shilohcat

Thanks for the excellent review, Nikk. I was also in Section 321 about midway up. I mostly agreed with your review, but as a twenty-year band director veteran, I'd like to add a few comments: Since this was my first dome DCI show, I was interested to hear the effect it would have on the overall sound. The dome seemed to reward certain corps' sound while punishing others. Perhaps it was a matter of centering the tone, as those whose sound spread somewhat tended to be muddy and ill-defined, while failing to project convincingly. OTOH, I thought Carolina Crown's brass tone was extraordinary; full, rich, extremely well-balanced, transparent and beautifully centered. The tone retained its resonance and projection in all dynamic extremes, a rare thing indeed. I didn't see the caption scores, but considered them to be top five in brass, if not top three. SCV was indeed not your father's Vanguard, but I enjoyed their visual presentation more than almost any other, save maybe Cavies. Was also gratified to see them return to their mid-70s look...that's the Vanguard I know and love. As an alumnus of Madison, I maybe shouldn't comment either, but I thought this was their best show in many years and was glad to see them "back". I'm not sure why they placed so low, as I thought they were better than several corps that finished above them, but maybe this is a result of my happiness at enjoying them again after several years of disappointment. I like to see new corps in the top five, as having the same ones year after year just can't be good for the activity, so seeing Bloo continue their climb was fun. I know that Phantoms' sops picking up baris was controversial and maybe with good reason. I did not think they blended with the ensemble as well as they have in the past, and while I really enjoyed hearing that all-bass-clef feature, I'm not sure it was worth the toll it seemed to take on the sops' sound for the remainder of the show. Still, they are a great corps performing a great show. Cavies are just someting else again...clear audience favorites. Great visual book and the hook with the CG member "pushing" the block out of shape until it sprung back was the talk of the day. The sops getting "stuck" on their lick was also fine. As a judge who routinely evaluates 32 or more units each day, I can safely say that it is indeed a good idea to have some enjoyable hooks that stick in the mind, as judges are human too and naturally tend to reward the more emotionally satisfying shows. I thought CBD's execution was on another plane and was somewhat surprised to see them beaten this night. Speaking of machines, their performance seems so inevitable that it is a pure joy to watch them go through their paces. BTW, was the "cross" not really the marionetteist's sticks? I'm no Godfather guru, but I know that the marionette theme was used in the movie and in fact, one of the CG members carried a facimile of it in one of the tableaus. I did like when it morphed into a knife that then went thru the heart. I'd need to see it again, but I think I saw the snare line sticking from ear-level like crazy while tapping out a fairly simple pattern. Did I just imagine this? It IS just the sort of off-the-wall thing that they love to do. As for rude audience members, there was a woman sitting behind me who was old enough to know better, but who rarely stopped running her mouth, loudly. (She wasn't discussing the corps, either.) I turned several times and gave her the glare that has stopped many an unruly student, but she was fairly impervious to my ex-BD's eye powers. I thought that at some point the people sitting with her would become embarrassed for her and shush her but it never happened. Looking back at my experience in DCI, (I saw my first show in '73, first marched in '76 and have caught at least one show every year since) I am astounded at the technical improvements in both design and execution. It is difficult to accurately assess modern shows on the first viewing, because there is so much to take in at once. I'd need to see them at least once more, preferably several times, to feel that I had an accurate read on them. OTOH, I cannot help feeling that something was lost when the corps lost their "predictable indentities". You could always count on the Kilties to do a Scottish theme, the Troopers to do something Western, the Muchachoes to do Spanish, etc. Now everyone does knockout designs, but they just seem a bit lacking emotionally to these more experienced eyes and ears. Still, I was glad to see such a great show so close to home (Chattanooga).

When you are the first Tennessean to join the Madison hornline ('76), and you find that they are calling the kid from Cincinnati "Hillbilly", you are probably in for some serious regionally-derived hazing. When you are a trombonist by trade, but have seen a picture of a tuba somewhere, don't let on because they WILL put you on contra. When you admit to being able to read music in an era when it was foreign to even most of the staff, they WILL make you section leader, even if you have only ever seen a corps show once. Rookies who are section leaders AND from the Deep South will be particularly abused, especially if they have a penchant for being smart mouthed to know-nothing Yankee veterans. In sectionals, the smallest section will have to rehearse in the restroom. That would be the contras. Marching Madison was absolutely the best two years of my life, by far.

At a military funeral this past week, I heard Taps played on a conical G bugle. The guy stood there at attention in freezing weather for nearly an hour while the eulogies were said, then played with the most gorgeous tone and vibrato. The shivers in the congregation at that point were not from the weather.

When the friendly natives of Montreal tell you that more than three Molson Bradors is overkill, you might want to heed their counsel. Montreal has many friendly motorists who are heading to Toronto anyway and so don't mind the company of a hungover hitchhiker. Montreal natives almost never say they told you so.

Jim Elvord, back in Madison '76/'77, used to do these count-offs that would last for maybe 20 or 30 seconds. During the count-off, he'd clap his hands, mark time with a bootie march and say things like, "Take it down the middle and side to side." Impressive performances, every one of them. We were so pumped up to start playing that the sound came out like a dammed up flood.

You are absolutely correct; all valved brass are cylindrical until after the valves. It is the remaining length that determines whether it is conical or cylindrical. I don't have any experience with valveless bugles, but see your point about them becoming conical starting right after the mouthpiece. My point was that, conical and cylindrical are not sufficient factors to explain the difference in sound between the older Gs and the newer Bbs. Bore size and key are important no doubt, but also recall that the Gs were almost always chrome-plated, while the Bbs have the more refined silver or satin finish. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the alloy was different as well, since you could hardly put a dent in those old horns with a ballpeen hammer. We contras used to loll around the drill field (back then, they didn't write drill for us until after they had staged all the other horns) with our heads in the bells, using them for pillows. I don't know from personal experience, but I'd bet that if you tried that with a modern horn, you would put a head-shaped dent in it.

I think you're referring to cylindrical vs conical. Band instruments have always included both: trumpets and trombones were/are cylindrical (loud); cornets, flugel horns, French horns, euphoniums and tubas were conical (mellow). It is one of the factors that gives each instrument its characteristic sound. Having played on the old G bugles, I can assure you that my contra was conical, while Chris Metzger's sop was cylindrical. (We had a jazz improv duet during "Cool" with the '77 Madison show that was axed due to show length. Got us out of a lot of M&M rehearsal. <g>) The new Bb horns continue this same arrangement, with the sops, mellos and some baris being cylindrical and the flugels, French horns, euphs and contras being conical. If anyone knows differently, I would welcome the debate.

We were there in '76, Guerno. '77, too, if I recall. Ken Kile Contra 76-77