Bye Bye Birdie (musical) - Instrumentation

Instrumentation

Bye Bye Birdie's instrumentation is very large. The instrumentation calls for piano, bass, guitar, two percussion players, four woodwind players, three trumpets, horn, two trombones, and strings. The bass part here calls for double bass while the guitar part calls for acoustic and electric guitar, banjo, and electric bass. The banjo is only used on the overture and the electric bass is only used for "The Telephone Hour" and the How To Kill a Man ballet. The first percussion player plays on mallet instruments while the second plays on drums. The first woodwind player doubles on piccolo, flute, clarinet, and alto sax; the second doubles on clarinet and alto sax; the third doubles on clarinet and tenor sax; the fourth doubles on clarinet, bass clarinet, and baritone sax. The second trombone part requires and F-attachment. Tams-Witmark, the company that holds the Bye Bye Birdie license, also has a second keyboard part to substitute the string section.

The woodwind section in the original Broadway production is very different from the current licensed version. There were five woodwind players instead of four. The first doubled on piccolo, flute, alto flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, and alto sax; the second doubled on piccolo, flute, E-flat clarinet, clarinet, bass clarinet, and alto sax; the third doubled on piccolo, flute, clarinet, and tenor and bass sax; the fourth doubled on oboe, English horn, clarinet, and tenor sax; the fifth doubled on piccolo, flute, clarinet, bassoon, and baritone sax.