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?
Whee-ha! In for a penny, in for a pound, eh?
The contractor can tell you about the requirements of first chairs (and it usually is ONLY first chairs, to make sure that they don't disturb their chops on a double so that they are fresh and perfectly aligned for important solos) but I can tell you that many orchestras would have trouble coming up with 3 contrabassoons or contrabass clarinets. Not only that, but adding the double adds 50% to that player's salary for every service of that concert, so it increases the cost by the equivelant of 3 musicians to have 6 doubling players, which might be a deciding factor as to whether your arrangement gets performed that concert.
The contrabass clarinet (in Bb) is such a rare instrument that I suspect many orchestras could only come up with one, and probably the same for the Eb contra-alto, so maybe 1 b.cl. 1 contralto, 1 contrabass clarinet is realistic. The same might hold for contrabassoon, though it is required so often that the extra player might be able to borrow one from another player in the same town.
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
