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Eleran

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Everything posted by Eleran

  1. "Everything Is Wrong And It’s _____ Fault!" Clearly, it is my son's fault. Everything was ok the last half dozen years, right? Common denominator: he marched in DCI. This year, he took off in order to pursue an academic opportunity during the summer, and BAM ... all of DCI decides it can't go on without him this summer. So what happens next year, if he elects to waive his final year of eligibility? Will DCI itself cease to exist?
  2. As you Cadets have your banquet this morning, then fond and tearful farewells this afternoon, enjoy every second of THIS day without worrying about what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. Savor all the emotions, and fix them in your memories. You'll be grateful for them later in life. Then go safely back to your regular lives, and work as hard at everything else as you worked at being a Cadet. Thank you for 2019!
  3. Doesn't the queen raise her scepter again at the end of the show?
  4. Most wind ensembles are playing in High School auditoriums - what acoustical advantages? But you go ahead and keep up with the personal attacks, because that will continue to make you feel superior, even when you're wrong.
  5. Exactly the sort of response I expected from you. "The entire music world does it ... Well, the entire music world minus orchestras and operas, but they just play dead white guys not modern music ... Well, not all modern music, because wind ensembles are just as bad as orchestras." Let us know when the "entire music world doing it" is reduced to you and your three drinking buddies. So you know him well, to refer to him as John?
  6. And again, I contend that your's is but ONE experience within the world of modern music. So for an alternate view, I asked a fairly young (45) composer today whom I know somewhat, who also happens to have a Masters in Composition (from Juliard), though alas no PhD. You may have heard of him - John Mackey (played by at least one drum corps every year over the last decade, and probably by the majority if not all of DCI's young musicians at one point or another). Question: "What are your feelings towards amplification and sound engineering of your compositions? Are they better off being played acoustically? Are they improved by A&E?" Answer: "I don't want (or typically need) amplification unless specified (such as a human voice singing with a wind ensemble)" Question: "How about balancing and engineering to correct for the venue? Worthwhile or too artificial?" Answer: "Worth it for recordings but I wouldn't mess with the natural acoustics. They do this at some conventions and it rarely helps." I have never questioned your expertise in sound engineering. I have only questioned your blanket statements that sound engineering is a fait accompli in the entire music world. It may be the be-all, end-all in your particular music scene, and maybe you don't like Mackey's work, but as a living modern composer his opinions and experiences are at least as valid as your own.
  7. Perhaps the DM should have replied: "Does your career deserve an asterisk because Brandt Crocker is getting too old?"
  8. I heard next year's show will be titled "Don't shoot other people. K?"
  9. You didn't provide "an example of a major institution that is using technology to enhance their acoustic performances" . You provided an example of a major institution retrofitting a rehearsal space so they could offer up new experimental music SIX TIMES A YEAR, while continuing to serve acoustically in their normal house their regular customers (who number 150x those attending the experimental works). Yes orchestras/opera are a very small part of the new music community - but you keep acting like that new music community is larger than the existing classical music industry. If your new music is really so successful and prevalent, then wouldn't SF be able to book their new venue which serves it up more than 6 nights a week?!? How many people are actually listening to those duos and trios and mixed ensembles you mention?
  10. You keep saying "instrumental medium" - please define exactly what non-electronic instruments to which you refer, if you are ruling out orchestras, opera companies, ballet companies, british-style brass bands, etc. I've been waiting for 90 pages for you to actually back up that argument with facts, but you seem unable or unwilling to do so. And as for your having direct experience, you've already admitted that you have NONE, even as an audience member, when it comes to those ensembles I named. You call me unhinged, because you can't put together an argument better than a pompous "I know best, so all you old people should just die off and leave the planet to me." You call everyone else's statements biased, when you are the one with a personal career interest in the sound engineered world.
  11. Here in central NJ I'd say that all (or nearly all) HS marching bands use amplification of the front ensemble, and often stationary microphones for soloists (from brass to flutes). Many also occasionally use clip-on microphones for individual soloists staged away from the sideline. Soundboards are usually manned by the band director or an assistant director (i.e. an adult, since that question will probably be asked). And frankly (though Mike at West Windsor will disagree), the vast majority of A&E does not represent an improvement in sound in my opinion.
  12. And not to belabor the point, but I did a little more looking at the SF Soundbox venue which you offer up as evidence of symphonies going electronic. Five years into this experiment, and the entire annual 2018-2019 season of this wonderful electronic forefront of music consisted of a grand total of 6 nights. With a 500 capacity venue, that's 3,000 audience members for the entire year, whereas Davies Hall packs in just under 3,000 each performance, and plays roughly 150 times a year. 450,000 audience members a year in one city may not be Taylor Swift territory by a long shot, but please don't tell me that a 3,000/year electronics experiment is heralding the demise of a 450,000/year acoustic institution. Edit: PS - they don't even allow audience members under 21 because serving alcohol is apparently as important as the art.
  13. And frankly, I think they should have been placed ahead of Music City. Hopefully tonight, Surf!
  14. Given the spreads, it looks like a lock for 9th place. Whatever changes Cadets might make in the off-season, they're going to have to be monumental.
  15. And the recruitment drive is already under way:
  16. Ask a few brass members this year how they feel about playing so little music.
  17. Change it's secondary venue, holding at most 500, for mostly modern and experimental works. It's not replacing Davies Hall any time soon.
  18. And as long as we're bringing it back to "what music DCI corps use", a heck of a lot of the most recent modern composed music was original written for British Brass Bands. When they at their yearly competitions playing that same music as originally composed ... are THEY using sound engineers?
  19. And you're ignoring every realm of music which doesn't fit YOUR narrative. Let me know in 300 years if anyone's still playing the bulk of modern electronic music. As for the bringing it back to Drum Corps: (A) Classical non-electronic music did not end at 1900 (ish) (B) But even using that cut off point, 5 of the last 10 years in DCI at least one medalist used music from that time period. If you include Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland, then it climbs to 8 out of the last 10 years.
  20. Again - try reading the article. It was in response to someone noticing a mic on a singer, which they explained was for the broadcast, when due to blocking the singers are not always picked up by the stationary mics.
  21. Or ANY opera at the MET (unless it's some modern thing with specific parts written for electronics). Instead of citing the bio of their sound engineer for recordings, read an article discussing the very topic from 2013: "the Met is and always will be an amplification-free zone, the company maintains, a place where opera can be experienced the traditional way - with natural sound"
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