About the Music
I think I can tell which songs were mainly written by Steve Martin from those for which Edie Brickell was the primary writer. I guess I shouldn't tease apart a collaboration, but something about Martin has always seemed odd to me—a lopsided combination of deftly witty and tragically corny—and I feel pretty alone in that, because I think for most people he's perfectly mainstream. Regardless, I also feel it in the lyric writing and composition, as well as in his (accomplished, to be sure) banjo playing. There are just little forced turns that probably work for him due to the way they gently tug on the ear.
Brickell, though: I'm pretty sure I had a crush on her when I was in college and her effervescent, whimsical debut with New Bohemians had us all wondering if we were what we were, or what. These many years later, the songs moving this story along elicit a more mature (and to be clear, platonic) kind of love. The playfulness is there, now with wisdom and wistfulness, grace and gravitas. Multiple listens reveal a depth of emotion and a wonderful sense of melody.
Overall, and of course no matter who wrote what, this is one of the more enjoyable scores I've had the privilege to play and listen to.
About the Orchestration
So many banjos. There's just the one banjo player (unless Martin himself shows up to play), but that one band member has to haul up to three different banjos, keep them all tuned and capo'd and spiked, and remember how to pivot from clawhammer to three-finger rolls to—oh yeah, this banjo part has quite a bit of acoustic guitar, too.
Three banjos, and three guitar parts. Sort of. The mandolin player gets to bring a guitar along, and then there's the regular guitar-guitar part (acoustic and electric). The string section does a different kind of doubling, where the instrument doesn't change, but its personality does. Violin/viola vs. fiddle; double bass vs. bull fiddle. The cello has to hang on for the ride.
There's drums and percussion, and then the pianist covers accordion (echoes of Come From Away) and—
Autoharp? What's that? Is that the thing that ZZ Top's bassist plays? (Don't shame me, Mother Maybelle. It was a joke. I know what an Autoharp is.)
Preparing to play the Mandolin/Guitar book for Bright Star
One of the first things I do when I get a new part is scroll through every page to see what stands out. It can be a difficult passage, a really beautiful melody, an odd performance direction, or, in some cases, surprise instruments that were not disclosed in the table of contents.
Out of nowhere, in the transition from "A Firmer Hand" to "Do Right," there's a switch to octave mandolin. So part of preparing to play this show was procuring an octave mandolin. This instrument holds a lot of promise for use in my other musical projects. I've already added a part in a chill/ambient tune I'm working on.
And then Act 2 has a really fun Western swing number that calls for…lap steel. It just so happens that I have recently begun learning steel guitar; but what if I hadn't? This is a tall order, no matter what. Fortunately I think the player could get by with a couple of easy 1-bar slide solos (provided you know the right tuning and grip), but I plan to play the whole part in earnest.
Practicing for this production has had three main components: mandolin tone, mandolin dexterity, and…lap steel. Unlike other shows that have used mandolin, this is not a quick flash of color or an ethnic nod: this here has you being the mandolin player of a bluegrass-ish/Old Time-ish ensemble, with quite a few solos and solo fills, plenty of bars hammering out the "snare" rhythm with chop chords, and gorgeous arpeggios in the ballads. Being this exposed and integral means making sure it's going to sound good.
The hardest part for me to get under my fingers is the instrumental that shows up multiple times in the "Picnic Dance," the Entr'acte, and bows or exit music. It feels like they took the banjo's naturally played sequence of notes and transcribed it verbatim so that the mandolin (& fiddle) play in unison with the banjo. It doesn't lie comfortably under the fingers or the picking hand. But music isn't always about comfort.
One thing I didn't have to spend a lot of preparation time for on this show is programming a ton of effects switches into a bank of presets and scenes. If the sound tech wants to mic the acoustic instruments, then I only need amplification for the steel guitar. But I can plug all four into the Quad Cortex and send them to the desk through it. And I can control gain, EQ, and other settings and avoid having a hot mic to pick up random noises.
Instruments used for Bright Star
Washburn F-style mandolin
Eastman octave mandolin
Martin Performing Artist guitar
Alkire Eharp 10-string non pedal steel guitar (1950s vintage)
Note: I use an extended E13th tuning, not the Eharp tuning.
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