- Piccolo, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone
- Piccolo, flute, E-flat clarinet [optional], clarinet, alto saxophone
- [optional] Piccolo, flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone
- Clarinet, bass clarinet [to low C], baritone saxophone [to low A]
- [optional] Bassoon
West Side Story
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Updated per information received from Alex Preston
Updated per information received from BJ Perez III
Updated per information received from Richard Krishnan (reed 4 baritone saxophone requires low A).
If you’re curious, here’s the percentage of the book on each instrument. I only counted measures with actual notes (ignoring long rests):
Bass clarinet: 58%
Bari sax: 33%
Bb clarinet: 9%
There’s also a bunch of “alternate” cues written into the part, so that the Reed 3 and Reed 5 books can be totally covered by the other players. Here’s the split if you play all the alternate notes:
Bass clarinet: 45%
Bari sax: 34%
Bb clarinet: 19%
Flute: 1% (55 measures — nothing too critical, though)
Overall:
There’s a LOT of low C (bass) and low A (bari) in this book. It’s playable without them – that’s what I did, since I was using borrowed instruments – but it just wasn’t as good. Try as hard as you can to get the right instruments!
A couple of corrections for the Reed 3 book:
#6, measure 93 – A# not A natural
#8, measure 99 – the last note of the triplet on beat 3 is A# not A natural
#10, measure 128 – the bar only has 3 1/2 beats. There is a C natural 8th note missing from the and of 4
#13d, measure 158 – C# not C natural
I have recently played this in a community theater. Reed 2 also has bass clarinet, but it is very minimal. Reed 4 also has flute, put it is also very minimal.
I meant to comment when I used this book years ago, but the Reed 4 of this printing is littered with typos, it’s migraine-inducing. Just a disclaimer for anyone to really check each note meticulously. Sorry for not keeping a hard copy of all the needed changes!