Jump to content

Death of the Ballad


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 58
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

My perspective comes from two eras. I marched in late 70's early 80's. It was basically opener, concert and closer. Then life happened and never saw drum corps for years. Kids started marching and I got back into the activity. I was taken aback a little because I was used to the ol skool format. I do like the ballads but... the drumline basically goes on a playing siesta during the ballad which is bothersome to me personally. I like more drumline in the show and the ballad is more hornline driven. Just my opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

marching over 180bpm and playing 50,000 notes a measure followed by 10 or 12 arrhythmic stingers does not a ballad make..hence...less ballads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not that serious. Seriously.

Are you seriously serious about being serious? :blink:

Are we naming things? Okay. The Boxer. My second favorite ballad of 2008. :devil:

:tongue::thumbup::sad::thumbup::tongue::tongue::sad::sad::spitting::sad::worthy::worthy::worthy: One of the BEST parts overall of the 2008 season, espesially the park-and-blow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pioneer has a very nice ballad this year...David Foster's The Prayer, with soloists that are very good. One is my son.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was a late 70s/early 80s drum corps fan when in high school and college, then was away until the late 90s when I started taking my kids. The first thing I noticed was that the standard drumline solos had been replaced with hornline "solos" (i.e. ballads). While I greatly enjoy the beautiful featured hornline ballads I missed the in your face display of drum line skills. What we get now is short bursts of drumline features.

I wouldn't say ballads are disappearing as I remember hearing a lot of great ballad moments last year. But I believe what is happening now with ballads, similar to drumline features, is more of a blending of shorter segments of each to support the overall visual package, furthering the activity's movement to higher visual impact at the cost of great music.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really hadn’t noticed, maybe I was focused on the death of a drum solo but thinking about it now…both have been shortened a lot and last year, it seems at least 2 corps gave their ballad over to keyboards which I thought created huge lulls in their shows

I’ll have to watch for this now

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...