N.E. Brigand

Agreed that it's too fast, though not that fast. The score calls for 52 bpm, I have read, though viewing a few performances online, conductors seem to lead it in the mid to upper 40s, with a fair amount of rubato. BK has been playing it about 65, I think. Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!

Thanks for the explanation, but could you clarify: are the modern standards higher or merely different from what existed in 1989? For instance, how would today's best brass lines fare by 1989's judging standards? Would the 1989 judges immediately recognize 2010 lines as superior?

If you're claiming your middle school band is better than the '89 Phantom Regiment I'm going to need some proof of that. In fact, wasn't '89 PR invited to accompany the KC Symphony in a performance of Wagner? Weren't the '89 PR baritones legendarily praised by a music judge in ecstatic terms? And didn't said baritone soloist go on to a professional career?

Yes. Was that not so before Allentown? I can't remember what uniform he wore in the end in Massillon. Given that the stadium announcer addresses him as drum major at the start, it makes sense for him to be so attired at the end, I think. Did I read here that "Geoffrey" is so spelled because that's the performer's actual name? If not, given that it is an uncommon spelling (though I used to work with a Geoffrey), I would have wondered if it was chosen for sharing the first three letters of "George" -- an autobiographical touch?

Was that the same year they played the dance from Terpsichore material by Michael Praetorius? It was really neat to hear a drum corps perform that lively work, but Crown fell far short of the version I knew: a Renaissance band recording I have from the 1970s (on a borrowed recording of a borrowed recording: I've not been able to determine the performer) with an amazing whirl of shawms, krumhorns, cornetts, and sackbutts. Let's have Crown do that one again, in all its rousing glory.

Really? I've only heard this show on CD, not seen it, but I appreciated that she pronounced the word "and" in "not only of sight and sound", while the 2005 introducer says "not only of sight 'n sound".

Vanguard's bouncing jacks-in-the-box movement (or is it popping corn?) was unexpected and delightful.

Not according to her wikipedia entry. I think by definition the board members of non-profits are volunteers for those organizations. Of course, they usually have day jobs, often well-paying, which is usually a big reason the non-profits want them on their boards: board members are typically expected to donate heavily to the non-profits they serve. (Another is for the members' connections: they are also expected to ask other to donate to their non-profits.) Now the staffs of some non-profits, hired by the boards, can be very-well compensated, of course--particularly in the top positions (director of a hospital, conductor of a major symphony orchestra, etc.).

I got no kick against modern jazz, unless...

Closer to one day, actually: they played in Massillon less than 30 hours before you posted.

Colts only 1.2 pts. out of the top 12? It would be an impressive Finals indeed where a show like BK's wasn't good enough to qualify.

Oh, if only it was merely that ridiculous! Because the Cleveland Cavaliers announcer assisting "Moon Dog" didn't ask where in the stands the "corps" were -- he asked where the "corpse" was! "Where are all the corpse? Where is the Pioneer corpse?" I sure hope the show managers got a hefty sponsorship from the Cavs for those ten very obnoxious minutes.

Cadets had a horn player fall about 3/4 of the way through the show, as he was backstepping in a rotating block backfield left*. Took him about three seconds to find his feet again. Could that have made a difference? *That's left from the audience's point of view. Are there standard directions in drum corps to describe the field as there are describe the stage in theatre?

If scores could be fairly compared year to year, 1989 would seem to have been quite the season. Of the 25 current or most recently displaced records, 5 were from 1989, more than any other year: 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988 x 2, 1989 x 5, 1992 x 2, 1998, 1999 x 2, 2002, 2004 x 3, 2005 x 3, 2007, 2008, 2009. And it's pretty neat that Suncoast (1988) and Star (1989) still hold the top scores in two positions.

Oughtn't there to be an option for those who like only some of the source material? "Laura" is a very straightforward film theme, which has been covered by many singers (Dick Haymes's version reached #9 on the charts in 1945) and is worlds apart from "City of Glass" -- people who like one might feel very differently about the other. Not to mention the other music the Blue Devils are playing this year.

