On Thursday, June 12, 2003, at 04:29 PM, Andrew Stiller wrote:
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.
"Extreme doubling" is becoming increasingly common in the jazz world. I know several first-rate saxophone players in New York who have not just the standard doubles (flute and clarinet) but oboe and English horn as well. No, Charles Pillow wouldn't win the audition for the English Horn chair in the Met Orchestra, but he certainly doesn't embarrass himself, either. He's the best double-reed doubler in the jazz world right now, but there are lots of others who have been getting their double-reed chops up to par. I must admit it was somewhat surreal to go to my first BMI Jazz Composers Worskshop reading session and see the sax players breaking out all of these double reed instruments -- and playing them well!
- Darcy
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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"
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