Bruce Richardson

I knew George Tuthill very well. I feel like OP misrepresents him, and that saddens me. I met him in 1980. I marched with the Sky Ryders. It was my age-out year, and I'd discovered drum corps almost too late. I joined the line as a soprano soloist. The corps had improved a great deal from an already-good horn line in 1979. I would sign on the following year as an assistant brass instructor. I didn't realize that (fellow DCI Hall of Famer) John Simpson would have to leave at the end of the season owing to a family death. It was quite a lot dropped on my lap. George was the catalyst for Sky Ryders' quick rise to top-ten status. Literally everyone in the business properly credited him for it. But the Board of Directors had been feuding with him for years (unjustifiably), and ultimately fired him. They fired John Simpson as well. Simpson went on to help start Star of Indiana. So, let's not get the idea that George's firing was reasonable. It was not. The Sky Ryders literally never came back from his firing. They languished. And they never regained the popularity that they had in the early '80s. All of that was attributable primarily to George. The team of George, John, and Lee Carlson was as good as it ever got for Sky Ryders. And I don't think anyone who was in a position to know would push back on that. I would go on to primarily play jazz, write, and work in showbiz as a composer. I mention that only to say that I was (and am) a serious musician, and my experience is not limited to drum corps. What George provided in the larger scheme of Sky Ryders was a proof-of-concept, involving many of the things you have been discussing. He was ahead of the curve musically. He was a great player (I played in a rehearsal band with him off season, and his musicianship was outstanding). And he was a smart strategist. I'd dragged my schoolmate Daniel Moore with me in 1981. Daniel would return in 1982, with the specific job of improving execution scores, and getting the drumline clean-enough to support the scores we were getting in horns (which as many of you will recall, were high...the corps placed 10th, but the horns placed 6th, a tenth behind Vanguard). The Sky Ryders board made a tragic mistake, one that led to the downfall of the corps. Just look at the recaps. Pretty easy to see. Up up up under George. Not so much ever again.

Old topic, but I wanted to correct some assumptions that are untrue. Promise you this: A King G-Bugle would play as in-tune as the player's ability could support. Listen to Star of Indiana's '93 show for an example of G bugles being played beautifully on challenging material. The aspect of G versus Bb instruments that is not often discussed is the most important. The TESSITURA of the music didn't change for the differently pitched hornlines. The OVERTONES of this same tessitura did, however. For the same basic musical line, a G-bugle was usually playing on the next higher overtone. That had much more substantial implications for the ensemble sound than just the pitch of the horn. The reason that G-bugles gave that exciting, ensemble blend was the differing fundamental CORE of a given pitch, played at that higher overtone. And I think that is why some casual listeners, particularly those who are young enough to have never heard a top-tier hornline on G-bugles, perceive this as sounding out-of-tune. The best I can describe it is that at the same given pitch (give or take a half step for bugle-friendly key signatures), a Bb trumpet will sound more "sizzly," because its sound actually contains MORE upper partials at any given pitch. The G bugle will have FEWER upper partials at the same pitch, because the pitch itself is being sounded one partial "up" from the trumpet. You can even simulate it with a Bb trumpet, simply by taping the third valve down. While the bore shape will still be more cylindrical, if you play a g-bugle part on that trumpet, you will definitely hear a difference in the overtone series for any given line. THAT is the primary difference. And it's huge.