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The Beginning
Broadway II Productions started in 1979 in the Cincinnati, OH area as an entertainment act for industrial and theatre performances, featuring an outstanding talent in Vincent Godfrey, a singer with a five octave range and charisma that delighted audiences of every age. Richard Ashworth was his sidekick as the keyboard player, utilizing (back then) gadgets of all types and sizes to create as full and rich a performing environment as possible, given the non-MIDI limitations of the times. Broadway II had a repertoire from 40's male features, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, to some entertaining Broadway features including Magic to Do, Trouble in River City, All for the Best and Mr. Bojangles. When appearing as a larger group, Broadway II was augmented by a singing ensemble called The Mistics, which consisted of four very talented gentlemen with a vocal sound that was reminiscent of a combination of the Temptations mixed with a more current beat of today's sound.
In 1981, MIDI was born, and Richard Ashworth, being the forever musical gadget maven, began to experiment with this new technology for music. After purchasing the new Roland MPU401 interface, and a Casio keyboard that had MIDI capability, the first attempt at this electronic "player piano" was the Ballet from "Oklahoma," just to see what could be done with the new toys. From the piano only arrangements, he began to augment orchestral instruments to attempt to create an "automated pit orchestra," keeping in mind that the primary goal would be to make the music sound musical, that is, not like a computer was performing, but rather a formal performance by a live orchestra!
The first official experiment in the mid 80's was to provide accompaniment for a local community theatre company for a excerpt presentation of the Sondheim hit, "Company," and included the title song, Sorry Grateful, and Little Things. The commercial viability of MIDI came in a backhanded remark from one of the critics for the excerpt competition, who refused to comment on the music of the presentation, and rather just the singing presentation, as it was obvious that the group had purchased commercial tracks for their performance. (!!)
The first attempt at mostly automating an entire production came a few years later with a production of Stephen Schwartz' "The Baker's Wife." The production would occur in a "little theatre" (seating approximately 170), and contained an orchestration that included important contributions by some unusual instruments; harp, accordion, woodwind quintet, viola (no violin), cello, piano, bass and a unusual percussion arrangement. The problem of locating proficient musicians on these difficult instruments was compounded by the arrangement provided to the theatre company by the licensing agent. As "The Baker's Wife" was closed in pre-Broadway tryouts, the score and orchestra parts were never fully annotated or synchronized for live players. The licensor provided a piano/conductor score of the US version of the show, but orchestra books for the London version, which included two lengthy pieces that were NOT in the conductor's score! With the permission of the licensor, a conductor score was synthesized for those two pieces, using a revolutionary new notation program called Finale by Coda Systems. It provided the necessary music to permit rehearsal. The next step was to sequence the orchestration for use by production.
Having performed on french horn, piano, bass, and percussion for over 15 years at the time, including a stint as musical director for several AEA dinner theatres, and a national tour of the Schwartz hit "Pippin," orchestrating and arranging was a familiar task, but to arrange a sequence for an entire production from Overture to Exit Music was going to be a daunting labor of love. Using an IBM PC clone, MusicQuest MQX32-M MIDI interface, and seven sound modules, every measure of the production including incidental music, scene changes, and production numbers was created for the Baker's Wife production. Theoretical recreation of the instruments was crucial, recreating the physical nuances that an instrument creates, i.e.: in a string of straight 8th notes on strings, all notes are not the same length, accounting for the physical difference between up and down bowing. Different patches would be required for attack changes, i.e.: arco, legato, marcato, pizzicato and tremolo for strings, ff - mf - legato, staccato, muted timbres for brass. Then mixing the instrumental sounds, making sure that they are in a correct dynamic relation to each other, and to the score requirements were added. The final touch was the tempo adjustments for tempo changes, tenare passages, holds, and the like.
Seven hundred plus hours later, the music was ready for performance. To cue singers and keep them on tempo, a camera was setup to focus on a 6 inch square background, on which Ashworth's finger was tapped throughout the entire production to provide the "conductor" for the actors on stage. A large television set was placed up in the light bar in the center of the audience, so that actors could observe the beat and stay with the sequence. It was, indeed, the most powerful finger in theatre at the time. (big grin) The sequences were transferred from the PC to a Roland WV30 hardware sequencer and run behind the set.
The performance was a complete success, not only from the production end (sold out house, over a dozen awards by the state community theatre organization), but also technically, in that it was shown that sequencing would indeed work for live theatre! If programmed correctly, sequences can be trained to "breathe" with the actor, key changes are a minor adjustment (as opposed to telling a live orchestra to "take it down a third"), and most importantly, the entire orchestra is present at the first rehearsal and throughout all rehearsals, allowing the actors a decided "comfort level" with the accompaniment, as opposed to the (sometimes good, sometimes not so good) appearance of the live orchestra and conductor a week prior to opening night. There are a couple of additional benefits, in that every instrument in the orchestra can now be represented, and the overall volume level could be controlled in theatres that simply do not have the tech resources to mike an entire cast to compete with the volume levels of a live orchestra, or the physical limitation imposed upon the theatre by space limitations.
Does sequencing replace a live pit orchestra? Well, yes and no. Sequencing will NEVER replace a trained pit orchestra, or the excitement that is provided by live musicians. HOWEVER, it will ALWAYS augment a not-so-good orchestra, or attempting to perform Fiddler on the Roof with a piano, bass and drums. The use of sequencing in a production is simply another tool that can be utilized, either fully (although a "real musician" in the pit for feel is always strongly recommended, and even required by some licensors), or partially, i.e.: live piano, bass, drums, guitar, and sequenced winds and strings.. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination of the director and musical director.
Today, sequences produced by Broadway II Productions are created on a Pentium class computer, utilizing 32 MIDI channels, and polyphony up to 160+ notes in some very dense orchestrations. Equipment from Roland, EMU Systems, and Kurzweil are used for recreating instruments used in the orchestra pit. While the tracks are arrangements of the original orchestrations, we try to remain faithful to the feel of the original score!
