luvah Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 (edited) I drove to Bowling Green, Ohio for the Glassmen's home show. Its a great venue there-- very spacious, but the show was lightly attended. It started 15 minutes late due to Teal Sound pulling out (I guess they are done). Then 2 corps performed before a 45 minute intermission. The Blue Saints took the field. They are a beggining level corps w/ minumum numbers. Then Legends from Kalamazoo took the field. They are an open corps with a full drum line (6 snares), and about 25 horns. They had good presence and tone quality from the low brass section. They are comming. They've shown a lot of improvement especially in the front ensemble. If I was a young kid looking for a corps to get into--Legends! The real show stepped off with the Bluecoats about 9:05 pm. Their show is melodically driven--which is different from most drum corps shows today. They have a couple of slow moments that make the show a little sleepy. Its just normal drum corps ballad stuff, but I'm anti-that. The corps strenths are low brass and drum line. High brass is a weakness when compared with Carolina Crown, and Visual Ensemble is a weekness (perenially). If I was the drum judge (and I am in my own mind) then I would have given high drums to the Blue Coats. They executed their show very well. I do like their book, I like the way their drums and pit sound. They had the biggest audience response of the evening. I've always liked the way they connect with the crowd. Next was Carolina Crown. They have a great sounding horn line. Just as bright a tone quality and all the support you'd want. They are really good on the horns, but they are having execution problems. The drill is very difficult, so is the horn book--which I don't think is composed at the highest level, to be honest, For the great horn line that they are, the book does not flatter them too much--but they do have their moments when it pops too. The drums had many execution problems, staging diffulties--phasisng issues where phrases are not sinking up. I thought the drum judge was going to nail em--but he didn't--he fell in line w/ the scores that they've been getting. When you see a show where every judge has the corps in the same order 1,2,3,4 there is likely not much real judging going on--it suggests the judges don't always trust their own ears and have the confidence to reward or punish corps for the way they perform on a particular evening. Then Cavies and Glassmen rounded out the show. The Cavies are a little down. They seem a little young. The color guard uniforms are hard to get used to, but I'm kind of intruiged by the color scheme as well, and want to see the show again. I'm not sure I get it all from one viewing. If you haven't seen the show, the colorguard wears teal stretch pants The Glassmen are just behind learning their show. Their corps is strong enough to make finals talent wise, but a lot of tech and design problems to work through. They have a very competitive drum book and a younger drum line, that I feel is going to make a lot of progress in the next few weeks. In general, the scores are down this year. Its not just the Glassmen, everyone is a little behind cleaning their show. Bluecoats least of all. They came the closest to performing thier show w/ technical virtuosity--it wasn't perfect. Carolina Crown has a lot of execution problems and phasing/timing issues to clean. They have the mother of all phasing problems: They have drums in each endzone and on the back sidlines for Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man"--It was way off--I don't know how concerned the judges are w/ that--it could be just an effect thing. The judging system and its effect on design and execution is a work in progress right now. I don't really blame the drum judge--for my ears (which were up by the press box) the Bluecoats had the best drum show last night. That's it I got to run. I'm ripping out moldy drywall and insulation from a flooded basement. Its great you ought to try it. Luvah Edited July 12, 2012 by luvah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splat-a-drag-a-phonium Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 (edited) First off....Thanks for the review. Nice to see the show through another set of eyes. Next was Carolina Crown. They have a great sounding horn line. Just as bright a tone quality and all the support you'd want. They are really good on the horns, but they are having execution problems. The drill is very difficult, so is the horn book--which I don't think is composed at the highest level, to be honest, For the great horn line that they are, the book does not flatter them too much--but they do have their moments when it pops too. REALLY? You don't think the horn book is composed at the highest level??????? How else could one arrange the "Dreams" and "Fanfare" pieces.......except right off the sheets? Listen to the source music. I'm putting my money that (DCI HOF) Mr. Klesch understands and knows how to arrange for his horn line. You can criticize the selection of source music if it's not your cup of tea.....but never could you criticize the arranging. Edited July 12, 2012 by splat-a-drag-a-phonium 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dandaman31 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 I have to agree with Splat. There is no one, at the moment, that is arranging for drum corps as well as Michael Klesch. He is an all time great and could literally arrange any piece of music (pop, rap, classical, country, atonal etc.) to fit an ensemble perfectly. I marched in 2010 and our encore tune was a Madonna medley... and it ROCKED. I understand if you think the music was repetitive, or you don't like the source material, but to say that it is badly composed is ignorant... Best brass book this year/decade/of all time. That aside, I really enjoyed your review and I appreciate a critical eye! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tez Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Just one side note here about judging percussion........ When the drum judge is on the field, he always hears phasing problems because of sound delays, so I think they are used to pretty much ignoring them. Also, in "Fanfare," unless you are directly on the 50 yard line, there will be little phasing problems even if it is played perfectly. But it does seem, even on videos (which are alsways on the 50), there is always a few spots the percussion don't line up. I am just glad the drum judge (and other music judges) are giving them credit for the difficulty, and not docking them too much for the dirt. We'll see if that keeps up. Like I have said before, having the drums spread that far is definitely worth a little dirt because it's a one-of-a-kind effect you could only experience in drum corps. I hope they leave it as is even if it is impossible to get perfectly clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvah Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 Just one side note here about judging percussion........ When the drum judge is on the field, he always hears phasing problems because of sound delays, so I think they are used to pretty much ignoring them. Also, in "Fanfare," unless you are directly on the 50 yard line, there will be little phasing problems even if it is played perfectly. But it does seem, even on videos (which are alsways on the 50), there is always a few spots the percussion don't line up. I am just glad the drum judge (and other music judges) are giving them credit for the difficulty, and not docking them too much for the dirt. We'll see if that keeps up. Like I have said before, having the drums spread that far is definitely worth a little dirt because it's a one-of-a-kind effect you could only experience in drum corps. I hope they leave it as is even if it is impossible to get perfectly clean. I agree about the drums in the endzone--leave it in an deal w/ the phase--they handle it pretty well actually-- of course you are always gonna hear it as a phase--its the effect that counts. When phasing problems cause timing errors, or it feels like there is fighting for tempo across the field--those are the tech problems caused by phasing--which is usually a staging problem. I think the middle section of CC's show is full of that type of thing right now. A drum phrase slows down a little bit causing a bad attack and tempo problems for the insuing horn lick--fighting back and forth for tempo. That's the type of thing that's difficult to clean with all the demand in the drill and music books. It actually reminds me of their 2009 program--which didn't clean up great--they were a GREAT corps--they got 4th? I can't remember maybe 3rd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvah Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 First off....Thanks for the review. Nice to see the show through another set of eyes. REALLY? You don't think the horn book is composed at the highest level??????? How else could one arrange the "Dreams" and "Fanfare" pieces.......except right off the sheets? Listen to the source music. I'm putting my money that (DCI HOF) Mr. Klesch understands and knows how to arrange for his horn line. You can criticize the selection of source music if it's not your cup of tea.....but never could you criticize the arranging. Well, I think you understood my opinion correctly that the Carolina Crown horn book is not arranged at the highest level (not many are imo). It is possible to criticize the arrangement as well as the selection. Sometimes people who are not over-awed by the reputation of a composer can have valid criticisms. The source that I'm familiar with is the Copeland "Fanfare." The opener is not transcribed directly from that source. I didn't like the polyphonic thing where the chromaticised melody is played in the high brass over the low brass fanfare. I felt really uneasy listening to it. I do experience music differently w/ repeated listenings, and that was only my first time w/ this show. Another criticism that I have is the lack of attention to formal continuity, (which is rampant throughout DCI today)--we take snipets and melody lines and marry them to drum licks, add in 8 counts of pure drum corps horn pop and call it music. I think that style neglects proper music education about music history, and it doesn't teach kids to feel the larger phrase (which is really important in jazz performance)--it neglects to give them a sense of what form has always been in music. Finally, I felt like some of the book was difficult for the sake of difficulty and I'm philosophically against that idea. Its hard to play the horn with professional tone quality and perfect intonation and with excellent articulation. Don't make it harder by writing music that is difficult to execute on the horn. What is an example of a show that gives proper attention to formal continuity? '92 Cavies, '92 Star, '80 BD--those are prominent ones in my memory. My criticisms are minute but I feel they are valid. And what gives me the right to openly criticize people who are undoubtedly better and more experienced than myself? I bought a ticket. Deal w/ it. Luvah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsOnTheField Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 The real show stepped off with the Bluecoats about 9:05 pm. Really?? I hope this wasn't a bash to the Open Class corps. Regardless, thanks for the review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmo Blatch Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 If I was the drum judge (and I am in my own mind) then I would have given high drums to the Blue Coats. They executed their show very well. I do like their book, I like the way their drums and pit sound. Agreed. This is not a bash on Crown, they are deserving of 1st place overall at this point in the season, but I have no idea how they are scoring better in percussion than Blue Devils or Bluecoats. Fortunately, captions should shake things up pretty well tomorrow night with lots of corps in the mix. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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