Reed 1 has flute and sax leads with an opportunity to improvise a little in “Rum Tum Tugger”. Flute part is exposed and quite high. Reed 2 has some easy flute parts and is almost always playing flute with Reed 1.
“This show DOES have low A’s written for [baritone saxophone]. Also, neither of the flute books utilize a low B extension.
“It may also be noted, though, that in reed 1, there are a couple tenor saxophone solos that could be improvised or played as written but the written part goes up to an altissimo A-sharp.”
I just finished playing Woodwind 1 book for a 10-piece orchestration for 5 performances of “Cats.” It’s not quite as described as above–it calls for flute, tenor sax, soprano sax and clarinet. Very heavy on flute and tenor sax, requiring extreme ranges on both (D4 to C7 on flute, and Bb3 to B6 (altissimo) on tenor) and exposed playing on each. Soprano sax is only called for on one number in Act I–so you can put away the soprano at intermission and get ahead on pack-up time 😉 Woodwind 2 is the only other woodwind, and plays most of the other soprano sax lines and the beefier clarinet lines in the musical. This musical has no resting points except intermission. Continuous musical numbers back to back–so you’d better be sure you have gone to the bathroom, and don’t plan on adjusting reeds or much swabbing out of instruments, etc. between numbers or in rests. 🙂 It is reasonable on total time, though–our downbeat was 7:30 and I was packed up and leaving the parking lot at 9:30. One challenge I faced was having to go directly from extended tenor playing directly to delicate exposed flute solo on the following number at one point. I eventually “re-orchestrated” the end of the tenor number and played it on flute (it was a big, full ending and I could easily sneak a warm-up on flute for those last few measures before having to immediately play the exposed solo following.) My summary: this orchestration of “Cats” will be a challenge for the casual doubler who is a sax player that can “do some flute,” or for the flute player who can “do some sax.” (The soprano sax and clarinet demands are relatively tame and infrequent in this book. Oh, and there is one number that includes a section marked “Clarinet” and has some very high licks–but it is really for flute and wasn’t marked correctly.
Updated per information received from Derek Grice
There is also an 11-piece tour version available for rental:
reed 1: flute/clarinet/tenor sax
reed 2: clarinet/soprano sax/baritone sax
Also there is also a reduced 7-piece tour version:
flute/clarinet/tenor sax
11-piece version added here, 7-piece version added here. Thanks!
Reed 1 has flute and sax leads with an opportunity to improvise a little in “Rum Tum Tugger”. Flute part is exposed and quite high. Reed 2 has some easy flute parts and is almost always playing flute with Reed 1.
Comments from Richard Krishnan:
“This show DOES have low A’s written for [baritone saxophone]. Also, neither of the flute books utilize a low B extension.
“It may also be noted, though, that in reed 1, there are a couple tenor saxophone solos that could be improvised or played as written but the written part goes up to an altissimo A-sharp.”
The UK version (published by the Really Useful Group) 16-part version is as above.
Their 10-part version is as above minus reed 3.
http://www.stageamusical.com/featured-home-page/cats/
Updated this listing to show Really Useful Group as an additional publisher, and added 10-part version as a new listing. Thanks!
I just finished playing Woodwind 1 book for a 10-piece orchestration for 5 performances of “Cats.” It’s not quite as described as above–it calls for flute, tenor sax, soprano sax and clarinet. Very heavy on flute and tenor sax, requiring extreme ranges on both (D4 to C7 on flute, and Bb3 to B6 (altissimo) on tenor) and exposed playing on each. Soprano sax is only called for on one number in Act I–so you can put away the soprano at intermission and get ahead on pack-up time 😉 Woodwind 2 is the only other woodwind, and plays most of the other soprano sax lines and the beefier clarinet lines in the musical. This musical has no resting points except intermission. Continuous musical numbers back to back–so you’d better be sure you have gone to the bathroom, and don’t plan on adjusting reeds or much swabbing out of instruments, etc. between numbers or in rests. 🙂 It is reasonable on total time, though–our downbeat was 7:30 and I was packed up and leaving the parking lot at 9:30. One challenge I faced was having to go directly from extended tenor playing directly to delicate exposed flute solo on the following number at one point. I eventually “re-orchestrated” the end of the tenor number and played it on flute (it was a big, full ending and I could easily sneak a warm-up on flute for those last few measures before having to immediately play the exposed solo following.) My summary: this orchestration of “Cats” will be a challenge for the casual doubler who is a sax player that can “do some flute,” or for the flute player who can “do some sax.” (The soprano sax and clarinet demands are relatively tame and infrequent in this book. Oh, and there is one number that includes a section marked “Clarinet” and has some very high licks–but it is really for flute and wasn’t marked correctly.
Based on additional research, I believe Jeff’s version reflects an update to David’s version, so I’ve updated that listing.