Jake W.

Oh honey! I can't find #### this good to smoke, and I live in Colorado! Send some of it my way. As someone with a degree in music education and who has been teaching band and orchestra for a good ten years, I can tell you --- unequivocally --- that yes, corps today are (in general, not every one of them) offering up brass books with MUCH more substance and technicality, as well as nuance and detail, than previous decades. If I'm playing something for my students to model terrific tone quality and technical prowess on the field, there are incredible examples across every decade (and terrible examples across every decade), but most of my examples come from this century. And not so that they're somehow relatable, it's simply because attention to tone quality, balance, and blend (as well as demand and execution) have all vastly improved over time as the bar is raised higher every year.

Found the video. As I mentioned in other discussions, all anyone should care about at this point is whether a framework for a good show is apparent, and HOLY #### it's apparent with Boston. I'll get my one non-positive (though not negative!!) comment out of the way first: I don't believe the brass book has been written with nearly enough meat to sustain a season that ends with Boston in the top 6. Full disclosure, I have only heard Crown & snippets of BD, but based on the technical books of last year's top 6, there just isn't a difficulty comparison; it seems to me as if Boston is still playing a lower-half-of-finals brass book in terms of technical passages & lack of exposure. AND THAT'S JUST FINE!! Clearly, design & visual was tackled for this season, and they got it right. My initial impression is that it they are fielding a STRONG horn line who will probably outpace the book. In my opinion, there isn't enough substance there to musically hang with the big guys, who will have more difficult brass books that are just as clean. I'm TOTALLY buying the hype that this is a new BAC, just not the hype that they'll be a top 6 BAC (yet). Ok. Visually, a monster. The groundwork is clearly being laid for the future. Please hang onto this staff, Boston!! I actually was actively fawning over the color pallatte that the uniforms & props created (on a low quality video, no less!). The browns, greys, & whites...it all looks so puritanical. The show setting is unquestionably early America during the Salem Witch Trials. I mean, job well done on this show design. Cohesive, clear, captivating, detailed...this is a home run of a show for them. Musically, Moonlight Sonata leading up to the first big Prokofiev hit is all just erie and terrific. And that Prokofiev hit <3 The Ginastera after the ballad is relentless, intense, and accurately wicked. Favorite musical moment: the thick, dissonant chord that the brass pushes into to end the ballad impact just when you think it's resolved and they've reached the end of the phrase. Dark and delicious and crunchy as hell. My biggest takeaway from that video: obviously, all of the members are on board 100%, and that's the most important part. I don't mean fuzzy feelings most important part, I mean that Boston (during the middle of the season) and Madison (end of season) found out last year that it's nearly impossible to draw a passionate performance out of a show the performers feel tepid about. When the emotion is there (and holy hell is it there for this show), the keys are yours. This just feels like an entirely new corps, like new life has been breathed into the members in the form of out-of-the-gate ferocity and intensity. What a huge turn around. I look forward to seeing this show progress through the season!

See I don't. Crown has been the darling of DCI for 10-15 years now, and rightly so. They've put out some of the most widely loved shows of this century. They're known for writing memorable, audience-loved shows that are paired with insane drill & music demands executed at textbook perfect levels. To be honest, and I've been around this activity and these forums (lurking, at the least) for awhile, I do not recall an initial community reaction to a Crown show that was anything other than overall enthusiastic & positive. I'm sure there have always been naysayers, but to my recollection, Crown shows are met yearly with general enthusiasm and excitement. This show seems to have elicited a stark difference in community response.

Agreed with everything said so far. Didn't wow me --- and obviously those horns will wow everyone by the end of the season, I just mean that I'm not super impressed by the bones of the show. Seems like an odd departure from typical Crown fair, we shall see if it pays off by the end of the season! The Bach is quite nice. I'm assuming the Radiohead will be the preshow? "For Good" is utterly full of musical moments and will be evoking chills & tears by the end of the season. I'm in LOVE with "No One to Know One"!!!! Such a technical piece full of interesting meter changes and you can tell the members already adore performing that section. I could feel the energy through the recording. The "opener" (Crown Imperial & The Giannini) is the part that doesn't make sense to me. Just doesn't seem to move forward or...go anywhere, I guess. It just seems like a section to "get through" at the moment; I listened a few times and was unintrigued by the entire section. In all fairness, I've long thought the Giannini is an uninteresting piece and I've never been able to understand why it's such a staple of upper level concert band literature. Besides the Giannini/Crown Imperial movement, the biggest head scratcher for me is how it's all tied together. Right now it makes no sense, and not in a way that I see a good structure where transitions and tweaking will tie it all together. It's just...odd. Lots of nice spots and cool music, but overall, it seems to be a hodgepodge of music jammed together in a way that doesn't work (just yet, anyway). As mentioned previously in this thread, it really seems as if the staff themselves aren't sure of what the end result for this design is at this point, although there could be a grand masterplan at work and this will end up being a home run of a show. It seems upon first viewing, and reading previous posts, that it's hard for most of us to imagine this one becoming a home run, though. Let's hope we're all happily wrong!

