"Carousel," orchestration, Don Walker
Jon Conrad
It has been suggested to me that I might share some of the
stories or discoveries I've made in the course of research
for a book [which will now probably not be written, for
reasons too boring to go into] on theater orchestration,
that I've been working at off and on over the past few
years. One discovery in particular seemed especially
interesting at the time. It has to do with CAROUSEL. Those
with no interest in this show, or orchestration, may feel
free to hit 'k' or whatever key will kill this article now!
:-)
In 1987 I was making a list of the old-time orchestrators
whom I wanted to interview if possible -- and was chagrined
to discover them mostly dead, within the past decade (Robert
Russell Bennett, Philip J. Lang, Hershy Kay, Eddie Sauter,
and Hans Spialek were among the missing, and Robert Ginzler
had passed on a bit earlier). Jonathan Tunick and Michael
Gibson were among the current practitioners I admired, and I
arranged to speak to them; but among the veterans Don Walker
was still alive. He was in retirement in rural
Pennsylvania, and I had the good fortune to manage to see
him at length in his home on two occasions (he died a year
later). He was a delightful man whose memory for things
long past came to life after a little conversation, and I
heard some surprising things from him.
The most informative memories had to do with CAROUSEL. It
has always been a little puzzling to those who follow the
Rodgers and Hammerstein shows that while the famous Mr.
Bennett scored almost all of them (indeed, if his name is
known it's probably because of these musicals), CAROUSEL is
credited to Walker. Sometimes (from some of the people at
the R&H office, for instance) I would hear, "Oh, but Bennett
did most of it really." I knew that it was quite common for
arrangers to sub-contract parts of shows because of time or
other pressures, but in this case I wanted to find out about
this for myself.
First, I examined the original copies of the orchestra
scores, available to researchers in the Library of Congress.
They were among materials deposited by Bennett, which was
strange in this case. But the scores themselves were
fascinating. Loose pages, like all these original
manuscripts, which had been arranged by an archivist in
manila folders by individual "number," and laid into storage
boxes. They were in several different handwritings, each
quite distinctive--especially helpful was the way each
orchestrator drew a different viola clef, just to help
scholars like me!! The "Carousel Waltz" and "Soliloquy"
were the only numbers missing--I guessed that these scores
had been pulled early on, for use in concerts, and never
replaced. Some numbers existed in more than one scoring,
the priority of which was unclear, and there was some cut
material at the end of the last box of pages.
Eventually I managed to distinguish 5 different hands.
One of these was careful about signing the first page of
each of his numbers "H. Spialek" and was thus clearly the
work of the great Hans Spialek, rediscovered by modern
audiences when he emerged to help with the 1983 ON YOUR TOES
revival; in CAROUSEL he seemed to be responsible for the
"colorful" moments like atmospheric interludes, plus the
whole song "When the Children Are Asleep."
Another, by cross-reference to the other Rodgers scores in
the Library, could be identified as Robert Russell Bennett;
his sole contribution was the beginning of the initial scene
between Julie and Carrie, "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan"
(and among the discards was his continuation of this through
"Mr. Snow").
Another hand looked a little like Bennett's, but had some
detectable differences, and he always misspelled the show's
title (on the first page of each of his numbers) as
CARROUSEL. This was helpful. This person did quite a bit,
most importantly "Real Nice Clambake" and "You'll Never Walk
Alone."
By far the majority of the score was in a neat calligraphy
that I provisionally assumed had to be Don Walker's. ALL
these gentlemen had marvelous music notation, by the way.
Even on a commercial project like this, under huge time
pressure, they worked beautifully in ink, rarely making a
mistake.
The fifth person, responsible only for the Entr'acte, did
not. His writing looked as if it had been done behind his
back with a felt pen, and was crude compared to the rest.
Finally, when I talked to Mr. Walker (I was immediately
invited to call him "Don"), the mysteries were resolved.
At the time of CAROUSEL, Bennett, Walker, and Spialek were
all under contract to Chappell, the publishers of Rodgers'
and many other scores. Bennett was called upon for
CAROUSEL, as everyone assumed he would be after OKLAHOMA!
worked so well. He started from the beginning and scored
the Waltz and the whole Julie-Carrie scene.
Then, for reasons that remain unclear, he and Rodgers parted
company. Nobody seems to know why. Bennett may have had a
job he wanted to do more, for which Rodgers didn't want to
release him. Anyway, Bennett left the show (quit? fired?)
and Rodgers was mad. Chappell had to supply another
arranger, so Walker was called in.
Now this was not a convenient time for him. He was a
composer too, and he had a show of his own (MEMPHIS BOUND)
in rehearsal. But he had to postpone it and go to work on
CAROUSEL. As anybody who's worked on it knows, it contains
a *lot* of music.
He called on Spialek to help out with a few bits (again,
this is not at all unusual or shameful; most musicals
contain a few uncredited arranging assists). He asked one
Joe Glover to do the Entr'acte (so there was one mystery
solved; I have since found some credits for Glover among
'50s shows).
