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1976 Muchachos question


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I have a question regarding the season of the 1976 Hawthorne Muchachos. Of course the 1975 season events are well-known, I noticed some strange things regarding the 1976 season.

I never saw the 1975 corps, although I heard recordings. However, I saw the Muchachos for the 1st time in exhibition at a senior show in Clifton in 1976. I thought that they were good....my drum teacher replied, "you should have seen them last year". He proceeded to tell me more about things, and that the 1976 corps was young. However, again, they were very respectable. Some weeks later, I saw the Cadets and Crossmen in a contest, and could see the Muchachos being at a similar level corps-wise.

During the 76 season, the Muchachos had wild variances in overall scores/placements and also caption scores. They defeated the Cadets, Bridgemen, Blue Stars, Guardsmen, and Crossmen, and were close to others. In several shows, they won captions, especially brass. Just days before prelims, they beat the Blue Stars and Guardsmen (the 9th and 10th place DCI finalists), beating Guardsmen by 2 points, only to lose to both by 9 points just days later at prelims, taking 21st place. One marching judge had them in 39th.

I'm not saying that they should have made finals or anything like that, but it does seem that perhaps they were "dumped" as hard as could be.........they lost to Boston, who they had nearly 6 pointed just days earlier. Can anyone who was at prelims comment? I was actually at 76 prelims and finals as someone else's guest, but we were at only part of one day of prelims, and we did not see Hawthorne. I believe that I also heard that they were ineligible for DCI contests before prelims due to the 75 DQ.......thus they were in UOEC, CYO, WO, and other independent shows. What else I find very peculiar was that CYO and WO were big shows in early August.....they were not "DCI" shows, but were judged by DCI folks.....it looks as though the "caption dumping" of Muchachos seemed to have started to occur at those shows.

Very long ago, but very curious......

GB

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An interesting thought... I went to '76 prelims but have no memory of the Muchachos either, but there were a LOT of corps to see and logically they would have been buried away from the seeded "Big Guns." Anyone know the story?

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I too was at prelims in '76 and did not see them. I think they would have done well if the were there but DCI could have forced them to stay out. Who knows!

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The corps I remember being dumped at '76 DCI was the Garfield Cadets.

Someone told me that they (Garfield) were late showing up for prelims, and I believe someone may have even volunteered to go on early for them so they didn't get a penalty......if that was the case, it couldn't have helped nerves or the drumline.....their drum score kept them out.........the corps was decent all year, so certainly tough to take.........I saw them a few days before prelims, at West Chester, and the corps was solid, and in fact beat the 5th place Cavaliers.....

GB

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Wasn't there personally, but just from the audio recording, you can tell that the Muchachos had a massive phasing problem in the second half of their opener at '76 DCI prelims. Horns went backfield at slightly different tempos, separated by a full beat or so, then turned around to play the next several rhythms in obvious disagreement. It took the rest of the OTL for the corps to arrive at a consensus once again, and I imagine there must have been quite a bit of foot-phasing and out-of-step incurred in the process.

I've always assumed that was why Muchachos score/placement suffered at '76 DCI compared to other shows.

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Wasn't there personally, but just from the audio recording, you can tell that the Muchachos had a massive phasing problem in the second half of their opener at '76 DCI prelims. Horns went backfield at slightly different tempos, separated by a full beat or so, then turned around to play the next several rhythms in obvious disagreement. It took the rest of the OTL for the corps to arrive at a consensus once again, and I imagine there must have been quite a bit of foot-phasing and out-of-step incurred in the process.

I've always assumed that was why Muchachos score/placement suffered at '76 DCI compared to other shows.

thanks....

GB

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The corps I remember being dumped at '76 DCI was the Garfield Cadets.

Big time. A disgrace, IMO.

Fran

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Wasn't there personally, but just from the audio recording, you can tell that the Muchachos had a massive phasing problem in the second half of their opener at '76 DCI prelims. Horns went backfield at slightly different tempos, separated by a full beat or so, then turned around to play the next several rhythms in obvious disagreement. It took the rest of the OTL for the corps to arrive at a consensus once again, and I imagine there must have been quite a bit of foot-phasing and out-of-step incurred in the process.

I've always assumed that was why Muchachos score/placement suffered at '76 DCI compared to other shows.

Yup...I was on staff and we were cringing...that opener was one of the most exciting things I'd ever heard, when it didn't phase...sigh...common talk was that we were getting our hands slapped for the previous year, and the show was really quite cool, but with replacing a huge part of the drum line, and the obvious timing dice-shoot...well, the season didn't go as well as we would've liked...

cg

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