Corps vs. Original music

[oldbandguy]

... I have NEVER heard a corps perform an arrangement of something that made it better. The original music, IMO, is always best.

WOW...that statement really surprises me. I know you are a very knowledgeable musician and educator, and I really respect your opinions, but this one surprises me.

IMO not all music performed by corps was a "home run" to begin with. I have often found that some of DCIs great arrangers (Thrower, Boerma, Downey, to name a few) often hear things that the original composer had not...thus making an overall better piece of music.

I also believe that some of the great composers might even say their arrangements were better simply because they, the composer, did not have the medium of a drum corps to write for. I often wonder what Wagner, among others, might have come up

with if they had a Phantom Regiment around when they were writing?

[wvu80]

Happy Days are Here Again - Blue Devils, 1988

[MikeD]

75 Scouts: "Macarthur Park"

HOLY #### the difference between the two is gigantic lol

Just about anybody's Mac Park is better than the original! However, the version in question is based on Maynard's chart, my all-time favorite chart of his, so no, I disagree that the Scouts version even comes close..as good as it is as a drum corps classic. Bruce Johnston's bari sax solo on "Live at Jimmie's" is a great moment, IMO.

[danguernsey]

Just about anybody's Mac Park is better than the original! However, the version in question is based on Maynard's chart, my all-time favorite chart of his, so no, I disagree that the Scouts version even comes close..as good as it is as a drum corps classic. Bruce Johnston's bari sax solo on "Live at Jimmie's" is a great moment, IMO.

Well, given that the thread is about ORIGINAL tunes via-a-via drum corps (read carefully, Mike), "the version in question" is indeed the original Macarthur's Park. I do concede that '75 Scouts's version doesn't top MF's version (a mediated rendition of the original)--never suggested we did.

[jwillis35]

IMO not all music performed by corps was a "home run" to begin with. I have often found that some of DCIs great arrangers (Thrower, Boerma, Downey, to name a few) often hear things that the original composer had not...thus making an overall better piece of music.

I also believe that some of the great composers might even say their arrangements were better simply because they, the composer, did not have the medium of a drum corps to write for. I often wonder what Wagner, among others, might have come up

with if they had a Phantom Regiment around when they were writing?

Good point! I'll buy that.

[MikeD]

Well, given that the thread is about ORIGINAL tunes via-a-via drum corps (read carefully, Mike), "the version in question" is indeed the original Macarthur's Park. I do concede that '75 Scouts's version doesn't top MF's version (a mediated rendition of the original)--never suggested we did.

Oh, I know you didn't suggest such a thing.

[84BDsop]

03 Regiment....Sanctus.

Not only was there the usage of the chart for the opening (and the reprise was ^&%#&%# brilliant!), there's the simple fact that Regiment used all the voice ranges...not just the uppers so they sounded like a bunch of castrati.

That might be why some people (raises hand) thought the opener was actually Canon in D....since Canon DID use the full range of instrumental voices.

[euphbone99]

I'd say the same thing about any corps treatment of Rocky Point that you said about Gavorkna.

to a degree, but the cadences are aren't even similar in Cavaliers Gavorkna

[USMKLAVIER]

Better than original........

Bluecoats 2010 "Aha"

any time Phantom plays "Elsa's Procession"

Huge phan, but NO. Don't mess with Wagner, even if it's not from the best work of art ever written (Der Ring des Nibelungen.)

[Lance]

to a degree, but the cadences are aren't even similar in Cavaliers Gavorkna

to a large degree. what corps have played barely resembled rocky point holiday. the main melody and a couple of motifs are the same, but that's about it. it's no wonder that so many composers don't want their work arranged, much less hacked up for performance on a football field.

another that i'd put up there with "barely resembling the original" is Appalachian Spring until SCV did it last year. The changes that corps have done previously to everything from time signature to key change to rhytmic and melodic motifs has made it virtually unrecognizable for me.

same thing with what Saucedo did to Niagara Falls...fortunately, he took another cool piece (Soundings) and combined it with the Daugherty, and the synergy really worked.