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(From a recent message sent to me.) (11 years ago) PermalinkRaw Message Report DCN by "Scotty" Chappell The other day I received a copy of the Drum Corps News which contained an extensive coverage of the Hall of Fame awards. It was indeed a pleasure for me to meet old friends and bat the breeze with those greats of yesteryear. Somehow the years seemed to fall away, the spirit and zest of those years of competition prevailed. Your editorial kindled me a desire to again don a uniform and be part of the scene, but, Alas! - the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. It occurred to me that you might like to receive a chronology of drum corps from within my active years, teaching, dating from 1929, at which time, you will see from the enclosure, the bugle began to grow up. At the risk of being vain glorious, I am mailing you that chronology. You have my permission to print it. Your kind words in that editorial I appreciate and I hope that my contact with you will not end with this communication. Yours in Drum Corps, "Scotty" Arthur F. Chappell Lexington, KY *The Evolution Of Drum Corps In The United States* When I look back to the year 1916, the year in which I first joined a drum corps, it doesn't seem possible that the simple military drum corps - marching in column of squads, playing a simple bugle pitched in "G" or "B" flat - could have developed into the drum corps of today: a drum corps that maneuvers in intricate and complex patterns bathed in an extravaganza of color; with flags, silks, guideons and other accoutrements, with resplendent uniforms reminiscent of earlier days; not to mention the plethora of musical instruments, from so-called subcontra to obligato, in "G-D" or "G-F"; plus drums of every shape, size, color and material, on which you will hear played "Strube," "Swiss," "French" and other rudiments that defy at least my comprehension. The drum corps in which I played in 1916, used "B" flat bugles, supplemented with "F" - crooks which allowed the bugle section to play in the diatronic as opposed to the standard harmonic series of the valveless bugle. I started to teach drum corps in 1929, a small drum corps located in Avon, Massachusetts, which was to enjoy the distinction of being the first drum corps in the United States to play music using the diatronic scale. The way that came about was as follows. Having gone through the experience of playing in the diatronic, using the "B" flat bugle with the "F" crook, it was only natural that I should look for a "D" crook to supplement the "G" bugle; but, I ran into a problem. The music stores did not stock the "D" crook . What was even worse, they had never heard of them. The only recourse was to build them myself. I purchased some copper tubing, some sleeves and some nipples and - - Presto! we were in business. To keep things in chronological order, I have to digress for a moment to tell a story of how the piston bugle came into being. A friend of mine, a Capt. Dallahan, was running for commander of the Canton, MA, American Legion. He had asked me if the Avon drum corps would serenade him down the street past the American Legion quarters. The corps agreed to do it. I should add at this time that we were being quite secretive about our new music. We planned to come out at the beginning of the oncoming season with this new departure. However, I had told the drum corps that we would use the new routine for the occasion. Capt. Dallahan hadn't told me that he also had invited the state champions in class B, so I told the corps that we would play the old routine, music without crooks. The corps was very disappointed. The members wanted to show off their new music. Well, the upshoot of it all was that I relented. So, down the street we went, playing the new music. The effect was immediate and electric. The director of the Rockland, Massachusetts, drum corps came racing down the street to investigate the phenomenon. By the way, his name was "Go Walls." He was with the school system in Rockland and he besieged me with such questions as What are those gadgets?" "Where can we buy them?" etc., etc., and, of course, the answer was, "You will have to make them yourself!" I found out later that he took the problem to Bill Ludwig, the man from whom he bought their instruments, and Bill came up with a rotary which later was changed to the piston, because it was considered unmilitary to hold the bugle with two hands. My point in telling this story is that it sets the date for the introduction of the valve, the outgrowth of the "D" crook, late 1929 or early 1930, I am not quite sure which. It was quite apparent that the adoption of the piston bugle was just a matter of time. American Legion however, was slow to embrace the free use of the valve. I insisted that the valve be taped in the "D" position which, of course, was rather shortsighted. I, on the other hand, chose to be a nonconformist in that I advocated the free use of the valve and, what was more important, the use of the tuning slide to obtain the facility of the chromatic. At this point, the year was 1946, another story starts to unfold. We in Norman Prince had an exceptional group of men. One of the baritone buglers, Jack Chisholm, got tired of pulling the slide. He went to Col. Jimmie Lynch who at that time was part owner of the Conn outlet in Boston, and asked him if he could make up a rotary to take the place of pulling the slide. Jim said that he could, and promptly had one made up in the instrument repair shop. It must be quite evident by this time that these efforts of Norman Prince and me had pointed drum corps in the direction of the path that eventually would be the criterion. I am proud of the part that Norman Prince and I had to play in the advancement of drum corps. Mention should be made relative to the role of the instrument manufacturers in the evolution of drum corps. Their foresight and initiative gave voicing to the bugle section beyond the wildest dreams of the arranger; and, of course, the array of drums available is fantastic. Last but not least, over the years many drill masters have labored to lift the maneuvering from the simple military to a point bordering the theatrical - the brilliant interweaving of the colors and standards throughout the routine on the field, not to mention the rifle and sabre manipulations, are a testimonial to the evolution of drum corps. It is hard to believe that the corps can improve, but time has a habit of doing the impossible. Arthur F. Chappell

