Reviews of The Classic

[Geneva]

OK, I will give my two cents. Here are a few of my observations from Saturday's annual classic in Rochester. It was nice to see so many Appleknocker faces

in the crowd to accompany our program ad. Once again a very well run

show and a welcome early launch to the drum corps season. My congratulations to the MSJ committee for their hard work in sponsoring this great event for the fifteenth consecutive year! One sad note was the Crusaders’ exhibit of the vandalism of their equipment truck with some pictures of completely trashed bugles. Really a nit-wit act by street punks.

This year I was attending as a spectator. I went up to Rochester in

the early afternoon so that I could check out the groups in

rehearsal. MSJ was surprisingly big, though not as huge as past

editions (48-50 horns). They sounded well rehearsed and ready to rock

("NY Minute" (Somewhere and On Broadway), "My Shawl" (Cozzolino), "The

House I Live In" (Cozzolino). These are ancient MSJ standards from 1963-

65. "Irish in Your Face" (Fabrizio arrangements from 1971 I believe

reworked by Donny). Also, "Rio", "Brazil", "Temptation", "Georgia".

Drum line is doing some challenging rudimental stuff. Nice chops.

Love that back sticking! The corps really burned the house down with

Ace Petersen in the Georgia finale! Really quite a bit of music and everyone

seems to be enjoying themselves. It was great for me to see so many

old faces again.

Prime Time Brass is a high octane brass jazz ensemble with a fun

delivery reminiscent of the old Disney World "Future Corps".

Erie Thunderbirds offered up some well-done popular music from their

G bugle mini-corps (Jeff Gibbens is a great soprano soloist).

Ghost Riders mini-corps has reinvented itself this year with B flat/F

instrumentation and a more wind ensemble type of sound. I was very

interested to hear their performance of "An American Elegy" by Frank

Ticheli since I had just performed this piece with the Association of

Concert Bands convention band at Corning under the baton of Alan

McMurray who was the individual who proposed the commission to

Ticheli as a commemoration to the victims of the massacre at

Columbine HS. Columbine is nearby to University of Colorado at

Boulder where he teaches and is one of the sites where they send

their students to teach. Needless to say, our rehearsals were a very

moving experience because of the personal significance of the work to

the conductor. I thought that Ghost did a very creditable abbreviated

arrangement of this seventeen minute piece. Their intonation was very

good as was their balance. The performance of this piece tolerates no

flaws in those elements which are critical prerequisites in order to be able to sell this piece. My congratulations to Donny and the group. The only deficiency

was the absence of some very nice woodwind colors which are written

into the work, but, hey, this is drum corps...nice fortissimos and

range guys.

Rochester Crusaders are playing well-arranged music proficiently.

The polish on their performance was quite evident, but from my vantage point (back, stage left) they suffered from small horn line size (about 30) and some balance problems secondary to not enough top players in an ensemble with a large and good bottom section (7 tubas...yes, B flat). I think this may have been exacerbated by positioning the tubas in front of the stage on the auditorium floor. From my past performances at this venue with MSJ, we found that balance was best with the sopranos in that position and the bottom section and percussion up on the stage.

The Brigadiers are also quite musically polished, but play music which I did not

recognize (my loss, I guess). I think they will move up in DCA this year. They are a young corps, but seemed very focused in rehearsal.

Light Brigade is from Revere, MA and turned in a solid performance by their mini-corps of old 27th Lancers standards complete with flashy “trick” flag work . Their members seemed delighted with the crowd reception as related to me by one of them at the post-show party.

Sorry CADRE, but I did not catch your performance.

This was a very entertaining evening of early season drum corps. My appreciation to all the participants.

[MSJ Snare]

Thanks Geoff. I know lots of people have been waiting to here a review. Well done..................

[Donny Drum Corps]

Thanks Geoff...

Actually the Irish piece that St Joes played is a rather watered version that I wrote for Pioneer in 1998...it is mostly based on Leroy Anderson's Irish Washerwoman, with other Irish themes (Rakes of Mallow, Minstrel Boy et al) kinda mixed in for contrast.

It seems like "nearly" everyone I have talked to LOVES GR's "An American Elegy"....I am glad you liked it. It is tough taking a 17 minute piece down to 2 minutes and keeping the "flavor". I am very proud of the Ghost Riders and St Joes. They both have done their work this past winter.

Donny

Edited May 5, 2008 by donnymusic

[Geneva]

Thanks Geoff...

Actually the Irish piece that St Joes played is a rather watered version that I wrote for Pioneer in 1998...it is mostly based on Leroy Anderson's Irish Washerwoman, with other Irish themes (Rakes of Mallow, Minstrel Boy et al) kinda mixed in for contrast.

It seems like "nearly" everyone I have talked to LOVES GR's "An American Elegy"....I am glad you liked it. It is tough taking a 17 minute piece down to 2 minutes and keeping the "flavor". I am very proud of the Ghost Riders and St Joes. They both have done their work this past winter.

Donny

Donny, thanks for the clarification on "Irish". I wasn't sure about that. I thought you captured the essence of "Elegy"...quite an arranging achievement.