Favorite Orchestral Parts

What are your favorite orchestral bits from musical scores? I'm talking about instrumentations that pop out at you at random times, they may not even be a solo part, but a piece of the score's texture that grabs your attention. My current favorites are

The vibraphone part in My Prayer from the Color Purple
Synth part in In the Heights when Usnavi talks about the Rosarios
Double reeds in The Glamorous Life from A Little Night Music
Dixieland melody embedded in parts of How Can I Call This Home? From Parade

The entire orchestration for the build to the end of "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" from HELLO DOLLY is an all-time favourite of mine. The horns the strings everything is AMAZING.

Also really adore the horn part on the title song of DEAR WORLD. The utter insanity of the one section is crazy good.

The duelling pianos in the NO NO NANETTE revival overture are bonkers too in the best way.

So many more but I won't make you all endure my textual recreations further.

The part I love that I always wished was included on the cast recording is in Wicked when the Wizard is first introduced right after One Short Day. I just love the synths in that part. They date the show really badly today but I still like the way they sound.

The first-day-of-spring whimsical musical introduction to A Little Bit in Love (Wonderful Town) and all the instrumental punctuation throughout the song. I love every note of this song.

The music-box tinkly notes introducing A Very Nice Man (Carnival) and all the musical bits throughout this delightful song. The perfect song to start one's day!

The orchestral introduction to Climb Every Mountain (OBC). The memories it evokes every time I hear it... It's so beautiful it hurts.

The orchestral introduction to What Happened to Me Tonight? (Kwamina). Divine.

The orchestral codas to A Little Bit in Love, A Very Nice Man, What Happened to Me a Tonight?, Where Are the Simple Joys of Maidenhood (Camelot), I'm Me (First Imoressions), This Really Isn't Me (First Impressions), Oh, Please (Take Me Along).

The swelling music near the end of "The Final Battle" from Les Miserables that coincides with the reveals of the dead students always gives me chills.

At the moment, I'm also fond of the drum cadence section from Hamilton right after "You'll Be Back," leading into "Right Hand Man." I wish they had included that snippet on the cast recording.

The original PROMISES, PROMISES orchestrations with the extended dance break during "Turkey Lurkey Time"

I love the violins(I'm a sucker for the entire string section actually) and piano in certain Hamilton cast recording songs like That Would Be Enough, Dear Theodosia, It's Quiet Uptown, and Who Lives Who Dies.



And of course, Wicked! I actually made a tumblr post about this a while back. I love the subtle little tickings of the Clock, ringing bells and those magical glittery sounds throughout. The intro of NOMTW as well as the intro of Thank Goodness are also very exciting. :)

West Side Story

"Dance at the Gym" and the wild percussion with which it begins.

"The Rumble" especially the tight brass fanfares.

The percussion work in Miss Saigon is gorgeous. It's one of the most difficult scores for a percussionist to play (or so I've been told) partly because of how many different instruments they cover. It's such an integral part of the orchestrations that there were two percussionists during the original Broadway production.

I will always love the oboe playing the Bring Him Home melody as Valjean takes Marius's body to the sewers. Perhaps my favorite sequence in Les Miz.