Music Man

[ken k]

I am directing the Music Man at my high school. My favorite show, such a fun good clean all american show.

Great bone book as you might well imagine, and the reed books are insanely fast and high. what the heck was Meredith Wilson thinking? He wrote Eb clarinet parts way up, three four leger lines above the staff, as high as the piccolo at times! i k now he was a piccolo player himself in the Sousa band at one time I believe.

ken k

[ken k]

great show! congrats for the opportunity and for your production!

In perspective, these shows, "Broadway musicals" (along with their European counterparts aka "grand opera") weren't written to rent to high schools and colleges. They were written to (hopefully, as should be one of the primary goals of all full-time composers) make as much dough as possible. As long as M.W. knew there were at least two or three players in NYC who could cover the part, I'm sure he felt safe writing it.

bloke "

There were notes in the sky, but I never heard them squeaking. No, I never heard them at all 'til there was the Eb clarinet.

"

Ha!!! I got that quote there, very funny!!!!! that about sums it up.

yeah broadway show books are the only place you ever find the keys of Cb and F#!
k

[LoyalTubist]

Bill Bell and R. Meredith Willson were quite close friends, having met when they were members of the Sousa Band in the early 1920s, when they were literally kids.

[DonShirer]

ken k wrote:

yeah broadway show books are the only place you ever find the keys of Cb and F#!

Willson was fairly kind in that regard. I only remember 'Music Man' going as far as the keys of Dflat , Gflat and E.

[Biggs]

Bill Bell and R. Meredith Willson were quite close friends, having met when they were members of the Sousa Band in the early 1920s, when they were literally kids.

Both were also native Iowans. Represent!

[David Richoux]

I know this is late, but if anyone else is involved with a production of Music Man - add the missing verses to 76 Trombones:

There was a Pandean and a Picco Pipe
There were little Musettes and big Chalumeaus (rhymes with nose)
There was even a Basset horn
and a long Cromorne
and a Tabor blown beneath the nose.
There was an Aulus flute and a flute-a-bec
And a glittering Krummhorn wonderf'ly played
Then I casu'ly stepped inside
of the the only Ophicleide
Just in time to save the Big Parade

There was a Arghool reed and a Dulcian
There were quite a few Zinkens made out of wood
There were possibly three Schalmaeys
and a Cor Anglaise
And a Shawm which sounded awf'ly good
There was a Posthorn group and a Galoubet
There were several Waights and one crystal Nay
Then I spotted a Bombardon
Which of course I seized upon
Just in time, dear friends, to save the day."

(these lyrics were printed in "But He Doesn't Know the Territory" Meredith Wilson, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1959 - don't know why they didn't make the final cut )