Set design from Sweeney Todd in Peter Jöbäck’s “I Love Musicals” tour 2013
Sweeney Todd is a mad serial killer who slits the throats of his victims, then hurtles them backwards out of his booby trapped barber chair, falling down a hole where they hit their heads on the stones of his basement. The bodies are then resourcefully baked into meat pies by his accomplice, Mrs. Nellie Lovett, selling to unsuspecting customers from her shop across the street.
I don’t like stories like this but I felt like I had to know Sweeney’s story when I was asked to play “Epiphany” from the musical “Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street” on tour with Peter Jöbäck and the Stockholm Sinfonietta recently. “Epiphany” is when Sweeney truly goes mad, deciding to seek revenge for personal injustices by killing rich and influential citizens and mercifully ending the lives of the poor. The bassoon part starts out with articulated high F’s followed by G#’s. I’ve never had to play those notes in an orchestra before.
Bassoon part from Sweeney Todd musical
Admittedly, the first time I saw the F natural I had to look up the fingering in my Cooper (printed encyclopedia of bassoon fingerings) because I had forgotten it. The only time one sees high F’s is in French bassoon recital pieces. There was no fingering for G# in the Cooper so I looked that up on the Internet and found it on the IDRS website.
I am the kind of player that stubbornly tries to play everything written on the page – no “cheating”, no shortcuts. (But if something just isn’t working I am capable of resigning myself to less acceptable solutions.) As I mentioned in an earlier blog, one of the pluses of working as a freelancer is substituting in many different ensembles, meeting other players and learning from them. One thing I have noticed is that many players ”cheat” – and I now realize that this is a good thing – often a necessity for survival. Of course, we all try to play what is asked of us, but sometimes it just isn’t realistic. Technical obstacles get in the way: the reed, the instrument, one’s physical condition, our limited time and even the limitations of others.
So, how did I approach this recent challenge?
I only received the music a few days before the first rehearsal: 40 musical hits. Most of it was not difficult and I honestly didn’t do more than give it a glance because I also had been told that we were scheduled to rehearse from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm for four days straight. I didn’t practice the music much because I knew that if I did I would find the rehearsals tiresome – plus I thought there was nothing to practice anyway. Another bassoonist had penciled in notes down a fifth so I assumed that I could do the same. It turned out I could have done the same but I made the ”mistake” of approaching the conductor, Julian Bigg, and asking if I could look at the score. So, what always happens when you ask the conductor for his or her opinion? Do I need to write about this? The result is always the same. Experienced musicians usually avoid speaking to the conductor. Best to just keep quiet and solve the problem on your own. Risky business- but I take risks. I know that taking risks is a dangerous necessity for personal development.
Before approaching Julian I wrote a request for suggestions on Facebook. One bassoonist told me it was a mistake and should be played on the clarinet. Another confirmed this, telling me he had played it on ”third clarinet” and the “V” book was for a bassoonist doubling on clarinet – making this his clarinet debut in the San Francisco Symphony. The bassoonist who had played the part on tour before me played another note in the chord. All of these solutions have legitimacy – although when I did look at the score there was nothing to be seen about doubling on clarinet. Honestly, if I had to play the part streamed live with a professional orchestra in a concert hall I would consider playing the G# down an octave. This is perfectly legitimate since this is the option printed in the score:
Score from Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street
My performances are not streamed live from a concert hall with great acoustics fine-tuned over the years by highly trained acousticians. The orchestra is the Stockholm Sinfonietta – a fine group of musicians from the best Swedish orchestras.
With roses, candles and a tablecloth an ice hockey locker room is converted to a changing room for Stockholm Sinfonietta’s violinists.
But the venues are stadiums, not concert houses. Sound engineers who work mostly with rock musicians set up the microphones and work the sound board. My second performance was at the COOP Arena in Luleå – an ice hockey rink in Lapland, not far from the Arctic Circle. The first performance was at the Fjällräven Arena in Örnsköldsvik (birthplace of world class ice hockey players) – an ice hockey rink with a two second echo. During the sound check I joked with the second bassoonist that probably nothing from the bassoons would be audible. Then I whispered into the mike – and heard my hushed “hello” boom back at me from thousands of empty folding chairs. Well, perhaps the bassoons could be heard better than in any concert hall!
Considering that such crowds often surreptitiously record concerts with their smartphones and immediately post the videos on YouTube, my G#s are probably somewhere out there in cyberspace – and have already probably been viewed by more people than would have looked at live streamed performances from most “legitimate” concert halls. (Just try Googling “Peter Jöbäck I Love Musicals”.) But I also acknowledge that it’s unlikely those G#s will be heard from audio recorded with an iPhone in an ice hockey rink.
In Julian’s score with five woodwinds – piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon – there is a notated option of playing the F and G# down an octave. Julian told me that the original musical score was written for only three woodwinds but that since then there have been many arrangements for larger ensembles.
I asked Julian for his opinion because in my heart I knew I should play those F’s and G#’s. In my heart I knew those screecher notes are the screams of Sweeney’s victims when he slits their throats. Listening to the music you’ll hear “Psycho” interwoven with the dies irae theme of death. If you watch the 2007 musical-thriller film directed by Tim Burton with Johnny Depp as Sweeney and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, you’ll see what I mean. Gruesome stuff. More blood than in “Breaking Bad”. On the bassoon a high G# even has an eery metallic harmonic in the sound: the swipe of Sweeney’s razor.
So, how to play a high G#5 on the bassoon? I finger it like this: ooo|ooo + c a (left thumb flick keys).
And, I use my teeth on the reed. Specifically, just my right upper front tooth lightly touching the upper blade 1/3 back from the first wire. I also use a special high note bocal but keep the same reed as I have been using for the rest of the piece. After the G# there are six measures of rests that allow time to switch back to a standard bocal with careful planning. Good support, high air pressure and confidence help too. Don’t be afraid to miss a note. If there is any place in music where you can miss a high G# this is the place. Oops! Sweeney missed but a life was saved.
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