When Walker got to the second act, and there was a whole 20-
minute ballet to score, he realized he'd need help with the
other stuff. So he called in "Steve Jones from the NBC
radio music staff," who owed him a favor, and gave him some
of the numbers yet to be done. My impression is that he
gave Jones a short score to work from, indicating the sort
of figuration and treatment that he wanted, but Don wasn't
clear about that to me and it must remain conjectural. I
also have yet to confirm that this is the Stephen O. Jones
who worked on many musicals of the 1920s, for Gershwin and
others. That Jones lived until 1962, so it's possible, but
none of his biographical listings mention NBC or CAROUSEL.
Anyway. The show got scored. It opened, and was recorded.
Don could go back to MEMPHIS BOUND, and it opened (and
closed, but that's another story). That summer Rodgers came
to him and made two requests: (1) to re-score the Waltz and
Mr. Snow scene, so there'd be nothing of Bennett's left in
the show; (2) to do a "concert" version of the "Carousel
Waltz" for use in pops concerts--requests were already
coming in. Now, both (1) and (2) involved orchestrating the
"Carousel Waltz"--but, said Rodgers, "I'm not going to pay
to have it done twice!"
[Sidebar: Rodgers was famous for being stingy. Once he
hired an orchestra member to count measures for a show Don
was orchestrating -- it was the show with Hart BY JUPITER! -
- because he was sure he was being overcharged. The man did
count, and informed Rodgers he was in fact being
*under*charged and had better not complain!]
So: Don Walker had to create a scoring for the "Carousel
Waltz" for full orchestra, but with all instruments not part
of the CAROUSEL pit (3rd flute, 2nd oboe, English horn, bass
clarinet, 2nd bassoon, contrabassoon, 4th horn, 3rd trumpet)
treated as "optional." If used, they had to have a sensible
part that wouldn't upset balance; if absent (as in the show
itself), it mustn't matter. So Don did it, and he told me
that it was the hardest thing he ever had to do.
He did it brilliantly, too. It's a real orchestral piece of
writing, alive with countermelodies, continuity, variety of
texture, and endless imagination. It works in either
scoring configuration. Listen to the excellent new
recording (of the full symphonic complement) on the "Opening
Night" album, conducted by John Mauceri, and hear how it
sparkles.
Don also redid "Mr. Snow" at this point, but left the
preceding musical scene alone, so that's the only bit of
Bennett remaining in the show.
The original-cast recording of CAROUSEL, on Decca (now MCA),
includes the Bennett "Waltz" (abridged) and "Mr. Snow" verse
(for the refrain they jump to the reprise, with women's
chorus, which is the work of Jones). As far as I know
Bennett's score of the "Carousel Waltz" still hasn't turned
up anywhere--last I heard they were looking in the Yale
archives. It would make a fascinating comparison someday.
And Don himself was a fascinating individual. Think how
versatile a musician he must have been, to have created the
"sound" not only for CAROUSEL, but THE PAJAMA GAME, DAMN
YANKEES, THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, THE MUSIC MAN, SHE LOVES ME,
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, CABARET, THE ROTHSCHILDS, and
SHENANDOAH. That's quite a range, chronologically and
stylistically, and each inhabits its own distinctive sound
world. Such was the talent of Don Walker.
Jon Alan Conrad
pet...@polari.online.com
orchestrated Sondheim's famous 9-performance cult classic, "Anyone Can
Whistle." I don't have my books handy as I'm at work, but I believe
"Sondheim and Company" mentions that he complained that the music was
"too hard."
I can attest to the fact that it ain't easy--I played it in college. If
I recall, there are no violins or violas in the orchestra, just celli.
Some of the numbers have meter changes all over the place-- especially
the "Interrogation," where you're constantly switching between 3 and 2
eighth note groupings on the word "*simple*"! In the "Cookie Chase"
there are bars in 11/8, again, if I remember correctly. The style
ranges from jazzy to a sort of cross between Poulenc and Stravinsky,
plus the beginnings of many Sondheim techniques we saw come to full
bloom in the '70s.
Anyway, Walker did a great job on that one too, as we can now hear for
ourselves, as the collector's item LP has been re-released on CD. And
considering the complexity and newness of the music, plus the fact that
many people did not like the music at the time, it speaks well for
Walker's versatility as a musician, which Jon mentioned.
One interesting thing about the parts. The show had not been done
much, and the books we got appeared to be Diazo copies of the original
transparencies. I think the actual Broadway orchestra may have played
off these originals at one point, because there are lots of strikeouts
in different handwritings, counting aids and more than a few nasty
comments *printed* in the parts, in the same bluish color as the notes!
Thanks for a great article, Jon. I conducted "Carousel" at summer
theatre back in 1974, and have always loved the scoring. It's almost
symphonic/operatic in many places. And the polytonal opening of the
"Waltz" shows more knowledge of music than usually seen on Broadway at
the time--I wonder if that was Rodgers, Bennet or Walker's doing?
