Randy Newman, "Political Science" > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