This may have been covered in the thread already, but is anyone else entirely underwhelmed by the oddly-spaced show hints/announcements so far? And please don't misunderstand me, I adore Crown and I don't doubt at all that they'll continue to be a paragon of top-notch musicality and fabulously clean, insane visual maneuvers. It just seems like their approach to announcing the show this season was a giant swing and a miss in terms of its goal: getting fans excited for what they'll be putting on the field this year. I mean, do we even know for sure that their show title is "It Is" yet? Or are these still hinting at their final title? Have more than a few of us taken the time to read the entirety of the last wordy press release? Not trying to downplay what I'm sure will be an incredible upcoming season for Crown and a show I will probably love. Just wondering if I'm the only one in this boat.

This times infinity. ALL of the top corps are executing incredibly high-demand books at exceptional levels; a corps has to have the design to back it up as well. The reports that the brass section in particular is young and rougher right now worries me not in the slightest; every Cadets brass line is grown into something extraordinary by the end of the season. What everyone should be taking away from the reviews in this thread is that the show had been almost unanimously viewed as much more cohesive, sensical, and a giant step up in terms of smart and logical design choices. The Cadets haven't had any issues playing their horns or moving the last three seasons (in fact, I regularly listen to the music books of each of the last three seasons, sans the last minute or so of '14). Their plague has been poor, dated, and nonsensical design choices, both large scale and small scale. I don't care what they sound or look like now; that will be to normal standards by August no matter how green various sections are now. The only thing any of us should care about preseason (for any of the top corps) is the structure of a fabulous show, and multiple reports allude to a vastly improved package this year.

Ah, "Re" : ) the show that really made me start to appreciate The Academy as a group who would be a future finalist.

Just a note about 2015 --- the moment in the opener where the unit spelled "SING" in the drill, and hit it for just a split second, was uncannily brilliant, and I still maintain that was my favorite non-Finalist moment of the entire 2015 season. It was such bizarre and unexpected timing; the drill move didn't come at an impact point, and they didn't hold it upon formation for more than a few counts or so. Half of the reason it sent chills down my spine was because of the unexpected zing of it --- it came at a moment that one would otherwise forget as transitionary drill after an impact. And of course, the gorgeous timing of it all: they spelled it out right as the Phantom would have spoken that word over Christine's singing. Ah, such an out-of-the-mold, spectacular moment that injected a spine-tingling note of subtlety into our activity that we often don't see outside of the top groups.

Seriously, BD winning no captions at Finals. Who on EARTH would have believed that, preseason... Some non-finalist love: Honestly, given Pioneer's last ten years of shows or so, if someone would have posted: "No spoilers, but Pio has a ballad this year that is going to go down as one of the great moments of 2016", I would have thought, yea, yea, I'll believe it when I see it. But WOW that Joan of Arc burning at the stake moment...whew. Incredible. If someone would have said, "Cascades will continue their solid growth and be solidly in Semis this year, at least three or four slots from the cutoff", I would have been excited to hear good things were happening, but skeptical that it was preseason hype. And they ended the season, clumped with the 15-19 World Class corps rather than having any battle with an Open Class corps to getting into Semis. Can't wait to see where this group goes. As a fun note, if someone had hyped Oregon Crusaders preseason and mentioned that they were going to use whips and trees and Bjork and Queen and digitally-printed tree uniforms....I totally would have bought it, because that corps is redefining what the 15-20 place corps can do or can't do, and as soon as they clean these shows up (start earlier, plz??), they're our next new finalist. As a vocal opponent of original music scores on the football field, if someone would have mentioned that Mandarins would move UP in placements and break their highest score ever, TWICE during Finals week, with an original Key Poulin show (ugh), I would have balked at that idea. But, there they were, being incredible in both Prelims & Semis, EARNING those 81s. With Key Poulin music. So, hats off to the Mandarins. I saw the preseason show announcement and thought, "eh, last season was probably lightning in a bottle, this looks like more of the same". Man am I happily eating some tasty crow now. Which one of us....ANY of us....would have believed preseason that Colts would end up BEHIND Blue Devils B???? Put your hands down, you're all liars. And it was a well-earned BDB 15th place, too. I don't care what anyone says, no one called Boston & Scouts fighting for the 12th place spot on Friday. No one. That would have been hard to believe preseason. And, Academy, of course : )

