2000s - New Era of Phenomenal Hornlines

[Feathers Up]

[using Dr Evil's pinky on face:] Hmm, that show had lots of Tuba features.

Hey, I'm a bass trombone player so I of course loved it . I was also a big fan of their hornline sound in general. Beautiful balance and blend to my ears. Nice intonation and ensemble sound. Didn't hear any "heros" out there.

[mad_scotty]

i'm always a little confused when people talk on dcp about how much better hornlines are today than they have ever been. sure, the intonation is a little more consistent on Bb horns than on G bugles, but to me thats about as far as it goes. the execution is fine, but the level of difficulty is lower now than in the past- hornlines just don't seem to ever take risks and really hang it out there. to me, the real golden age of hornlines in dci was the mid to late 70's. in that era you had consistent excellence in the top 6 every year, with corps like the muchachos, bridgemen, blue devils, madison, scv, phantom, spirit, 27 all just throwing down every year. in this decade you're lucky if you hear three really good hornlines in any given year, and rarely do you hear anyone really wailing on anything.

when i was in high school my band director used to get tapes of stock charts in the mail every year. the music companies would get a college wind ensemble to record the schlock they were shilling as a sample piece. i listened to a few of the tapes, and it was easy high school music played by an outstanding wind ensemble, and i always came away feeling that it was both perfectly played and completely uninspired and uninspiring. i still listen to recordings of drum corps and evaluate the hornlines from a straight audio instead of a video track, and i far too often get the same feeling from them, that i'm listening to a really talented wind ensemble playing an easy composition that never pushes them past about 80% of their "safe zone".

compare that to a 74 or 75 muchachos, 77-78 bridgemen, 76 or 80 devs, 75 madison, 79-80 spirit where they put everything on the line and let it all hang out and to me, well, really theres no comparison. the old lines had every bit as much talent as the modern ones, intonation was always iffy (as it would be on a bugle), but they were always in high risk-high reward mode, never settling for the "whats the most we can absolutely pull off without ever taking a chance of failing" mode that is all too often a modern drum corps fall back position.

[Hrothgar15]

i'm always a little confused when people talk on dcp about how much better hornlines are today than they have ever been. sure, the intonation is a little more consistent on Bb horns than on G bugles, but to me thats about as far as it goes. the execution is fine, but the level of difficulty is lower now than in the past- hornlines just don't seem to ever take risks and really hang it out there. to me, the real golden age of hornlines in dci was the mid to late 70's. in that era you had consistent excellence in the top 6 every year, with corps like the muchachos, bridgemen, blue devils, madison, scv, phantom, spirit, 27 all just throwing down every year. in this decade you're lucky if you hear three really good hornlines in any given year, and rarely do you hear anyone really wailing on anything.

when i was in high school my band director used to get tapes of stock charts in the mail every year. the music companies would get a college wind ensemble to record the schlock they were shilling as a sample piece. i listened to a few of the tapes, and it was easy high school music played by an outstanding wind ensemble, and i always came away feeling that it was both perfectly played and completely uninspired and uninspiring. i still listen to recordings of drum corps and evaluate the hornlines from a straight audio instead of a video track, and i far too often get the same feeling from them, that i'm listening to a really talented wind ensemble playing an easy composition that never pushes them past about 80% of their "safe zone".

compare that to a 74 or 75 muchachos, 77-78 bridgemen, 76 or 80 devs, 75 madison, 79-80 spirit where they put everything on the line and let it all hang out and to me, well, really theres no comparison. the old lines had every bit as much talent as the modern ones, intonation was always iffy (as it would be on a bugle), but they were always in high risk-high reward mode, never settling for the "whats the most we can absolutely pull off without ever taking a chance of failing" mode that is all too often a modern drum corps fall back position.

Agreed. My interest, though, is finding the few shows from this decade that don't conform to this idea of "safety."