I just finished cutting and pasting the second flute and picc parts for our next orchestra concert. It took about three hours to go through each part, deciding which passages on each instrument were most needed to convey the musical intentions of the composer. Quite presumptuous of me, don’t you think! I haven’t done anything like it for quite awhile. It reminded me of playing for musicals, and having to transpose parts or shuffle parts from different books.
The reason I was doing this is that here is quite a bit of piccolo in the upcoming concert program, but not a lot where the 2nd flute and the piccolo are needed. We have two regular, permanent, full-time, whatever you want to call us, flute positions, with the option of bringing in someone to play 3rd/picc. If someone had been brought in to play piccolo only, either that person or myself would have been sitting idle for a lot of concert, assuming we didn’t double parts where possible. Not an unusual situation for orchestral playing, but not the most fun for the players. Our conductor let us make the decision of either bringing in an auxiliary or to try to cover the parts ourselves. Guess which we chose!
I do feel a little badly because we have kept someone else from having an opportunity to play, but I am also really psyched for the challenge. Advantages are that we will save the group a little money by not having to hire someone else and we can continue to develop what is a newly formulated wind section. (And a kickass wind section it is turning out to be!) There will not be any new variable introduced into the mix.
There is the issue of whether the music will be adequately served. It could be argued that it should be done exactly as the composer wrote it. This creates a clash with the operating practicalities of struggling orchestras. I have tried to be as true to what I perceive as the composer’s intention in my choices, preserving the impactful gestures and prominent harmonies. All told, I’m pretty satisfied with my musical craft project. We’ll see how it works in rehearsal!