I deal most often with pickup orchestras, so I don't have to deal with the first chairs agreements. But I know that if I ask a first trumpet to pick up a piccolo trumpet, then I risk having him crack the delicate solo in the next number, so I put it on second trumpet (or third if I have one). The first player WILL do it if I ask him to, but as the saxophonist put it, "you won't like the results."
Just remember this: the often-demanding flute, recorder, oboe, and oboe da caccia parts in all (well, most) of Bach's Leipzig cantatas were written for a single pair of woodwind players who were expected to perform on every treble woodwind at the highest professional standards.
This nonsense about first-desk winds refusing to double was unheard of before the advent of musicians' unions. Such specialization is of course in the financial interest of the players, but if it were a matter of *musical* importance, one would expect composers, conductors, and patrons to have cared about it too, but there is no evidence that they ever did.
When I was in my early teens I studied clarinet w. Sydney Forrest, at that time 2nd cl. w. the Baltimore Symphony. When I remarked to him that I was considering playing bcl. in my HS band, he told me that if I did it would "ruin my embouchure" and that he would refuse to teach me any further. When a few months later I decided to take up the *bassoon,* I didn't even bother him w. it but simply discontinued my lessons with him.
-- Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press
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