On Thursday, June 12, 2003, at 12:19 AM, John Howell wrote:
That's the long answer.
Thanks, John. Good stuff, very helpful.
The short answer is that sure, you can ask for what you want, but I'd suggest exploring the potential problems carefully before you commit yourself to doing so. You mentioned the "contractor." That suggests that this is not a regularly organized orchestra, but will be a pickup orchestra. That actually simplifies things, because there will be no no-doubling clauses to worry about, but coming up with the instruments and the players good enough to play them then becomes the contractor's problem.
No, no, it's a regular, established orchestra. The "contractor" is just the person who contracted me to do the arrangements on behalf of Visiting Pop Artist X.
I think I will ask, gently, about one contrabass clarinet (with one bass clarinet and one Bb clarinet) and two contrabassoons (with one bassoon). This at least avoids the problem of bruising the principals' egos by asking them to play an instrument they consider beneath them. Anyway, the orchestra in question definitely has the two contrabassoons, so it's just a question of expense and all the rest. I expect they have a contrabass clarinet, as well, and honestly, for my purposes here I don't really care if it's the metal paperclip version (which I am pretty familiar with, having written for it a few times in the past) or even a cheapo plastic student model. Basically, I just need some obnoxiously low honks.
However, the players' contract may well preclude my doing any of this stuff. We shall see, I guess.
Then again, I cracked up, reading through Henry Mancini's orchestration book, when he was working his way through the flute section. He said something like, "The bass flute is a wonderful instrument, but it is very rare and not always available. Here's an example where I used four."
Ah, yes. Maybe if I legally changed my name to "Henry Mancini," I'd be more likely to get the instrumentation I really want.
- Darcy
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