If you're not going to publish your book, maybe you could give us a few
more tidbits? I would "love" to hear what Jonathan Tunick had to say,
for example.
--
--Peter (Peter A. Klein)
pet...@polari.online.com : -----==3== ___ ___
uunet!polari.online.com!peterk : | | | | | | | |
peterk%polari.o...@uunet.uu.net : @| @| @| @| @| @| @| @|
Jon Conrad
>In addition to the many shows Jon Conrad mentioned, Don Walker also
>orchestrated Sondheim's famous 9-performance cult classic, "Anyone Can
>Whistle." I don't have my books handy as I'm at work, but I believe
>"Sondheim and Company" mentions that he complained that the music was
>"too hard."
Something like that. Alas, I didn't ask him about that show during my
interviews with him. Having heard that there was acrimony between him
and Sondheim (whether that was in fact true or not), I hesitated to get
him remembering unpleasant things when I had a lot left to ask him
about. In retrospect, of course, I shouldn't have been so timid.
There's a book of famous Broadway photographs, with comments by the
people in them, made years after the fact. The one of "Anyone Can
Whistle" has a comment from the show's conductor, Herbert Greene, about
how awful he thought the score was. He says something like "So we [love
that "we" -- like he did all the work of orchestration] tried our best
to make it sound interesting, using unusual sounds like a string section
consisting of 5 cellos. Because in reality, it was so....yuck!" Thank
you, Mr. Greene.
>I can attest to the fact that it ain't easy--I played it in college. If
>I recall, there are no violins or violas in the orchestra, just celli.
Yep, 5 of them.
>Some of the numbers have meter changes all over the place-- especially
>the "Interrogation," where you're constantly switching between 3 and 2
>eighth note groupings on the word "*simple*"! In the "Cookie Chase"
>there are bars in 11/8, again, if I remember correctly. The style
>ranges from jazzy to a sort of cross between Poulenc and Stravinsky,
>plus the beginnings of many Sondheim techniques we saw come to full
>bloom in the '70s.
I think one of the reasons it was "hard" for Walker was that he and the
other arrangers of his generation had worked on the principle that you
disguise the piano origins of the music when you orchestrate. With
Sondheim's distinctive "vamp" style, that means distributing a lot of
disjointed notes and half-phrases to different instruments. Jonathan
Tunick made a valuable discovery when he undertook "Company" in 1971 --
you have to *embrace* the piano style and not be afraid to let it sound
like a keyboard. That was part of the originality and value of Tunick's
partnership with Sondheim. (He was also skillful enough to work the
same trick even without a piano, as in "A Little Night Music" -- yes,
there's a piano in the pit but it's never used for rhythm.)
Tunick respected Walker enormously, by the way. I knew someone who had
been some kind of assistant on "The Rothschilds" (orch Walker) who left
it to do similar work for "Follies" (Tunick). He was young, and
thinking to ingratiate himself with Tunick he made some semi-disparaging
remark about the old-fashioned scoring of the show he'd just been doing.
Tunick immediately responded with something like "Don't you say a word
against Don Walker! He's one of the great ones!" He thought equally
highly of Bennett, by the way. And his nominee for the greatest ever
was Robert Ginzler.
>Anyway, Walker did a great job on that one too, as we can now hear for
>ourselves, as the collector's item LP has been re-released on CD. And
>considering the complexity and newness of the music, plus the fact that
>many people did not like the music at the time, it speaks well for
>Walker's versatility as a musician, which Jon mentioned.
Absolutely. Even if the writing was not Walker's own cup of tea, he did
a hell of a fine job.
>Thanks for a great article, Jon. I conducted "Carousel" at summer
>theatre back in 1974, and have always loved the scoring. It's almost
>symphonic/operatic in many places. And the polytonal opening of the
>"Waltz" shows more knowledge of music than usually seen on Broadway at
>the time--I wonder if that was Rodgers, Bennet or Walker's doing?
You're very welcome. The polytonal opening is missing from Rodgers'
earliest piano manuscripts. It's unknown exactly at what stage the
parallel chords were added to the texture -- possibly by Bennett (I
forget if they're audible on the original cast album).
By the way, a lot of the instrumental figuration in this or any show
comes from the orchestrator. Anybody who knows the song "If I Loved
You," think of the instrumental 2-measure fill that starts right after
"all I'd want you to know...". You know, the bit that sounds like "time
and again," with the triplets. Well that's entirely Walker. There's no
hint of it in any of Rodgers' manuscripts (nor for that matter in the
published piano-vocal score), and now it's hard to imagine the song
without it.
>If you're not going to publish your book, maybe you could give us a few
>more tidbits? I would "love" to hear what Jonathan Tunick had to say,
>for example.
I haven't QUITE given up on publication yet! :-) But I may be able to
share a few things from time to time.
Jon Alan Conrad