Why doesn't anyone just say the obvious? Phantom is playing with a more traditional sound, Cavaliers are trying to push the activity in a different direction. Part of the reason why many band directors and private instructors hate their students doing corps is because back in the day (actually not too long ago... as recently as the early 90s), drum corps brass philosophies were very often hurtful to developing students' playing habits. This has changed, but Phantom's sound, while fat and exciting, is still remeniscent of this era. They actually started out doing very well this past summer, and by Indy they had a gorgeous sound... but the last two weeks of the season I am told (by PR members) that most of the brass instruction towards the members was comments about simply playing louder and louder... to the point where Phantom fell in the rankings compared to other corps. And as someone has already hinted at... Judges are looking for consistency more than anything else... and not every player can blast as loud as the next guy... it's just not to be expected. And now that I know this... I'm sure that this is the same kind of instruction they get towards the end of every season.
Cavaliers are obviously very conscious of the judging system, but they're also very conscious of where drum corps has been and where it is going. More and more, young high school band musicians are looking to drum corps to set the example, and the Cavaliers want to make sure that they are treating themselves as a responsible musical ensemble. It's like they want university trumpet professors to turn their heads and say "wow, what a gorgeous trumpet sound". I'll admit that when Phantom played Canon this past summer it sent chills up my spine, but what stunned me even more is when the Cavies played that one glorious chord at the end of their ballad in 2002, when all the percussion dropped out. That was the most perfect brass moment that I have ever heard on a football field, even more that Star 92 during the slower part of medea, or the Cadets at the end of Canterbury Corale in 1998. It was unbelievable.
So what is my point? ... wait... (to self) what it my point? Oh yeah... my point is that this is simply the conflict of the old and the new... the traditional and the innovative... neither side is right if you look at it from a drum corps point of view... but if you look at it from a trained musician point of view then the Cavaliers are most certainly right, i don't care what your university professor tells you, because if he doesn't agree with that then he is just plain wrong.
