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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

Crown tipped me off. Well done, Dad. Scouts must be proud too., http://www.livewellnebraska.com/health/grace-trumpeter-in-wheelchair-gets-to-march-in-formation-with/article_7e7f548b-4b0b-59a0-b3e1-4670d2afe29e.html#.Vi_PyMs50ba.facebook

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.

Thank you for your kind words Tom..... Nat was one hell of a great guy, one of the most dedicated Sunrisers I knew of and a very good friend. Very sorry we've lost another one way too young.

....while he marched principally under Marc Sylvester's time. i can still hear Sully's bellowing Bostonian from the box on tour, "Dare..........................rul! The other right foot!!! And Toby, unless you are waiting for George Dixon or Tekk, I can't believe you let the day go bye without this mention: today, Oct. 28th is celebrated everywhere as the Feast day of two Apostles, Saints Simon and Jude Thaddeus, the patron of hopeless cases. It is also George Hopkins' birthday. Draw your own conclusions.

Yes, its true, we ( myself included )sometimes run the risk of constantly risking absurdity here on DCP. Some Corps should try to replicate in a show what we do here. Who knows.. It just might get them real close to a DCI Title if its executed as well as we execute our daily absurdity here. ( haha..)

My point of the '82 BD comment was to bring attention to the vast differences in the eras. Because there are people saying oh well the Cadets won some titleback in the 50s that means they are still successful today (or something like that) I wanted to point out that things are not equal from 50 years ago to today. Very few things in this world are. I completely agree with everything you said. Sorry if my '82 BD reference was confusing.

I'm tempted to quote John Lennon, "No, no, You Can't Do That," but I don't want to have to negotiate with Yoko or whomever is holding the rights to that song. I would argue that you can digitize your own personal copy of an LP for your own personal use--others may disagree--but you can't legally sell it and could have trouble doing so on eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/downloadable.html Not saying it's never done, in other genres, particularly, but if somebody with copyrights (DCI, a corps, a composer) complains about a listing offering homebrew digital recordings, eBay or Amazon will pull it. I see people get away with it on eBay with homebrew digital recordings of older material like Old Time Radio shows--that's because some though not all of that material lapsed into the public domain, but even with the material that didn't, nobody young enough to care is complaining. And it isn't worth much. You can get hundreds of OTR shows for $10 shipped. Even before the copyright issue got ugly in drum corps, the older stuff went off-sale a while ago around the time DCI made it available on Fan Network. DCI says there is limited demand for their pre-2000 material, and I think they're right based on auction action on eBay for legal listings. Those can get okay prices like $8-10 for an LP or $20-25 for a DVD with a few bids. If demand exceeded supply, you'd see 20 or 30 bids for an auction closing at higher-than-original prices. Generally speaking with the older material, you don't. This doesn't encourage DCI to sell hard copies again or to spend a lot of time or money getting copyright clearance to stream it. The used market like eBay may be able to satisfy what demand there is for it. That's the place to look if you want to amass a collection.

which were effects used by the late Gary Czapinski (Marie's husband) with his Canadian corps back in the late '70's. I thought the OP was trying to do something of more recent vintage of recent props ending up elsewhere than DCI.

I remember that show in Allentown well, seeing the Matadors that day was particularly exciting for me...........................as time went on from there, alumni corps were required to obtain rights to arrange and perform, provide adequate insurance, and, similar to the field corps, stay a commensurate number of hotel room nights, in order to share in the gate receipts of the show.......................the whole concept IMO was to give these great corps a venue to perform during DCA weekend, with the hopes that by bringing the corps to town, it would put more butts in seats for prelims and finals, not to mention that a lot of the I&E entrants come from the ranks of the corps and organizations that do not compete on the field. Some of the requirements make for an expensive trip for alumni corps and their members, and as I understand it, some simply do not comply with some of the requirements, and do not buy seats to the two days of field competition, which in the end must effect DCAs overall ability to negotiate with and meet its obligations with tourist and convention bureaus,...............

Wow. Great staff!!

IMHO, 2015 Cadets had an awesome show, but never really got the drill as clean as it needed to be. Percussion and brass were top shelf and I thought the guard was variable in design staging and execution. Personally, I do not like the idea that the guard scoring carries more weight than either brass or percussion....ymmv.

I thought the Blue Knights did a good job...their show itself was a bit abstract and vague, and I don't think I really "got" it, but they did do a heck of a job performing it and that's why they got 6th. I'm much more inclined to believe that show theme has much less an effect on score than performance. Cadets did a hell of a job all season, and sure, it was probably the disconnect between the source material and theme that cause them to not medal, but they still scored 95.9 points. That's a lot of points, and you don't get those kinds of scores from not being a #### good performing corps. Am I posting this on the wrong topic?

Honestly, if it does go away it should surprise absolutely no one, given the shrinking target audience of most (but not all) alumni corps.

Ghost, Thanks for posting that 2004 note from Scotty. He was the Leonardo DaVinci of Drum Corps, a man for the ages.

I would have to clear my throat when I think of the Troopers ever contemplating yodeling in their show. Heck, my wife might have to clear out my tool box from any contemplation of me piercing my eardrums with a high speed drill.

Indeed.

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

Thank, you, Ray. He was a very good man. And a great sense of humor. I'll miss the chop-busting sessions that he, Jim Stanko, and John Smith would have!!!

Fran, deepest condolences on the loss of your brother-in-law. May he R.I.P.

A good man with a big heart. Life is short. Carpe Diem, my brothers.

Thank you, Tom. He was all that and more... including being a top-notch event planner and organizer. He helped Vivian Bennett organize the tribute to her husband Gene last April. Now he's joined Gene in that big drum corps in the afterlife. IMO, too many people joining that corps recently.

I'm probably done coming on here for a bit, sick of looking at old farts bicker over the most ridiculous things as if it will change something.

Funny you mention this because I just found some youtube videos last week of their rehearsals from that year. Needless to say, I loved every moment of it. The raindrop set is by far my favorite primarily because of that chord.

DCI represents the past of their "finalists" on the fan network. If you would like to buy a recording of 1996 Kiwanis Kavaliers, it appears you are out of luck. Still keeping my fingers crossed that sometime in the future, non-finalist corps will be available for purchase. Z