Thoughts and Questions on 1976

[KeithHall]

Wouldn't it be great to go to a DCI Championships with 90 corps competing? Better yet, add on a US Open, World Open, American-International Open, Key to the Sea, Danny Thomas Invitational, etc.

That would be a great drum corps season!

[Rocketman]

Wouldn't it be great to go to a DCI Championships with 90 corps competing? Better yet, add on a US Open, World Open, American-International Open, Key to the Sea, Danny Thomas Invitational, etc.

That would be a great drum corps season!

AI and US Open were always my favorites.

[xbones7480]

If they weren't DQ'd, I wonder where they would have ended up.

July 17, 1976 Garfield, NJ

1 Bridgemen 75.15

2CROSSMEN 71.50

3 Saints 67.45

4 Kingsmen 57.10

5 Bon Bons 50.75

Edited September 7, 2008 by xbones7480

[Cavie74]

Cavaliers dropped way down to an 8.6 in Brass General Effect in Finals. That was 0.6 under the score given 27th Lancers and 1.1 under Bridgemen. The drum line also dropped to 6th after being 2nd in Prelims, 1.05 under Blue Devils after being within 0.2 in Prelims. (The corps finished 0.6 under Bridgemen and 0.7 under 27th.)

That was my second of three years in the corps. I don't know if Finals was that much worse than Prelims or if we were scored too high in Prelims. Things just didn't break our way in Finals.

The drumline performance was definately that much worse. There was a dropped snare stick that wasn't returned for two numbers. A cymbal drop because the cymbal straps were pulling through the holes. During warmups outside the stadium, one of the snare slings failed and a snare drum fell to the pavement. I think we shuttled snares around amongst players and borrowed a 27th snare for finals.

Mentally, the drumline became unglued. It was a 6th place performance.

[Michael Boo]

The drumline performance was definately that much worse. There was a dropped snare stick that wasn't returned for two numbers. A cymbal drop because the cymbal straps were pulling through the holes. During warmups outside the stadium, one of the snare slings failed and a snare drum fell to the pavement. I think we shuttled snares around amongst players and borrowed a 27th snare for finals.

Mentally, the drumline became unglued. It was a 6th place performance.

I agree. It was a perfect storm of circumstances.

The dropped stick was probably the biggest thing, especially since it was the drum sergeant and he was in the middle of the line. Nothing like that had ever happened before.

[Vickie Kingsmen]

I don't see anything particularly innovative in BD's show. Awesome yes, state-of-the-art, absolutely, but there's no game-changing there. There is a "statement game," if you will, to be all college sports about it.

The innovative move that was most talked about was the unwinding circle forms. Marching like that just hadn't been done before. Now it's done all the time, but in 76, it was new.

And, yes, it was Scott Tiret who played the duet with Bonnie.

[Michael Boo]

The innovative move that was most talked about was the unwinding circle forms. Marching like that just hadn't been done before. Now it's done all the time, but in 76, it was new.

...

That was BIG! I heard so many people talk about it.

For those who haven't seen it, two circles rotated and opened up as two arcs in front blended into the circles, each arc and circle becoming one continuous arc as it rotated. It was quite the unique move then.

Also, "Channel One Suite" was the longest piece of music played in a DCI show up to that point.

[freakyswotboy]

For me, the most innovative (well maybe odd) thing about 76 was SCV playing an upbeat screaming soprano piece - Dark/ Black Orchid? I would be interested to know what the reasoning behind this was as it seems out of character and even more out of synch with the rest of the show.

Was this due to the pressure that corps like Madison and BD had put on them with successful Jazz/ Big Band oriented shows?

[Northern Thunder]

You are absolutley correct about SCV doing Dark Orchid. Up to that point it was the most "out-of-character" selection that any DCI finalist had done. Seeing them do it live was a unique thing, and I think many of us were sitting there thinking, "I can't believe this is Santa Clara!"

[Michael Boo]

I remember at the time actually being disturbed by the incongruity.

Entrance of the Emperor and His Court (from "Hary Janos Suite" by Zoltan Kodaly)

Appalachian Spring (Aaron Copland)

Dark Orchid (Sammy Nestico)

Send in the Clowns (Stephen Sondheim)

I guess one could say "Dark Orchid" and "Send in the Clowns" were the pop half of the show, that the closer had more in common with the concert production than it did either of the first two selections.

Still, listening to the SCV screaming sopranos cut loose, while they were very good, displaced a few brain cells at the time.