How about three words?? Too many incredible performances put too much pressure upon one word : ) Bloo: Mesmerizing, Innovative, Outstanding BD: Flowing, Seamless, Masterful Crown: Intense, Aggressive, Passionate SCV: Elegant, Subtle, Refined Cavies: Macho, Bellicose, Excitement! Cadets: Musical, Energetic, [slightly] Dated BK: Trippy, Esoteric, Delicious Phantom: Stunning, Galant, Phantomesque Stars: Dreamy, Whimsical, Wagnerian Crossmen: Groovy, Colorful, "Continuuascious"! Academy: Heart-wrenching, Magical, Classy Boston: Quixotic, of course, describes the show perfectly. (with possibly "grit" & "drive" to describe the season itself) ------------- Scouts: Swagger, Presence, Searching Troop: Meaty, Powerful, Fiery Colts: Subdued, Mellow, Beautiful Mandarins: Relentless, Fierce, Robust OC: Bizzarre, Fantastic, Potential Crest: Improved, Solid, Coherent Spirit: Sturdy, Sustainable, Southern! 'Scades: Mature, Developing, Concrete -------- Surf: Blue!, Mellifluous, Relaxed Pioneer: Upgraded, Thorough, Traditional --------- BDB: Polished, Exquisite, Top-Notch SCVC: Pristine, Controlled, Articulate Genesis: Expanding, Securing, Growing Legends: Surprising, New, Electric Spartans: Militaristic, Sultry, Excellent -------- Music City: Royal, Regal, Full 7th Regiment: Standard, Solid, Wavy Gold: Cultural, Latin, Ceremonial Louisiana Stars: RED, Power, Prowess Guardians: Radioactive, Eager, Impassioned Raiders: Industrial, Precise, Machine River City Rhythm: DRUMS!, Mirrors, Shimmering! Shadow: New, Young, Impressive! I didn't catch the first three...Impulse, Colts Cadets, & Les Stentors, on the webcast.

Same here, I've just been replaying the whole closer in my head and humming for the past 24 hours. THE BEST.

Clearly you weren't watching the top groups then this year. If the music books of SCV, Crown, BD, & Coats this year can't be referred to as "in your face music" then I'm not sure what can be. I've ranted about it elsewhere in the forums, but I loathe this myth that's being perpetuated that today's shows are chop & bop or don't include full, recognizable pieces of music. I think that BD's 2009 - 2015 shows were very much in that style --- with Crown always as the antidote --- and that's it. As with anything in drum corps (or marching band, or WGI, etc.), if the trend isn't good, it passes eventually, and a choppy arranging style, while experimented with for about six years by BD, is unquestionably going by the wayside (and quickly!), especially after all the successful music books this season that were the opposite of cut up and spliced. Even BD is moving away from that and bucking the trend that they started, playing their beautiful ballad in its full glory, unaltered this year. So I'm really tired of Scouts fans especially (the complaint was most prevalent on the Scouts 2016 forum this season) trotting out this tired criticism of today's shows when it simply isn't true. You know two groups who DID use an esoteric, spliced up, chop & bop brass book this year? Scouts & Boston, and both suffered immensely for it all season long. Sorry, but there's just no base to the claim that this is where you need to go in order to be successful in modern drum corps.

What an emotional hour!!!!!!!! Troop, Boston, Scouts, & Academy all really gave it their all and gave us four ridiculously passionate performances. It really is heartbreaking that not all of those corps will play tomorrow night, especially after you see each just giving it their all.

