Re: Broadway shows -- Off Topic

[Mitch Bassman <Mitch.Bassman...>]

At 11:32 AM 03/21/2003, Fred Blumenthal wrote:
>I don't think the problem of key signatures of 4 to 6 flats is unique to 
>any one show or composer, but rather customary for this kind of 
>music.  For one thing, it accomodates the woodwind and brass players, if 
>not the strings or keyboard.  But it also seems to have a "separating the 
>men from the boys" effect on who can perform it.  My own talents at the 
>piano are neither 0% nor are they 100%, so I agree that 5 and 6 flats can 
>be a nuisance.

It simply is not true that the keys are selected to accommodate any 
particular instruments. The key of a song in a Broadway musical is chosen 
to accommodate the vocalist who sang it in the original production. The 
composer or arranger may have initially set a song in one sharp or flat. 
During the rehearsal process the key gradually shifts up or down by half 
steps, so a song initially scored in C Major can easily be shifted to B or 
D-flat.

As someone who has played the Reed One book to several dozens of musical 
shows (doubling on multiple instruments pitched in various keys), I can 
assure you that the wind players on B-flat and E-flat instruments are 
playing in remote keys more than half of the time. I played one production 
in which almost everything in the book was in four, five, or six sharps, or 
in five or six flats. With a little bit of practice, it becomes second nature.

Mitch Bassman