I agree that BAC was innovative, but I was speaking about a specific time period, roughly 1975-1980. Some of the things you mentioned were prior to that time. Also not too long after that period, BAC could be very experimental though they are not always credited. Sadly, the innovation BAC can be credited for:saving a corps many people wrote off, making that corps a consistent finalist, and keeping its character is not copied. Perhaps if it were, there would be more corps. If you think about it, no other drum corps did it quite as Boston Crusaders did.

Likely costs to attend this event, versus what they've done the rest of the season, and membership available to attend. As much as rochester is a fairly cheap city, its still not cheap to get up there if you factor in gas, hotel, and food for the weekend.

Some new Cadet info: They'll be marching 76 horns including 16 mellophones. They will keep the right foot step off, even with a new drill designer. Yamaha is late sending out new horns this year. More audition specifics and details of Gino's discussion with brass included here: http://yea.org/programs/cadets/cadets/news/1046-recap-brass-talk-with-gino Percussion and guard phone-in discussions will be later this week, Weds. night for the guardies, Thurs. night for the drummers. Let's Go Mets!

I'm excited to see what Troopers can do...just no singing please. Please.

I think this thread is more about fun pictures of the bands that corps sold their props to, rather than OMG DAT BAND totALLY COPIED DRUM CORE.

Thanks for the historical perspective and information, BRASSO. It's always welcomed with these particular open arms.

Zingalli's Drill & Guard work with 27th, perhaps Yes. Its all a matter of opinion of course, but in Percussion for example, Boston was not only the most innovative Drum Corps in the Northeast, a compelling case can be made( that in bygone days), the Boston Crusaders were one of the most innovative and creative Percussion lines in the entire Country ( and maybe in History too ) ie... 1st Drum Corps to march double tenors.... 1st Drum Corps to march a Timpani..... 1st Drum Corps ever to use " electronics ", ( a syntheziser) in DCI competition ( willing to take a DCI penalty in competition for the freedom to use it too, as it was prohibited at the time ).. among other innovation " firsts " by BAC in Percussion. Just sayin', you know ?

I want to thank you that 95% of your 3,000 posts on here Ghost are less than 3 sentences long. It allows me ( and I'm sure others ) to read them in less than a nano second. Surprisingly, when you talk, you go on forever. I guess thats just our mutual style. Either one of us know when we've heard enough from one another in whichever forum we are at. I would personally consider that a good thing on the whole. Also, thank you for the brevity that allows you to never to suffer the " outrageous " incivility of ever having ever repeated yourself on something or other on here. Its probably the 3 sentences or less format of your frequent postings that we can attribute to your success for this. But as for me, I'll stick with my 50 year adopted style of posting, as flawed as it may be, and will likewise provide you with my uncritical deferment to allow you to post with your 3 sentences or less brevity that you are most comfortable posting with as well. Sound fair enough to you ?

Man... I could search the four corners of the Earth and not find anything to top that!!!

people love sitting on the internet presuming things... such a joke.