DCI BOD Drama....more to come?

[MikeD]

So. what you are saying is that when we look at, and listen to, any DCI corps from 1973 those corps shows, visuals, and sounds will be very similar to what we just saw and heard from Crown in 2013 and therefore not that much has changed?

IMO it would sound and look closer to today than a corps from 1973 would sound and look as compared to a corps from 1933.

[HockeyDad]

IMO it would sound and look closer to today than a corps from 1973 would sound and look as compared to a corps from 1933.

Mike, I will give you this - you are unflinchingly a "glass half full" guy when it comes to dci.

[Stu]

or he's just quoting you accurately

That may be the case; however I was hoping that I sounded like the plunger muted teacher from the Peanuts cartoons, "Wah, Wah..., Wah,,,, Wah, Wah."

[BRASSO]

Of course it is my opinion...just about everything posted here are peoples' opinions.

And note...I did not reference WW at all. I said the new shows and the items being used....I was thinking about what is there now...such as A&E, modern visual designs, guards, etc...not what might come along down the road.

Hopefully DCI will add WW, but that is not anything I noted in my post that you responded to. If they are added, the marching members who march with them in use will over time become the legacy fans that marched in DCI with WW.

Would you agree that if flutes, saxophones, clarinets, etc are added that we can then remove any and all doubt that these will then be just competitive summer marching bands ( not " Drum Corps" ) and that these bands simply fill the summer void for the marching band students when their local high school school or college is closed for the summer ? Just asking mind you.

Edited December 19, 2013 by BRASSO

[Stu]

No.

So, Hopkins was not one of the leaders in the DCI activity over the past years who pushed for changes which exacerbated the rising high costs within DCI such as the elimination of regions to increase national DCI touring schedules, requiring more expensive equipment for DCI corps like electronics and amplification, nor was he instrumental in wanting DCI to use most, if not all, organizational revenue to support just an elite few while purposely yanking all DCI support from many, many current DCI corps? Interesting; it must have been another person with the same name who was leading on those issues.

[Stu]

IMO it would sound and look closer to today than a corps from 1973 would sound and look as compared to a corps from 1933.

You could say the same thing concerning the progression of the 1908 Model T to the 2013 Shelby Mustang. However, academic marching bands and independent drum corps, throughout the years, were not in the same vein, nor were they ever intended to be. Not even with the 1972 combine which created DCI. Yes there were and are similarities between the two activities, but there are also similarities between Formula One and Indycar (both are open-wheel 'auto racing' entities); yet those two bodies are, and are supposed to be, very different.

[MikeD]

Would you agree that if flutes, saxophones, clarinets, etc are added that we can then remove any and all doubt that these will then be just competitive summer marching bands ( not " Drum Corps" ) and that these bands simply fill the summer void for the marching band students when their local high school school or college is closed for the summer ? Just asking mind you.

Why do you say "just"? And "simply"? That implies to me that you consider groups like that to be somehow lesser than DCI groups today.

If DCI had a division where there were no limits on size or instrumentation, the groups in that division would serve exactly the same purpose they do today...provide a place where those who want to play and march at the very top level are able to do so. Only it would then be open to the portion of the musicians who have no place to do so today, outside of the few who are able to switch instruments. In such a group they wouldn't have to switch, and they would have a better shot at passing the audtions.

Why are there various honor bands and all-state/region bands? They serve the same purpose for concert band players who want to perform at the top level.

[MikeD]

You could say the same thing concerning the progression of the 1908 Model T to the 2013 Shelby Mustang. However, academic marching bands and independent drum corps, throughout the years, were not in the same vein, nor were they ever intended to be. Not even with the 1972 combine which created DCI. Yes there were and are similarities between the two activities, but there are also similarities between Formula One and Indycar (both are open-wheel 'auto racing' entities); yet those two bodies are, and are supposed to be, very different.

The two bodies of MB and drum corps are really just parts of the same body. They are "supposed to be" whatever those who make the rules intend them to be. You are the one postulating that a corps from 1973 sounds and look radically different from today. Sure, there have been lots of improvements along the way, but IMO they are not as different as you make them out to be. Members still march, play and compete and make long-term friends in front of appreciative audiences and complain about the judging, just like we did. They live and breath their corps and their show, just like we did. They are taught by the best staffs that the corps can put together, just like we were.

[MikeD]

So, Hopkins was not one of the leaders in the DCI activity over the past years who pushed for changes which exacerbated the rising high costs within DCI such as the elimination of regions to increase national DCI touring schedules, requiring more expensive equipment for DCI corps like electronics and amplification, nor was he instrumental in wanting DCI to use most, if not all, organizational revenue to support just an elite few while purposely yanking all DCI support from many, many current DCI corps? Interesting; it must have been another person with the same name who was leading on those issues.

What regional organization did George personally do away with? Back in the day he was just trying to keep the Cadets solvent and competitive. Even further back...he was marching with the Crossmen. What corps has folded due to the cost of adding A&E? I can't think of any. Does he support things yo do not believe in? Sure.

[N.E. Brigand]

However, academic marching bands and independent drum corps, throughout the years, were not in the same vein, nor were they ever intended to be. Not even with the 1972 combine which created DCI.

Apart from the best corps always being markedly better than the best bands (which is still true) and the instrumentation (although there are some all-brass marching bands), how were they "intended" to be different? And whose intentions are we speaking of? My own high school's marching band in the 1980s described itself as a "corps-style" band, so clearly they were emulating drum corps--was the director misintentioend? And as I mentioned just a few posts ago, drum corps and marching band apparently looked so similar to the layperson in the 1970s that in a PBS broadcast of DCI finals, the announcers felt compelled to explain the difference to the audience.