Ragtime - Craig Given - The Miller Machine

2 min read

Craig Given's combined book setup for Ragtime at the National Academy for Singing and Dramatic Art (3rd Year Students Production) in Christchurch, New Zealand.

“This is a fantastic show set in America at the start of the 20th Century. It follows the intertwining stories of three families from three very different backgrounds. The story and characters are well supported by the music, with a wide range of styles throughout, including Ragtime!

The show was produced by the Christchurch NASDA Performing Arts College, which run a three year Bachelor Degree Programme in Musical Theatre. It was performed in a fairly small theatre and as such a reduced orchestra was required. The original Broadway orchestration calls for 26 musicians. We performed this with 5! A single reed player (covering many parts), upright bass, two upright pianos, and drums/percussion. The reduced orchestra and arrangements worked really well, driven by the piano parts.

I decided to take the two books (drum set and percussion) and combine as much as possible into a single book. What I ended up with was a drum set centric part with glockenspiel and lots of small percussion instruments (bells, blocks, triangles, whistles, etc) as needed to support the on-stage action and lyrics. Missing instruments were emulated when and where appropriate. For example, some timpani notes were played on toms.

A fun (but fairly dark) show with lots of contrast in the music (stylistically and dynamically) but with very few moments to stop and rest as the show is almost entirely sung thru with frequent time signature and tempo changes.”

Drums: Gretsch Catalina Club Jazz

18" Bass Drum
14" Floor Tom
12" Rack Tom
14" Snare Drum

Cymbals:

Zildjian 13" Z Custom hi-hats
UFIP 8" Class Series Splash
Paiste 14" Signature Series Crash
Sabian 18" El Sabor Crash

Percussion:

Glockenspiel (custom built by Craig)
Cha-Cha Cowbell
LP Jam Block
Grover 4" Bronze Series Triangle with The Miller Machine
Grover 10" Silver/Bronze Combo Tambourine
Old Fire-Alarm Bell (used as a 'Trolley' bell)
Ratchet
Mark Tree
Temple Blocks
Police Whistle
Siren Whistle
UFIP Tam-Tam
Zildjian Finger Cymbals (thin)
Brake Drum
Sand Paper Blocks

Ragtime - International - Craig Given
August 2016

Craig Given's combined book setup for Ragtime at the National Academy for Singing and Dramatic Art (3rd Year Students Production) in Christchurch, New Zealand.

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