BRASSO

'Thought we might hear Wagner's " Ride of the Valkyries " in the Crossmen's show with this theme.

Yes...it does sound intriguing, imo. I pretty sure...' not 100% certain however,... that Boston played music from the 50's Movie " Quo Vadis" at one time or more in their pre DCI years. It was a long time ago, so its hard for me to know/remember for certain. But there are elements here in " Quo Vadis " that make your suggestion for future consideration worth merit, imo. It could potentially fit them well, and maybe worth considering in the future by them.... I agree.

You could have maybe simply shortened your answer from 31 words to 4 words : ..... " Typically, the Blue Devils".

DCI is slowly moving away from an All Male, " Good Ol Boy " network where Males for decades in DCI completely dominated show design programming positions in Corps, the DCI judging ranks, the DCI and Corps BOD's, and the Executive Directorship positions, and the like. There is still much work to be done to bring DCI Drum Corps into the 21st century of gender inclusion and diversity in key decision making roles. But recently, outreach by DCI has been seen taking shape, ( even at DCI HQ ), and inroads of inclusion and diversity progressivism are slowly, but surely taking place in several quarters of DCI the last 12--24 months, imo.

The best Drumline in the Country in 1956 ( pre DCI ) was an ALL FEMALE Drumline ( The Audubon, N.J " Bon Bon's". Drum Corps ). They beat every single all Male Drumline in the Country they faced that season at Championships. The Snare Drum National Champion in the Individual Snare Drum AL National Championships in 1957 was a Female.

I recall Teal Sound utilizing a Guitar in their field show performance a few years back... and thought at the time, we'd soon see a couple of TOP 12 Corps use a Guitar in performance. Sort of surprised we didn't. Now it appears, the Guitar will return to Drum Corps. I believe Blue Devils Guitar will be an Acoustic Guitar, according to the recruitment article. I'm pretty sure Guitar is judged in performance competition by the GE Music judge. The " effects " of its playing anyway. As for the ability of the Guitarist's playing, I imagine the Guitarist's playing will be judged by the judge with the Drums training and experience, ie the Percussion Judge. (it can't possibly be the Brass or Guard Judge judging the performance ability of the Guitarist, imo.).. I'm really looking forward to how BD incorporates the Guitar musical instrument into their show this summer. The potential for a far more widespread use of the Guitar in future Drum Corps shows is a very intriguing development to watch unfold too, imo. I personally prefer the sound of the Guitar over that of the sound of any woodwind... and usually over that of the human speaking voice or singing voice in a Drum Corps show as well.

The prevailing sentiment seems to be :

A few Cavaliers shows over the years just jump right out for me: 1966 ( pre DCI ) 2008.... " Samaurai " 1995.... " The Planets " 2006.... " The Machine " 2002..... " Frameworks " 2004..... " 007 " 1992.... " Revolution and Triumph " 2001.... " Four Corners " 2003.... " Spin Cycle " 2000...... " Niagara Falls " 1989..... " Gloria "

2 DCI judges.... one male, one female... ( mostly Open Class Div. it looks like now to me ) 2 staffers that were active staffers when I marched, are currently on DCI Corps payrolls as " Consultants " now from their current bios, it looks like. Most I knew BITD have come and gone by now. Nobody I " marched with " is " designing or teaching shows for 2019 " ...in either DCI or DCA.

FloMarching was there a bit this weekend for Boston's Texas Brass line camp, and will have some video up soon on Flo Marching's site.

... Likewise enjoyed every one of the Madison Scouts shows listed by the 2 posters above. ... I might add in '76 as another of my favorites. That OTL of " Stars & Stripes Forever ", might be military march smaltz to some, but for me the way Madison played it in '76 was the balz. Madison nearly got themselves a repeat DCI Title in '76 with that Corps as well.

" A dramatic fall " ? ... predicted by " a lot of posters " ? Not really... not on DCP, anyway. The average predictions for Crown in 2017 and 2018 was in medal territory. We know this pretty much for certain, as the DCP prediction threads for 2017 and 2018 ( preseason ) are still up even now on DCP for verification of Crown's overall placement prediction collective average by DCP'ers.. ...which as the cumulative average by DCP'ers tended ultimately to fall pretty much in line with their eventual finish for the most part each season of 2017, 2018 too.

It really was.. It was like hearing the US Marine Drum & Bugle Corps play" The Marines' Hymn ". Just about everyone responded favorably too it, and it never got old. They were a Founding Member of DCI, and a perennial finalist most years.... almost winning it all in 1980, under 4 tenths away in 2nd place to the DCI Champion Blue Devils. George Zingali marched here in his youth, later wrote their drill. And wow... what great Guards they had most years.

