Research Proposal

Lewis Bell – 1517174

BMus 3

Creating & Performing Knowledge

Date: Monday 16th September 2019

Tutor: Richard Uttley

I certify that the coursework that I have submitted is my own unaided work, and
that I have read, understood and complied with the guidelines on plagiarism as set
out in the programme handbook. I understand that the School may make use of
plagiarism detection software and that my work may therefore be stored on a da-
tabase which is accessible to other users of the same software. I certify that the
word count declared is correct.
A study of the reduction in the
size of musical theatre pit orchestras Lewis Bell
A study of the reduction in the size of musical theatre pit
orchestras

Dissertation

Area of interest

Studying the decreasing number of musicians in professional musi-

cal theatre pit orchestras with focus on the West End and Broadway
and the influence of digital technology on this change.

What is your research trying to address?

It is trying to address whether the reduction of the size of the or-

chestra affects the listener’s experience whilst also examining
whether these reductions and the advances in technology are adapt-
ing the musicians’ roles in a musical theatre setting.

Research objectives

 To investigate how much live music affects an audience’s ex-

perience in live theatre.
 To examine how technology and the demand on players in
the musical theatre pit has changed over time.
 To compare the pit orchestra sizes between Broadway and
West End.
 To investigate the process of putting on a production and
how theatre size and technical capacity play an important
factor in deciding the size of an orchestra pit.
 To investigate whether production budget constraints are a
key reason for the orchestra size being reduced.

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Lewis Bell A study of the reduction in the
size of musical theatre pit orchestras
Context
Having played in a lot of musical theatre pits myself both semi-pro-
fessional and professional, and through watching live theatre, I am
seeing how the size of orchestra’s is always being discussed and
been looked at from an angle of reduction or how many players can
we get away with. Through various sources I hear how musical thea-
tre orchestrators are having to constantly find ways to make a full
sound with as few players as possible.

There is currently a large difference in pit orchestra sizes between

Broadway and the West End and I want to see how much production
budgets come into the decisions of orchestra size. We are currently
at a stage where we are putting some musicians out of theatre work
by reducing the size of pit orchestras and I see that there are current
attempts to stop reducing the orchestra size however this is not cre-
ating a change. Having also listened to cast recordings of various
shows – including contrasting the Broadway and West End record-
ings of same shows – I’ve noticed that sometimes these forces have
worked in creating a more intimate production and it’s gone down
well with critics whilst in other cases the orchestra forces have been
noted for being too weak.

There have been many academic studies and journals examining and
investigating the effect of live music on the listener in various musi-
cal contexts including outside of musical theatre as well as drawing
on how digital technology effects live music.

Methodology
I will carry out my research by looking through data of current or-
chestra sizes in the West End and Broadway as well as exploring
previous productions and looking back to the mid 20th century or-
chestra sizes. I also intend to look at the media with articles and re-
views both by audiences and critics to discuss and explore where
the “orchestra sound” has been highlighted in the media. I will also
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A study of the reduction in the
size of musical theatre pit orchestras Lewis Bell
look at specific shows as case studies where live musicians have
been cut out all together and explore how this has affected the audi-
ence experience, if at all, as well as the musicians. I also want to ex-
plore, from a production cost perspective, what the cost is to get an
orchestrator in and reorchestrate a show with a smaller orchestra
versus paying a full-size orchestra. I will use MU/Broadway current
rates to explore this

Ethics

This project may potentially involve interviewing current profes-

sional musical theatre pit musicians and/or orchestrators to discuss
how and if these orchestra size reductions are influencing their
work.

Bibliography
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size of musical theatre pit orchestras
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nqDV8stAZRXg

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tre/news/hey-mr-producer-where-does-all-the-money-
go_12823.html
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size of musical theatre pit orchestras Lewis Bell
West End Pit Bands. Accessed September 11, 2019. https://westend-
pitbands.com/

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Mood and Enjoyment after Hearing Live and Recorded Music and to
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