One of my favourite musicals ever is Legally Blonde. Earlier this year, I got to play in the pit for it, on the reed 1 part. I thought I’d talk a bit about the reed parts – which instruments are played on which parts and where the hardest bits are. This is to help people out when picking instrumentalists for the parts – you don’t want your best flautist to end up with the easy flute bit and all the horrible clarinet solos!
Legally Blonde has some really difficult reed parts that require lots of instruments. Reed 1 is written for piccolo, flute, clarinet, alto sax, oboe and cor anglais and reed 2 is for piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax and baritone sax. Note that the oboe and cor anglais parts in reed 1 are doubled on clarinet.
The score expects a lot of the woodwind players in terms of instrument doubling. Both parts require the player to have access to a lot of different instruments and crucially, the oboe and cor anglais are written into the same part as the other reeds (usually these would be separated and have their own part). I’ll talk more about which parts are better suited to players, dependent on their first instruments below.
How do double reeds fit into the Legally Blonde score?
Usually, in a pit band score, double reeds will be on their own part, separate from the other reeds. A single reed and flute player will not often be expected to double on the oboe, cor anglais and bassoon as well. There are some exceptions to this, though, and Legally Blonde is one of them. The reed 1 part contains some passages for oboe and cor anglais. There is no double reed instrument in reed 2 in the rental music, although there are marking on the parts to listen for a bassoon cue which has since been removed.
I have played this part myself and although I do own an oboe, I am not a proficient oboist. I am at the level where I get the oboe out of the back cupboard once a year to check that the reeds still sound (they usually don’t) and did grade 6 on it as a child. As I’m a much better flautist, saxophonist and clarinetist (having studied sax at university) I can get through simple parts on the oboe. I was able to play some of the oboe parts in Legally Blonde but used the substitute clarinet parts for parts where I wasn’t confident.
If I’d had the time, it would certainly have been possible for me to learn the oboe parts – the difficulty level was not all that high, it would just have taken some work for me to reach the stamina level for the oboe as much as anything else. A lot of the oboe part is also exposed passages, which meant a higher level of performance was required than when most of the pit band is playing together.
I do not have a cor anglais, and have never played one so I cannot comment to much on the cor anglais parts. I played these on clarinet. However, there were very few cor anglais sections (no more than three short passages) and these were mostly long held notes. There is a quick triple passage in Ireland (reprise) but this is alongside the rest of the pit band and is difficult to hear. The difficulty would likely be in keeping the reed warm rather than in playing the part itself.
What are the flute parts like in Legally Blonde?
There is quite a lot of flute work in both of the Legally Blonde reed parts. Usually the reed 1 part would have the more difficult passages for flute, but this is not particularly the case in this part. The flute solos are mostly in the reed 1 part but reed 2 is also expected to double on piccolo, and sometimes takes the main flute part while reed 1 plays the oboe line. This is the case in the overture at the start, where the reed 2 part has quite a complex flute part, although this is not an exposed passage.
In passages where two flutes are required, reed 1 will take 1st flute and reed 2 will take 2nd flute as expected in a pit band score. There are some pretty high sections for first flute, with top B’s expected throughout fast passages at times. One notable part is a very exposed, slow solo going up to a top B. I toyed with playing this on the piccolo to take the pressure off a bit but stuck to the flute in the end because the timbre was better.
The piccolo in reed 2 definitely isn’t worth worrying about if you’re not much of a flautist. There is almost nothing written for it – I think maybe even just one small passage and this isn’t exposed and can be played up the octave on flute. It also isn’t difficult so could be a good chance to give the piccolo a go if you’ve been looking for an excuse. The reed 1 part has quite a lot of piccolo, with some really nice exposed parts – a particularly good one is in Gay or European,
The place where reed 2 really gets the difficult bit flute-wise is in Legally Blonde Remix. This is part of the Ireland tune and reed 1 is on oboe, leaving reed 2 with the really high quick flute passages. This is doable but will take some practicing if you’re not a first instrument flautist or a professional.
What are the clarinet parts like in Legally Blonde?
The clarinet doesn’t actually feature that heavily in the Legally Blonde music. This suited me quite well as my main instruments are really flute and sax. The reed 2 part does have a few small clarinet solos which are quite exposed, but none are all that difficult. Take it Like a Man has some exposed clarinet passages and some quick scales but this didn’t really present too much of a problem.
If you’re not going to play the oboe parts on reed 1, you’re going to need to do a bit more on the clarinet. The oboe has a fairly big part and some of it is definitely better suited to oboe playing than clarinet playing. There are a few awkward passages around the break if you’re doing it on clarinet. Again, Legally Blonde Remix has a difficult reed 1 part, whether you choose to play it on oboe or clarinet.
What are the sax parts like in Legally Blonde?
I think of all of the reed instruments written for in Legally Blonde, the sax parts are the most fun. They feature mainly in the big, showy numbers and are usually have a sort of American funk style. The baritone parts in reed 2 are often in the low register and you get to punch out some very rhythmic stabs. There are low A’s in the baritone part, so it’s much better if you have a sax that can play these. I really enjoyed the baritone part in Bend and Snap, although watch out for the 6 sharps!
Reed 1 doesn’t have a huge amount of sax, as only alto is in the part. What you want is probably the best one. Again, the difficulty level isn’t too high and the part is really fun to play. There aren’t really any exposed passages for sax, it’s used pretty much exclusively in the big, all band numbers. Probably the hardest thing about the sax parts (particularly alto and bari) is that they’re usually in a pretty nasty key, having been transposed. Generally, though, there’s nothing difficult enough to single out.
General points on the score
A few things to note about the reed parts and score in general. The show is very music-heavy so there aren’t many big dialogue breaks and you should expect it to be pretty full on. The numbers are almost all really energetic so you’ll need a lot of stamina. The woodwind parts have a lot of instrument changes within pieces. You’ll need to take some time to plan where you’re putting all your instruments and note down when you might need to play, say, a flute part with a sax hanging round your neck ready to grab.
Overall, the level of playing required for this musical is quite high in comparison to a lot of others. You need to be able to play more instruments than most, with the big thing being the double reeds in the reed 1 part. As well as being difficult for the reed 1 player, it also makes the flute part more difficult for reed 2, who would normally be a clarinet specialist. In my opinion, the show is one of the best around at the moment and I’d happily play either reed part again any time.