Reminds me of high school marching band, when Nordonia, North Royalton, and Norton might all be at the same competition -- "and qualifying for state, Nor..."

There was a documentary about the importance of football in Massillon that screened widely in 2001. NOAA says 50% chance of showers and storms tonight, though radar suggests the rain currently falling over most of Ohio will pass by showtime.

That doesn't necessarily follow. Perhaps the strong reaction for Scouts and Cavs helped moved the judges to score them a little higher than they otherwise would have. (Or perhaps not. My point is: we don't know either way.)

But very enjoyable nonsense it was. Agreed on the unmemorable music. But I didn't care for "Four Corners" either. I much prefer the "Spin Cycle" music -- was that also original?

During the 2004 Quarterfinals theater broadcast, I remember the announcers before one corps' performance specifically advising audiences to watch for a particular image or effect... which the cameras then proceeded not to show. Agreed! But is the video director budgeted for ample preparation time, to either visit earlier shows or have them filmed by remote crews for study? (Plus the shows are changing over the season, which complicates things.) And are the corps ready to have their staff devote time to advising him? Brass soloists are pretty boring to watch, in my opinion --they all look pretty much the same-- and I would prefer they get only a second or two from the cameras. Drum breaks of course hold more visual interest, but they pose a special challenge for videographers, because that's usually when the drill is most impressive.

Next time just say overlapping. You'll confuse too many people by using a good vocabulary. Well, since "imbricated", which is sometimes misused, means "overlapping or layered as scales or shingles", perhaps we can think of tradition and innovation forming a roof to protect the future growth of drum corps.

Serious question: did people in 1975 love Madison's show because it reminded them of something from 1940?

I have't seen any shows yet this year (fingers crossed for weather Tuesday!) but a fair bit of the source material is certainly hummable. It would take a lot of work by BK or Crown, for instance, to render "Nimrod" unmelodic. I'm whistling it to myself right now! More than a few others among the classical pieces are equally memorable. Moving forward into the realm of film music: "Laura" is of course one of the all-time great themes, and Chaplin's "Smile" is a lovely tune, which was beautifully performed by Nat King Cole. As for pop tunes, there's Cyndi Lauper, Tears for Fears, and Bon Jovi!

Pedantic note: Gollum never uses the word "shiny", either in the books, or (so far as I know) in the films. The word "shiny" appears only once in Tolkien's The Hobbit and only once in his The Lord of the Rings; only the second instance is in dialogue, and that is by Sam (though he is referring to Gollum's eyes). In the LOTR films, I believe its only appearance (in the theatrical versions, at least) is in an orc's comment early in the third installment. Of course, I take your point about ring obsessions! But "snakes and adders"! (Sam again.) I like your "serpentarium" -- what a fun neologism. I shall try to work it into a conversation. (Checking the dictionary I find there is already a a medicinal herb called "serpentaria", and a constellation called "Serpentarius".)

Yeah, by 1988 and 1989, when I saw my first drum corps rehearsing and performing, respectively,* I could see significant differences only in degree, not in kind, between competitive high school marching bands and drum corps. The former were actually called "corps style bands" (as opposed to "show style bands"). Yes, drum corps played only on brass instruments, but that was also true of several marching bands I'd seen. Yes, drum corps' brass instruments were two-valved and called "bugles", whether trumpet-sized or tuba-sized, but I'd seen a few marching bassoons and bass clarinets, which seemed equally strange. But the key difference was intensity: the best corps were clearly much, much better than the best bands. *My first view of a corps was a bunch of people sleeping on my high school's gym floor, when we arrived for marching band practice that August morning -- I think this was the Garfield Cadets. And I'd first heard of drum corps the year before, when the Bluecoats gave a very confusing recruiting presentation to our band. The two points I took away from that were (1) one of the two presenters could play "Sweet Georgia Brown" quite well on the trombone, and (2) drum and bugle corps was a summer marching band for rich kids, since you had to pay to participate.