A woodwind doubler (or reed doubler) is a musician who can play two or more instruments from the six woodwind families (

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

s, saxophones, oboes,

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

s and recorders or other folk or ethnic woodwind instruments (e.g. panflute, irish flute)), and can play more than one instrument during a performance. A player who plays two instruments from the same family (e.g., oboe and

English horn The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...

, clarinet and

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

, flute and

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

) is also often considered a woodwind doubler, but is usually paid less than a player who plays instruments from different families.Memorandum of Agreement: Denver Musicians Association, Local 20-623, AFM/Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra (April 13, 2009)
Longtime

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

practice has expected the non-principal player in a section to double the common auxiliary instrument (e.g., 2nd flute and piccolo; 2nd oboe and English horn). In commercial work, including

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

film scores and—most notably—

Broadway musicals Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...

, the practice gradually evolved, with some specialists developing great expertise with multiple members of three, four, or even all five of the woodwind families noted above. In such commercial work, players are paid an additional (percentage) premium for each additional double—but hiring four or five proficient "reed doublers" is still more cost-effective to the production than hiring numerous additional players. Even before 1940, Broadway reed players were commonly expected to double three, four, or five instruments; one of the most notorious mid-century examples was the Reed III book for '' West Side Story'' (1957), requiring flute, piccolo, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor and

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

s. The term "doubler" applies no matter how many instruments the musician plays. Someone who plays saxophone, flute, and clarinet is not a "tripler".

References

{{music stub Musical terminology Music performance Woodwind instruments