Hardest Hornline Books

[scottgordon]

There have been a lot of really hard horn books over the years, even going WAY back to the 50s and 60s - as some have mentioned because in some cases the horns themselves were harder to play, making the arrangements a major challenge to execute.

But BD'91 was the only show I have saw in which I thought the horn book didn't belong on the field because it was simply too difficult. It wasn't until late season before it started sounding tight. And for BD that's saying something.

[jkyeag]

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?

This was Sandra's line. Frank Minear (Kenton's lead trumpet player) penned the Kenton scores(Fanfare for the New, and Malaga), pulling them directly from Kenton's charts. Kenny Norman arranged Stars and Stripes, including the C strain (which everyone avoids). Yes, we were playing the lendary Olds Ultratone valve/rotor bugles. I too, would love to hear today's players give these a try.

[Ageout90]

Hands Down 1997 Cadets Year of the Dragon/Celebration was the hardest book ever from the perspective of technical demands and stamina. (And that slow movement was no piece of cake either...spread across the field in large intervals and mixed instrumentation. Not to mention playing on G bugles.

Are there shows that may have required higher demands of musicality? YES

Are there shows that may have required a more diverse range of technical skills in regards to stylistic changes, tempi, and nuance....? YES

BUT for sheer...note to note, bar to bar, step to step...there was no harder show EVER:-)

As they said to Mozart...."too many notes".

For those of you who know me...I have taught alot of different hornlines in a lot of different genres. This book tested my skills as a caption head like no other. We really were entering into unchartered waters (at the time.)

In a twist of Irony..I am conducting Year of the Dragon with my Wind Ensemble at Bridgewater-Raritan for contest. We are just started hitting it when we came back from holiday break. We are performing it for the first time on March 1st!

[bccadet09]

It seems like BD has been the main one in regards to the most difficult hornline book, but I want to add in another year not mentioned on the thread yet: 2004.

Although it's not as technical as Crown 2012, understand that they spent the first 60% of the show marching at approx. 190 per minute. I couldn't stand marching 180 for even a minute, let alone 6 at 190+.