Jacques Brel piano reduction...does it exist?

[richs52]

Posted: 11/7/08 at 11:16am

Does anyone know if a piano redcution of Jacques Brel...Paris exists? I am not looking for the Hal Leonard vocal selection book.

I am invloved in a local production of Brel and we have received the score set from Dramatists. It contains the piano part, guitar, bass, percussion and a poorly written conductor's score. We are having difficulty in rehearsals with the accompaniment, since we will not have the full pit until just before we go up.

I do see on Dramatists site that they have a Brel "Perusal Score" which appears (at lease from the different ISBN number) different than what we received in the full score set. Does anyone have any experience with thtese perusals? Could this be what we are looking for?

I have contacted Dramatists and can't seem to find anyone there that can help.

Has anyone done this show or have any insight? I would appreciate it. Thank you.


Updated On: 11/7/08 at 11:16 AM

[temms]

Posted: 11/7/08 at 11:39am

What you have is the only existing score - the vocal "book" is the impossible-to-read chicken scratch lead sheets with chord symbols, and the piano score is simply the piano book from the orchestration with no vocal cues written in.

The recent off-Broadway revival used those very same parts, except for the songs they added that weren't in the original (or rearranged.) Otherwise, every production of "Brel" has had to make do with those terrible materials and using the cast album (and any other sheet music) to help figure it all out.
Updated On: 11/7/08 at 11:39 AM

[richs52]

Posted: 11/7/08 at 11:46am

Thanks for the reply. It's the answer I was afraid of, but was hoping that someone may have a "home made" one.

I agree, the materials that they send are basically garbage. It's been more than frustrating to try and figure it all out.

[LadyDramaturg2]

Posted: 11/7/08 at 1:08pm

I'd complain like crazy and demand a discount, since materials for most musicals are not crazy messes (nowadays).
And let them know that you're telling people that Dramatist's isn't measuring up to the standard that other licensing agencies do.

[temms]

Posted: 11/7/08 at 1:19pm

Dramatists isn't primarily a musical house, so they haven't made the kind of investment in materials that MTI and others have made.

Plus, "Brel" was originally a cabaret show at the Village Gate, not unlike many of the shows that are done at the Duplex and Don't Tell Mama's today. So the materials are reflective of the fact that the show was four friends pulling a cabaret together, and then they hired an orchestrator to do the instrumental parts. I'm sure it was cheaper to not have the vocal part written into the orchestra parts, and I guarantee you nobody at the time was thinking about the materials other theatres would be using 40 years later.

"Brel" has been done thousands of times, and every production somehow or other manages to get the show up with those materials. Complaining to a company that doesn't specialize in musicals about materials people have used successfully for the past 40 years seems like a waste of energy.

[elmore3003]

Posted: 11/7/08 at 8:01pm

It's clear that temms has never read Eric Blasu's book on the making of the show since his account of "four friends" assembling it is ridiculous. When I did the show around 1976, the materials were leased from MTI and I believe they are the very same materials: the copied band parts, the Mort Shuman-Knittel vocal arrangements and arranger/MD Wolfgang Knittel's full score.

My guess is that MTI simply turned over the materials to Dramatists Play Service and they changed the copyright information.

Posted: 11/8/08 at 2:15am

I wish they would put out the off broadway revival version. it was so well done and the arrangements were fantastic. that's the version I want to do but Im affraid it will never be available. sigh.....