(a series of articles about how new musicals come to pass)
Preproduction: the period of time during when work is done on a show prior to the first rehearsal.
Reproduction
Traditionally copyists work with special ink pens with special nibs suited for writing music. (There are still some copyists who work with reservoir-less pens, constantly dipping into inkwells!). They write onto special, semi-transparent onion-skin paper called deshon. This paper is then fed into a special copying machine called an Ozalid that reeks of ammonia and is usually used for reproducing blueprints. One of the nice things about this type of "repro" machine is that, as opposed to standard xerographic-style copiers, it can accept sheets the widths of two to four pages. This cuts down on the time spent taping together multiple pages of a single song.
Theatre orchestra music appears on extra heavy paper stock, non-standard size, 9-1/2" X 12-1/2", which must be special ordered (it's usually cut down from a large sheet).
Many copyists are leaving the traditional deshon/Ozalid for regular copying machines — although special machines are needed to handle the oversized stock. Because of this abandonment, copyists who use the old method are having trouble keeping their Ozalids maintained due to the lack of availability of parts and knowledgeable technicians. (I swear I once saw a Xerox machine that handled rolls of paper — perfect for copying music — but no one believes me.)
The computer
As in all areas, in recent years the computer has encroached on the traditionally handwritten art of music copying. There are many benefits:
- Music that exists only as computer sequences can be transcribed into traditional notation. If Irving Berlin were alive today he could save his transcribers lots of time by playing his new tunes into the computer for later transcription (rather than the old way of watching his fingers and/or working by ear). As a matter of fact, that's how a lot of hummers get along.
- Many changes, including transpositions, can be done quickly.
- Archiving of the shows can be done digitally, thus requiring less space.
Then again, there are some negatives:
- Some players complain that the computerized music is more difficult to read and mark up, somehow less "user-friendly." There's no logical explanation for this — I guess it's primarily a matter of preference. (It's possible to trick these players by using fonts designed to look like handcopying. I've dabbled in handcopying on and off, but would never consider doing it on a professional level. One day I took some computer copied music, doctored it with all sorts of handwritten fonts, and faxed it to a supervisor