Oh dearest Academy, you have me on the edge of my seat right now. Boston & Scouts unquestionably laid it down; please have the performance of a lifetime and solid secure yourselves!!!! ---Signed, everyone in the drum corps community

Sounds like a good Friday night for a couple of us!

Wow, Boston just laid down an intensely clean and focused performance. They sounded stunningly full and clear. Not my favorite show, but wow it (and they) have come a long way all season. They truly laid down a top notch performance just now. I won't be shocked one bet if they can earn their way into tomorrow night with that.

Jesus, Mandarins' drum major bringing all of the feels in that interview. That's what it's ALL about!!!!

A really simple answer, in my opinion! The Open Class shows are generally easier to clean, because they're designed with much less complexity. That's not to say that they're at any given moment marching easier sets and playing easier music than their world class counterparts in the same tier (although I do think that is frequently the case), the designs are just a lot more straightforward to clean when you have less choreography, layering, and exposure. Guard work is generally more uniform, the corps proper is more often than not marching the drill as a unit (as opposed to this group of members doing choreography, this group marching one drill pattern, this group marching a counter-motion drill pattern, and another group standing still or doing lighter choreography during a feature), and musically, I generally don't notice as many interweaving lines, complex transitions meshing multiple pieces together, or wide dynamic ranges and musical nuance requests. A prime example of this was Crest immediately following SCVC...not much comparison in terms of show depth, and that's not an insult at all....SCVC's "The One" was a GORGEOUS, sparkly-clean open class, top notch design. And if they best Crest (they'll both be close to each other), it will be because SCVC was cleaner....content doesn't matter as much on the last day if you're not achieving it at a squeaky clean level. That's at least a good part of the answer to your question as to why Open Class groups zoom up in score at the end of the season. It's not just HOW they clean (and, in my opinion, Mandarins down through Pioneer don't generally know how to late-season clean their complicated stuff as well as the others above them, otherwise, well, they'd be placing up there!), but it's also that what they have to clean is much more straightforward to do so. Hope that helps!

OC, please please *please* start your move ins when everyone else does, or water down those shows! You've had three INCREDIBLE designs the last few years that were too monstrous to clean visually, and we've all got fans'-blue-balls from great shows that we want to see do better!! Seriously, what a PASSIONATE performance and AMAZING show design. That visual ensemble is way better than when I last saw it, but still some moments of "whew!". Ah, some day : ) I have no doubt Oregon Crusaders will be a finalist eventually.

Heavens to Betsy, those whips bring out the S&M in all of us!

God, that opener ---> Bjork ---> Queen transition from opener to ballad is SO DELICIOUS.

After a pretty gradual improvement throughout the day of every corps from the one who performed previously, SoA seems to be the first obvious step back we've seen. Not a huge step back from Crest, but a marked one nonetheless. Crest just seemed so crisp & clean.

Not a chance. They finally have an incredibly cohesive staff and design team after almost ten years of being an embarrassment at the bottom of world class. Their #newcascades movement really took off with Turn, last year was incredible, and this year was a mature step up They're fielding a full corps for the second year in a row when just a few years ago they had four (!!!!) guard members. This year has been another great step for them. Last year they were fighting tooth & nail to get into Semis, this year (by my eyes), they're solidly in.

Not quite. With the top 5 Open corps' lead over 7th Regiment & Music City, and I assume that will hold, there won't be room for them in Semis. I do think they'll be 27th, quite solidly. The fight for 26th & 25th is with Surf & Spartans....either 20 world corps and 5 opens (no Surf), or 21 worlds and 4 opens (no Spartans).

Also, I think Pioneer's score will have a lot to do with Surf making it in or being left out. I pegged Surf as a good 5-6 points better than Pioneer, so if Pioneer was scored closer to a 70 (I don't think they'll touch 70, though), Surf will be fine. If Pioneer was scored low and ends up closer to a 65, then we could see Spartans in. Either way, I still think Surf was probably better than Spartans. Cascades are showing as (as most of us knew) that they're solidly in....Music City would have to top them in order for six Open Corps to be in Semis, and I would say Scades are a good 5-6 points ahead of Music City. So, really, the battle for those 5 remaining spots (20 world class corps) comes down to the obvious BDB, SCVC, Legends, and 98% chance Genesis, leaving the last spot for Surf or Spartans.