Ooh boy, what a great thread, probably gonna be a long post from me..
I've played in the pit all 4 years of my high school shows and it was an amazing experience and probably the best and most memorable moments from my High School career. I played clarinet in the pit. My first year, we did Once on This Island, fairly simple score but good music. The next year we did Fame: the musical and I played the trumpet part(same key) on the clarinet, it was a pretty decent part. The next year we did the Music Man which was a show I didn't love but it was a fun score to play, particularly Shipoopi dances. #3 was just so much fun and #1 was very complicated, as clarinets were expected to forego alternate fingerings making it very difficult to play some of it but by the end I got it. And my senior year, my 2nd year as Pit President and basically all-around pit assistatn by then we did...West Side Story! I can't imagine a score being more amazing or challenging then that. It was such an experience! Eventually cool began great fun to play and the Rumble is the hardest piece in the score but once you get it, it really creates an amazing sound! So many dances, so difficult, it was the best!
This all being said, of course I completely respect and admire Broadway orchestras. At every performance, I'm the one screaming and giving them a standard ovation when they are acknowledged. I actually really loved the Phantom orchestra, I thought the composition of the orchestrations were great. I would also love to play Les Miz. But the best broadway pit experience I had was sitting front row center for the new production of Fiddler on the Roof. During the part where there is the dance with stuff on the hats, a clarinetist comes on stage on the side and plays an AMAZING solo. I just stared at him w/ my mouth opened, tried to follow his fingers, and completely ignored the dancing. I must give that soloist major props, it was truly amazing! (If for any reason, anyone has access or knows where I can get a copy to the clarinet solo, PM me!)
And Capn, I must respectfully disagree with you. Of course it is easier to see how an actor can shape parts, but if you know more about each specific instrument and have a better ear and listen closely, musicians can shape the music of a composer as much as singers can shape the sounds of a lyricist. Certain instruments can be played perfectly smooth, or with more vibratto. Volumes are slightly different for all players. Strength of high notes can be different. Even the simple sound of going from one note to another, when one is dealing with true professional musicians, can sound different for each one. And that is part of what makes playing the music so amazing. Sure the notes are the same, but the interpretation is different. God I am such a pit geek!
And the last thing I would like to say, aside from the fact that I apologize for the longevity, is that I really feel sometimes for the lack of credit musicians get. My pit director who I loved gave us a motto. Now I know this especially applies to high school but I can't help but feel to an extent it applies on the professional level as well. He said the goal of the best pit is to go unnoticed. He said when a major mess-up is made, the audience turns their attention downward and says "oh look, there's a pit." When the second major mess-up is played, the audience looks down and says "oh, the pit is students." If you play it perfectly, you go totally unnoticed which really is a shame. ((One added sidenote: After West Side Story as I was packing up my clarinet, a total stranger came up to me and told me I played amazingly! I was in my glory, I never would have expected that-I didn't even have a major solo or anything!)) I truly salute and respect all those talented musicians playing in pit orchestras--and I am extremely jealous as well! :)
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
Updated On: 1/31/05 at 06:17 PM
