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Hostrauser's Incredibly Unpopular DCI Quarterfinals Opinions


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Every other corps treats the visual book as drill and guard for the skeleton, then body movement, dance, and other flourishes as the meat and skin that's added to the skeleton to make it look real. The Blue Devils toss all of the elements in a blender, then make a funkadelic visual golem out of the resulting putty.

Dude, Michael Boo on his best day couldn't come up with a metaphor that good! :worthy:/>

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Dude, Michael Boo on his best day couldn't come up with a metaphor that good! :worthy:/>/>

And I'm still waiting on Michael Boo to have any kind of good day...

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FOW.

? Not sure what you mean by that?

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Full of win.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. For a 20 something who spends a lot of time online, that sailed right over my head

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?6MfWz2#Q!?: Blue Devils. People talk about comparing apples and oranges, but that's not quite right. It's more like comparing a bowl of assorted fruit (the rest of DCI) and a talking octopus throwing bricks at the fine china (Blue Devils). The Blue Devils are fundamentally different from every other DCI corps (for better AND for worse). Every other corps treats the visual book as drill and guard for the skeleton, then body movement, dance, and other flourishes as the meat and skin that's added to the skeleton to make it look real. The Blue Devils toss all of the elements in a blender, then make a funkadelic visual golem out of the resulting putty. They both LOOK and ACT like visual programs, but they are fundamentally different to their very cores. Sure, the Blue Devils' drill is once again the easiest of the Top 3 or 4: lots of follow the leader, block forms, and scatter. But while the DRILL demands on the performers might be less, the overall VISUAL demand is not. The scope and variety of different elements going on simultaneously but working together to form a cohesive visual program in the Blue Devils' show is staggering. The field coverage and utilization of space is incredible. Musically, the drumline has been the strength of this corps for most of the past five years. But there's significant brass difficulty here, too. The harmonics of Stravinsky have not been watered down, placing tremendous demand on the performers to have a unified concept and execution of tone and intonation. It can be very difficult to make dissonance sound correct and not like a mistake and, far from just dipping their toes in this pool, the Blue Devils' horn book stays in this challenging area for pretty much the entirety. In terms of chord structures and ensemble harmonics, BD has the toughest show on the field. And, while they might not have the audacious runs of Crown, there were more than a few complex jazz syncopations that require an almost hive-mind like approach to articulation. So, yeah, Blue Devils. I'm not sure they should win, but there's no way they're not one of the Top 2 corps this year. Again. I like it, I'm not sure I like it, I don't want to like it, I don't like it, and I really, really respect it. All of these are true, all at the same time.

You are free to disagree with anything I've said here and be wrong. :closedeyes:/>/>

your assessment of BD is spot on. However the question is why is their visual program being rewarded beyond what the other top tier corps are doing? There is no demand to the drill, the staging does not directly flow from one idea to another and all of the sections are never integrated into the main form (my tuba drill complaint)

What is harder, a group doing 50 difficult things correctly, or a group doing 100 easy things correctly? The demand in BDs visual program does not come from the drill, it comes from the sheer volume of individual things they must do.

How do you judge this? It feels to me like corps like crown and cadets are more being punished for keeping some traditional resemblance of drill and making it difficult (2012 crown was the most difficult drill book in the history of drum corps) while BD is being rewarded for adding bells and whistles and smoke and mirrors (literally mirrors)

Crown has the best designed show this year by a wide margin, this is the third time in 5 years I feel this to be the case....I think its about time Crown finally wins. Crown performs the hell out of VERY difficult drill and yet still loses to BD which has comparably VERY easy drill

If BD wins this year I will be upset, not just at the victory, but at the 20.0 visual analysis score.

Edited by ContraFart
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your assessment of BD is spot on. However the question is why is their visual program being rewarded beyond what the other top tier corps are doing? There is no demand to the drill, the staging does not directly flow from one idea to another and all of the sections are never integrated into the main form (my tuba drill complaint)

What is harder, a group doing 50 difficult things correctly, or a group doing 100 easy things correctly? The demand in BDs visual program does not come from the drill, it comes from the sheer volume of individual things they must do.

How do you judge this? It feels to me like corps like crown and cadets are more being punished for keeping some traditional resemblance of drill and making it difficult (2012 crown was the most difficult drill book in the history of drum corps) while BD is being rewarded for adding bells and whistles and smoke and mirrors (literally mirrors)

Crown has the best designed show this year by a wide margin, this is the third time in 5 years I feel this to be the case....I think its about time Crown finally wins. Crown performs the hell out of VERY difficult drill and yet still loses to BD which has comparably VERY easy drill

If BD wins this year I will be upset, not just at the victory, but at the 20.0 visual analysis score.

You say his assessment of BD is "spot on" but apparently you ignored what he said. You suggest that BD's drill is less demanding but he explains that "The scope and variety of different elements going on simultaneously but working together to form a cohesive visual program in the Blue Devils' show is staggering." and it is being done across the entire field constantly. The best corps with the best performance of the best designed show will win tomorrow night....and unlike you, if it's BD, I'll be thrilled..... if it's CC or Cadets...I will be surprised, but equally pleased for the Champions....they will have earned it.

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Crown's percussion started the season rough, and the judges are still penalizing them for it. IMO, they've caught up and passed the drumlines from Scouts, Cavaliers, and MAYBE even Bluecoats. Vanguard, Cadets, and Devils are still clearly better, but this Crown drumline should probably be 4th, maybe 5th at worst right now.

Who knows what's up? Glenn Fugett knows what's up. *dap*

:beer::guinesssmilie:

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I agree with quite a bit (not all) of what you wrote. That said, I think this is one of the most well-thought out, incisive and, yes, enlightening posts I've ever read on DCP. Kudos and thanks.

what he said

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