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World Drum Corps Hall Of Fame Member Dick Burns Passes


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Dick Burns, a World Drum Corps Hall of Fame member inducted in 2003, passed away November 19 in Palm Coast, Florida after suffering a heart attack. A celebration of his life will be presented following the holiday season. His drum and bugle corps activity began in the early 1950s. He was a lead soprano and […]

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 Dick worked on Wall Street as a successful stock broker there for many, many years too. He also was on the staff of the Florida Brass, from Lakeland, Florida the last decade as well, in retirement. May he Rest in Peace.

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Dick was among the first and very best of the modern day brass arrangers who had actual music degrees. His charts for the Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights were master classes in voicing and would stand up to anything written for today's corps.

And swing they did, with a real groove, right in the pocket.

From Sac to the Florida Brass, all of Drum Corps benefited from the talents of Dick Burns.

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I arranged his version of the great BSGK color presentation of "America, the Beautiful" as a parade tune for the HS band I work with. It still works amazingly well. 

 

BS was my favorite corps as a kid growing up through the 60's. Their 69 show is one of my all-time favorite shows of any era. "El Cid", "Hang 'em High", "Eleanor Rigby", "America, the Beautiful" , and one of the great exits of all time, "Free Again". They had two concert numbers in 69, I think, "Aquarius"/"Let the Sun Shine" and "Grazin' in the Grass".

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"Free Again"...with solo by Buglers Hall of Fame member, Eddie Haywood and later, Spirit of Newark director, Glenn Eng. The modulation to the major was one of the most uplifting moments in the entire history of Drum Corps.

Dick Burns had incredible musical intuition. All of us apprentice arrangers studied his charts note for note.

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Looking at my sig, a very young Dick Burns also taught the first corps I marched with, the Livingston NJ Hilltoppers, for a few years in the 60's, at least through 65. We were a Garden State Circuit corps (I was ij the feeder as a 9-10 year old) until VFW post politics reared its head, and the main corps split away to form another GSC corps (the second in my sig). The feeder corps I was in became the one and only Hilltoppers. We were a parade corps only, never making the field again; that horn line was taught by Jimmy D'Amico.

 

 

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