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Hardest Hornline Books


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Conversations in Jazz - Commencement (from Adventures in Time) Amazon * Bird and Bela in B Flat (2nd Movement) * Bird and Bela in B Flat (3rd Movement)

Yes, 1991 BD seems like a good candidate.

1993 BD was also pretty difficult

A Don Ellis Portrait - Open Wide Amazon * Great Divide * Chain Reaction * Strawberry Soup Amazon *Niner-Two Amazon

93 was more challenging than 91, though 91 was insane.

93 was basically payback for those in the line that complained "manlove" was Winchell's.

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So in that context, you'd put a '76 BD One Eyed Sailor up against '91 BD or '11 Crown?

I would in the sense that the physical differences in the instruments -- specifically the valve arrangements -- would play a big part. 91 BD had some freakish parts (the sop feature in the closer comes to mind), but so did other charts in the 2 valve upright era (83 Suncoast, for example).

Personally, 28 years later, if I pulled out my K-20, I could probably hack through my BD show in a reasonable fashion....but give me a 1976 sop and it would NOT be very easily listening. And if you gave the mello book from 91 Star to a mid 70s mello line, I'd bet it would not sound very clean because of the valve arrangement.

Heck...compare 76 and 86 Channel One Suite. 86 was faster and cleaner in part because the 2 piston upright arrangement is easier to play on (playing with the dexterous fingers and not the thumbs)

Fast notes and a hard book need to take the valve arrangement into account...it's not JUST the amount of notes or the tempo....it's the relative ease of playing.

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As far as mellophones are concerned, it's challenging to find books more difficult than Star of Indiana's 1991 "Roman Images" show.

Beat me to it on Star 1991.

Also, Star '93.

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I'm surprised Academy '08 wasn't mentioned. Before they watered it down was one hell of a book.

Bluecoats 07-08 had some fairly note filled books.

Cadets 08 in Vesuvius.

Blue Devils had a very difficult book this season (12) in terms of how many times the show changed styles musically

Vesuvius for all the time signature and tempo changes alone :worthy:

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You beat me to it. Give today's marchers v/r bugles and the 73 book & see what they sound like. Not as good as Argonne did I venture to guess.

Did Sandra Opie do the arrangements as well as teach the line?

In reference to 73 Argonne, I'll add 79 Guardsmen, specifically Fanfare (for the New) and Tiger of San Pedro. Fanfare is the hardest thing I ever played on the field. Syncopation, multiple lines running through each other, then the entire horn line in strict vertical unison, articulations (especially all the double tonguing, not watered from the original like some other renditions), tuning, timing, etc. - it was just plain hard. Sondra Opie heard us and came over to the hornline just shaking her head, and told us how wonderful we were - high praise from one of a select few who just about invented the modern drum corps hornline.

Tiger was just about as hard for most of the same reasons, especially the style. Granted we were mostly standing still, but as hard as it is to get 13 winds and a rhythm section of 4 to swing and play tight sitting down, imagine 64 brass and a “rhythm” section of 32, standing outside. We didn’t do either tune justice until about the middle of July, but when they came together, it was magical. On the brass GE tape from finals, all the judge could do was say a loud “wow” on every unison horn hit.

If you listened to the originals of these tunes, you’d also be struck by how true our arrangements were to them. Other than a repeated section or solo section here or there, they are the entire tune, as recorded (as best we could with 2 valve plumbing experiments) - something I really miss with today’s arrangements.

A big part of our success that year was due to out two music caption heads – Tim Salzman and Jim Campbell, who IMHO still don’t get the credit they deserve for what they did with us. It was a magical summer.

Edited by Steve Knob
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[snip]

A big part of our success that year was due to out two music caption heads – Tim Salzman and Jim Campbell, who IMHO still don’t get the credit they deserve for what they did with us. It was a magical summer.

Tim always spoke fondly of the 79 Guardsmen...great hornline!

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