Yes. ( Brass, Drums, Guard as well. )

For every thing that is " deemed better today", one can just as easily cite something else that is decidedly worse today. it is by no means an accurate and unimpeachable assessement that as things.. "evolve "... they get better. Is Venezuela " better " today than in 1985 ? Is all Wine poured from new bottles of today" better " than that poured from all French bottles of 1925 ? Is the Brittish Empire of 2018 " better" and stronger today today than in 1908 ? Is " civility " in US politics in Washington,. D.C. today " better " than 1985 ? Is the City of Detroit Michigan " better" economically , than it was in 1956 ? .. " improvements made " to make it so ? Is Brittish Rock n. Roll music" better" in 2018 than in 1963 ? Has gas station customer service at the pump " evolved " from 1960 customer service provided to customers to a " better " customer satisfaction level at the pump with customers today ? Can the typical 8th grader in the US read as well as the typical 8th grader of 1956 ? Really ? The research evidence would not support such an assertion. Look, its a misnomer to state that as the years " evolve " things get " better". Sometimes they do. Other times they don't. They are a million things one could cite that are in serious question they " got better " as they " evolved ". Some times things actually " devolve " to where its pretty clear to most that things did not get " better" in the least compared to earlier versions.... quite the contrary, as a matter of fact to most unbiased observers.

I'd agree with this assessment too. I've also stated it before as well:.. there were both more talented marchers in the 60's/ 70's/ 80's marching then. as well as far less talented marchers, marching back then. The fact that there were literally hundreds of more Corps back then, made it so. There were marchers marching that could not read music, nor play barely a note very well, all the way up to some marchers that could have stepped into any trumpet. bari, tuba section of today and play with any of the Top 6 Corps of today, imo.. Some of the very best rifle, sabre tossers in the earlier decades were as good as the best of today, imo.. too. The best snares from back then would have to be taught to play and move, as opposed to mostly just play . But there is nothing that tells me the best snares, in due time, could not have been brought up to speed and taught the physical movements required of todays' percussionists as well. ( lest we forget, some of today's percussionists, ie FE''s, do not march, nor move hardly at all either.) The upper tier marcher talent back then was spread out among a much, MUCH, wider numbers of Corps BITD than that of today.... several hundred, as opposed to a few dozen Corps that are left today. Since most applicants today tend to want to only consider marching the upper tier Corps, it pushes the talent to the top today... so todays perennial top 12 Corps, are certainly chock full of 1st rate musicians and marchers overall compared to BITD, imo. But yes, I can think of lots of talented brass, guard, percussion players BITD that could've stepped right into any Corps of today and competed and contributed to that Corps just fine.

Perhaps. Championships also tend to have more parents there too.. for some its their only show, and others are there to pick up their kids at the conclusion of the event..

Its always been like this.. and likely always will, imo. In 10-15 years ( or less ) when woodwinds or similar are added, they'll be lots of today's marchers/ fans who'll leave as well, claiming " thats not real Drum & Bugle Corps ", and instead pine for the " good old days " of the 2010-2020 version of Drum Corps and such.

Yes.. this forum is not overly filled with those who dislike today's modern Drum Corps at all, imo. There are plenty of sites out there, ie" DCP Facebook", ..." Pre 1980 DCI", and several others that are filled with these folks, many of whom have not been to a DCI show in decades. So the OP's thread really is not aimed at the typical current DCP'er here, imo, as those forum participants are no longer here to any large degree, imo.

A significant percentage of paid attendees at Regionals and Championships are family, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, of marchers. Not sure precisely that percentage numbers range, but its not an insignificant percentage. Most of this demographic is a one and done demographic, to be replaced by the next group of the " family, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends " percentage sector of Drum Corps attendees in subsequent years. The local shows have a significant percentage in attendance of the local H.S./ College Marching Band supporters... there to help financially support the sponsoring group. Interspersed with this are the perennial " Jurassic Raptors ", who have been going to shows and supporting the Corps in some cases before todays newbies in current attendance at shows were born.

Absolutely. The key for all these Corps is to keep current marchers of their Corps engaged as financiers of the Corps well into the future as part of their long term donorship, marketing planning. Will that occur ? Only time will tell. Corps used to have Alums as one of their central financial donor bases, when most Alums were not Music Majors too. Many post Drum Corps went into more lucrative paying career fields than Education careers, and were thus able to " pay back " that enrichment experience with donorship dollars to their former Corps. Many of those Corps are no longer, and many of these Donors have left the activity or are now deceased. It will be up to today's DCI marchers to remember their Corps ( not so much their College, H.S. Band, etc as their priority in future donorship dollars ) when it comes to future support. Even those who adopt the current trend of marching in more than one DCI and/ or DCA Corps ( and WGI units) will need to financially continue to support their Corps... even when in 10-20 years, they may not prefer the " modern Corps ", and when they are involved in careers, mortgages, paying off college loans, etc, . They will need to demonstrate that they " support modern DCI Drum Corps " then, not with talk, but with REAL support... money. Corps do not exist without financial supporters. Any long term marketing plan for DCI Corps MUST include current marchers who are paying between $2,000- 6,000 per season to march now, to continue to support their Marching Corps ( or plural ) long after they tell everyone now how much they" love today's DCI Drum Corps"..

haha.. funny and accurate phrase. That said, it should be noted as well, that lots of wealthy folks ( even those under age 45 ) will oftentimes be willing to pay a LOT of money for " nostalgia ".. ie... Classic Cars, Homes with old wraparound porches, Paintings, Sculpture, Music recordings, Artifacts, , Pictures, Memorabilia, etc.. and a hundred other antiques preserved, valued, and cherished from long ago eras that are no longer but simply... " nostalgia ".