ThirdValvesAreForWimps Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Kamarag is right: The old time standard which extended into the 1980s was 11 minutes 30 seconds to 13 minutes. The gun went off at 11:30 signaling all execution judges to stop their work and only general effect judging took place during the remaining minute and a half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAZZER Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Kamarag is right: The old time standard which extended into the 1980s was 11 minutes 30 seconds to 13 minutes. The gun went off at 11:30 signaling all execution judges to stop their work and only general effect judging took place during the remaining minute and a half. And the designers typically wrote material of high risk "post gun". High risk, high reward. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamarag Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Kamarag is right: The old time standard which extended into the 1980s was 11 minutes 30 seconds to 13 minutes. The gun went off at 11:30 signaling all execution judges to stop their work and only general effect judging took place during the remaining minute and a half. The year it changed was 1986. Believe me, that minute and a half off the average time made a huge difference to the corps designers and members. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShortAndFast Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Thanks; that is a good point I hadn't considered. On the other, other hand, Scouts are playing "only" eight numbers. Like you, I certainly would prefer it were about five and at greater length. I guess I'm having a hard time understanding the design intention of playing such short excerpts from so many pieces. It's not like it's enabling some killer visuals. It's not like the judges are eating it up (11th place in music, 11th place overall). Generally audiences respond better to longer musical development and climax, especially if they don't know the source material. It's just a really confusing choice to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamarag Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 (edited) I guess I'm having a hard time understanding the design intention of playing such short excerpts from so many pieces. It's not like it's enabling some killer visuals. It's not like the judges are eating it up (11th place in music, 11th place overall). Generally audiences respond better to longer musical development and climax, especially if they don't know the source material. It's just a really confusing choice to me. One of the reasons you see such long repertoire lists is that if a corps uses a musical theme or idea, even if it's just for a second or two, it should be properly credited. Sometimes a corps might weave two ideas simultaneously, or only use a theme (in the musical sense) for a short bit in a longer musical phrase. If you do this, your "list of sources" gets long quickly, and that's not necessarily bad. Examples of excellent integration of a long set list: Crown last year and Blue Devils' Dada show the year before. This works particularly well if the pieces you choose aren't all that well known. When people know your source material, *how* you use that material becomes paramount in the eyes and ears of your audience. Compounding the problem even more, works like those by Don Ellis contain a ton of musical development, and really cannot be effectively boiled down to small snippets without becoming problematic. The two prime examples of this in Scouts' show are FFTN and Niner Two. Edited July 20, 2014 by Kamarag 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThirdValvesAreForWimps Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 (edited) Next time you get a chance, go onto YouTube and find a video of either Let it Be Me from 1978/1979 Spirit of Atlanta or Softly as I Leave You by the 1980/1981 Cavaliers so you can see the value of creating emotion and impact by playing an entire piece of music. Both of these pieces begin as beautiful ballads and build to ear-splitting emotional climaxes which left audiences nearly speechless. Edited July 20, 2014 by ThirdValvesAreForWimps 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NR_Ohiobando Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 One of the reasons you see such long repertoire lists is that if a corps uses a musical theme or idea, even if it's just for a second or two, it should be properly credited. Sometimes a corps might weave two ideas simultaneously, or only use a theme (in the musical sense) for a short bit in a longer musical phrase. If you do this, your "list of sources" gets long quickly, and that's not necessarily bad. Examples of excellent integration of a long set list: Crown last year and Blue Devils' Dada show the year before. This works particularly well if the pieces you choose aren't all that well known. When people know your source material, *how* you use that material becomes paramount in the eyes and ears of your audience. Compounding the problem even more, works like those by Don Ellis contain a ton of musical development, and really cannot be effectively boiled down to small snippets without becoming problematic. The two prime examples of this in Scouts' show are FFTN and Niner Two. Yep. The only one of Ellis' tunes that seems to work for the short-quote format is Final Analysis, and of course they only use that as the closer. Heck, even Passacaglia and Fugue is incredibly long in phrase length. BD's 1993 Ellis show only had what, 4 or 5 tunes? And even then it wasn't particularly memorable aside from Strawberry Soup. The hornline however, holy cow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamarag Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Yep. The only one of Ellis' tunes that seems to work for the short-quote format is Final Analysis, and of course they only use that as the closer. Heck, even Passacaglia and Fugue is incredibly long in phrase length. BD's 1993 Ellis show only had what, 4 or 5 tunes? And even then it wasn't particularly memorable aside from Strawberry Soup. The hornline however, holy cow. It's funny you say that... Soup was my least favorite part of that show, which I absolutely loved. Weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corps8294 Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 (edited) This is hilarious! Had the Blue Stars remained as a Div I corps in the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s, all this "getting beat by the Blue Stars" b***s*** wouldn't be taking place. I'm sure a lot of you die hard Scouts fans were probably thinking, back in 2012, "good, they fell out of the top 12 and are back where they belong." Are you kidding me? Why should any corps be satisfied with taking a step back...especially the Blue Stars! I can guarantee you all that organization has faced adversity many more times than what some of you refer to as the "dark days of the Madison Scouts" rebuilding years. The season isn't over, yet. The Blue Stars could finish ahead of the Scouts, when all is said and done, or the Scouts could finish ahead of The Blue Stars. Both of those corps are a very important part of the drum corps activity and are both thriving and doing well. May You Never Walk Alone and FCO! Edited July 20, 2014 by shortn'sour 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madcityscout Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Since so many people are ranting about how disappointing the Scouts are and how they might not make top 12, go ahead and predict that they will get beat by Crossmen next! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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