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oldbaritone

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  • Location
    Fairfield Connecticut
  • Interests
    Reading, History and Drum Corps

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  1. For you french horn aficionados there, there is a front page story about french horns in the Arts section of the New York Times today, Wednesday, August 13th. There is also an interesting, informative, and funny article about whether or not Elgar's music should be played with vibrato (apparently, there are very intense pro and anti vibrato folks out there. Dave Tichy
  2. Good to hear all those old names again. I do want to mention that many of the kids who marched with the CYO parish corps were not Catholic. In fact, as I remember, junior drum corps in the day was really well integrated in almost every respect. The exception being that some corps didn't want boys and girls mixing. In fact, St. Raphael's originally had a girl guard, but had to get rid of them due to pressure from someone (don't know exactly where the pressure came from). In any case, it is good to hear all the old names. Dave
  3. Ace, you'll get no brickbats or irish confetti from here. We all love you. I might say that you are well over 50 at this point. In any case, I'll stipulate that Reading had, by far, the best horn line and drum line in Bridgeport on June 30th. I'll further stipulate that all of the DCA corps present are staffed by fine and hard working musicians. I was merely stating that, from where I was sitting, the audience seemed to respond best to the Cab Alumni show that night. And the friends I was sitting with are not the stereotypical, reactionary old curmudgeons that want to lynch George Hopkins becasue he personally got rid of color presentations and caused the debacle in Iraq and would prefer G-D horns with pull slides. Generally speaking, they have varied musical tastes; two of the couples accompanied my wife and I to Yale Opera's La Boheme this year. And I know they have CD's of Barber's Adagio For Strings "Agnus Dei" because I gave them copies. We just don't really respond well to what present day drum corps are putting on the field. Again, this is a general statement of taste not a brickbat tossed at the corps. Am I to understand that we are morally and ethically obligated to feel something that we don't. That doesn't seem right. Regards Dave
  4. Hi I saw the entire show. And, yes, Cab Alumni got the standing o's. And they deserved it. And, yes, the Bucs won the competition and deserved it. But, as much as we (I was sitting on the 50 with folks who must have had a 1000 years in drum corps, guys who have won DCA more than once) understood that Reading was clean etc, we didn't get any emotional rush from their show. Maybe time has just passed us by. I don't think its a matter of "recognizable music" most of the stuff theCabs have played over the years has been new to me when they played it. I think its more a matter of the "style of show". The folks who set the criteria have a different way of viewing things than my friends. It doesn't have to be top 40 music. My son and daughter sing with their high school chorus. A lot of kids with very different musical abilities. They sang Mozart's Requiem this year and it was incredible. And, I might add that the choral director, Kevin Cotallese, is a graduate of the "drum corps" college, West Chester University and has "Loud Is Good" written in chalk on his blackboard. My daughter also sings with a really good church choir and they sang Agnus Dei (Adaggio For Strings) a couple of years ago and it was also incredible. What I'mtrying to say is that music is not an abstract thing. You should involve the audience. A corps that has inovolved the audience in recent years is the Renegades. I was sitting with a lot of alumni people and it was like they were playing to us. Thanks Dave
  5. Hi All About the future of DCA. To give a little background, I found an old shako in my mother's cellar when I was cleaning it out. Thought it might look nice around my house. I went on the net to find a plume and ordered it. Sometime later I called the uniform co about the plume. They finally sent me to the plume. While talking to a fella in Ocala Fl about the plume, he tells me that they are making the uniforms for the Anaheim Kingsmen Alumni corps. He further informs me that a Mr. Atkinson at DCI has told him that DCI is going to start an alumni/all age division. Is this correct? Has anyone else heard this bandied about? Dave Tichy PAL Cadets, Park City Pride, et al
  6. As I recall, the CYO corps would have out of parish members. I remember CYO corps having non-Catholic, black and Jewish members. Not a problem. A corps could get disbanded when a new priest came to the parish who didn't see the value in a drum corps. And, the corps raised a lot of their own money through spaghetti nights, etc. Dave Tichy PAL Cadets
  7. Hello again. I just want to add to my previous that I mentioned the Renegades as an example of an entertaining corps. To illustrate the point, my family's first encounter with them was at the 2003 prelims. Their opener of Bach's Toccata in D minor almost literally blew the family away. Over the years, there were other corps that did it as well. Hawthorne, Bridgemen, Syracuse, Empire Statesmen....Don't want to shortchange anybody. And, by the way, Frank arranged Toccata. Dave
  8. Well, generally I'm not a big fan of what I see and hear on the field these days. But, you know, it is what it is and I am who I am. I am no great shakes as a musician. However, right now my whole family (wife, 17 yr old son, and 13 yr old daughter are all rehearsing Mozart's Requiem KV626 for three different venues. My daughter and her friends have already sung with the Yale Opera. And, when it comes time for a show on a football field, their choice would be the Renegades. And, why? Because over the years the Renegades have come out and have invited (dragged?) them out on the field with them (metaphorically speaking). Its when the audience is engaged and becomes one with the performers. Melodies are important and so are techniques, but ultimately its a matter of the performers becoming one with the audience. Having gotten that out of my system, let me say that Frank is, in addition to being a great arranger, a really great brass instructor. He takes you inside the music. Its really an incredible experience. I might also add that he won DCA I&E soprano/tenor playing an old single valve tenor horn (sort of a slightly oversized soprano). I don't even think it had a pull slide. Regards Dave Tichy
  9. Lighten up. If you don't like esoteric DCI shows, fine; I'm not a huge fan myself. The fact of the matter is that junior drum corps severed its ties with veteran's organizations years ago. They are under no more obligation to honor their nation's flag everytime they perform than my kid's high school's musical is. And, I spent 18 months in the I Corps RVN, my father was in the Pacific in WWII and my uncle was KIA in Italy. Regards Dave Tichy
  10. The Connecticut Alumni first marched in 1984 in the Shelton Memorial Day Parade in the pouring rain. I had never heard of an alumni corps until then. What was the original alumni corps? Dave
  11. Hey Jim I'm following the action back here in Fairfield. How you doin? Dave Tichy B)
  12. Yep, gotta agree, John is the loudest baritone I've ever heard. I have played next to him and its bearable, but never, ever, play in front of him. He was a little subdued today, with Frank Dorritie running the rehearsal.
  13. 1. I was playing a Getzen Bass Bari in 1960 with a rotary. I think that the G-F rotary became legal and standard in 1968. It was designed by Zig Kanstul when he worked for Olds. 2. The orig Getzen Contras had rotary valves on them. One of the original contra players for St. Raphael's in 1962, John Braca, is presently playing contra with the Park City Pride. 3. The over the shoulder euphs you are referring to may be single valve Holton Bass baritones. A number of corps had them, including the Air Force, Connecticut Yankees and the Enfield Sabres. I played one of them with the Crunchy Frog in 2004. It was a old Air Force horn than I borrowed from Paul Mayer, one of Park City's horn instructors. Dave Tichy
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