Sholeo

Someone on Reddit said 2:30

Last year, the hole was the trumpet soloist who had a boot on his foot. This year, the hole is the French horn soloist who has a boot on his foot. However, it looked to me from the San Antonio stream like that hole was filled, so we should be good.

I really hope Jeff Brooks is not the finals judge. Crown went from beating Bluecoats twice in a row in percussion and beating Blue Devils in percussion achievement... Just to get eighth in achievement under Mandarins. While I am sure such a young line may have off nights, such a drastic drop is more of a sign that there is a huge bias in how Brooks likes his books. I am wondering if the more aleatoric and legato passages are to blame.

https://dci.org/news/carolina-crown-dazzles-in-2023-muncie-debut Apparently, last night was their first run since CrownLIVE.

That is not true at all. I've already asked around with my sources. Klesch has arranged everything, with Martin only contributing to the new stuff in the fourth movement.

Matt Harloff was there last night. He just let another conduct, from what I heard.

Brass seemed more dynamic than last year (at least from the Instagram video). I thought last year they had two volumes: loud and louder. This year there seems to be some actual shaping. Compare the ballads from this year to last. This one has tons more exposure and dynamic contrast than last. Aside from the amazing trumpet solo, Benedictus was just a big hit that stayed big. This has a big hit, but then backs off to let the high brass and front ensemble shine. I think the added dimension and exposure pushes this show to something more like 2012 or 2015. Less ramming of notes, and more of a symphonic sound. Which one is seen as harder depends on what the brass judge values, but both are challenging in different ways. I also thought the percussion had a lot of windows of features. The second movement for snares and the fourth movement for basses, for example. But you are right that there is not a dedicated percussion movement like last year. (Although, that may be a good thing.) Visually, it seems more spread across the field and has a better use of props than Crown has had in a while. But there seems to be a lot of choreography to clean, which I think is where Crown has struggled. Those are my preliminary thoughts from the video. Obviously, in person, it may be different.

No, prop crew members are their own thing. Also, Kevin Shah posted a percussion chunk: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtCuxO8ApBa/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

From what I know, Jim Ancona (and I think the sound designer, Andrew Monteiro) were the only percussion folks not fired. A friend of a friend that marched this past year said that Ancona emailed the percussion members saying that due to Crown's (pretty #### poor) handling of the staff change, he'd be going to Boston since he was fed up with how Crown had been treating its percussion staff. He then offered expedited auditions for Crown vets that wanted to go to Boston which is why there are like six or seven Crown percussion members now there (including a center snare and center marimba). Boston didn't poach ####. Ancona went there because he'd rather work with friends and not have his fellow staff be treated disrespectfully.

Thoughts on Crown using a cellist this year?

The corps ran through the Opener for their show this weekend. I think Mike Jackson is taking after Thom Hannum really well with writing for Crown. The beginning with the front ensemble and battery was very Broken City-esque, but when the actual hornline came in, it was a hit-the-####-drum, sexy metric modulation, big front ensemble impacts that Crown is known for. (I think there's six bass drums as well). Any worries that the new percussion team wouldn't match Klesch and Crown's style can be dispelled, although it will still be different in some areas (but so was last year). The brass worked on Part 2, as well.

Dan Schack posted on his Instagram that the entire percussion team for Crown, both design and instructional, was fired.

Seems like you may be disappointed, then.

In exchange for three marimbas 😭.

Dude, Crown has so many freakin' holes in percussion alone. Tonight it was a bass drum, vibraphone, tenor, and snare. That's obviously not 100%.