Eleran Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 In 1995 ( 1994) on the PBS telecast, Michael Cesario said: "It's like taking a bath in a tub full of chocolate!!" after Phantom's performance referring to the quality of sound from their hornline... That phrase will go down in infamy as being awkward from many. Thanks for the edification. I think. <shudder> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Thanks for the edification. I think. <shudder> You wanted to know where that reference came from! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Incidentally, I was just watching Phantom Regiment's 1995, 5th place, Adventures Under a Darkened Sky show. Music included Symphonic Dances * Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (variation 18) * Piano Concerto No. 2 * Caprice Bohémien. I could not imagine more than 1 or two corps attempting to play and march that drill and brass book today (possibly Crown), especially the Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninov, Sergei) and Caprice Bohémien. Some of the meat in that show would be offloaded into the pit, especially those runs in Piano Concerto No. 2 today. Back then, the sops were playing the runs and moving pretty quickly at the same time. To me it was a very effective moment that was well coordinated. The effect wouldn't nearly be as great had those runs been in the pit. I'm sure I can find lots of other examples, but that whole show is great. No the "front ensemble" writing isn't up to today's standards, but the brass book couple with physical demand on the brass players seems greater to me overall. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cappybara Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Brass is playing less and outside of a few runs, their parts are watered down. Of course its all to accommodate the visual but.its gone a little too far IMO. Id rather hear a horn line then see them twitch around the field or doing 70 individual characters having Italian fits. Its just not entertaining to me to watch horn player put their horns on the ground and do a bad little jig. But whatever, Im old and will die soon enough, you kids can drive this thing into the ground by turning it into some weird dancing beauty pageant with faux intellectualism in base storylines as engineered by the great chocolate bathers SCV's brass book this year was a horror show but they looked great ! Were we watching the same show? SCV's drill was beautifully designed, but there were so many interval issues it wasn't even funny. That was due to the nature of the formations though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Were we watching the same show? SCV's drill was beautifully designed, but there were so many interval issues it wasn't even funny. That was due to the nature of the formations though. They did have a 19.5 in VA, so clearly the judges didn't see all the interval issues you speak of. Could be that the drill was designed so that not everyone was 2-3 steps apart constantly. Some designers choose a more organic approach with spacing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camel lips Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Incidentally, I was just watching Phantom Regiment's 1995, 5th place, Adventures Under a Darkened Sky show. Music included Symphonic Dances * Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (variation 18) * Piano Concerto No. 2 * Caprice Bohémien. I could not imagine more than 1 or two corps attempting to play and march that drill and brass book today (possibly Crown), especially the Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninov, Sergei) and Caprice Bohémien.Some of the meat in that show would be offloaded into the pit, especially those runs in Piano Concerto No. 2 today. Back then, the sops were playing the runs and moving pretty quickly at the same time. To me it was a very effective moment that was well coordinated. The effect wouldn't nearly be as great had those runs been in the pit.I'm sure I can find lots of other examples, but that whole show is great. No the "front ensemble" writing isn't up to today's standards, but the brass book couple with physical demand on the brass players seems greater to me overall. All the meat in today's books are played by the percussion and front ensemble, horn lines today simply cannot compete with that because of the athletic demands of the show. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sideways Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Incidentally, I was just watching Phantom Regiment's 1995, 5th place, Adventures Under a Darkened Sky show. Music included Symphonic Dances * Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (variation 18) * Piano Concerto No. 2 * Caprice Bohémien. I could not imagine more than 1 or two corps attempting to play and march that drill and brass book today (possibly Crown), especially the Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninov, Sergei) and Caprice Bohémien. Some of the meat in that show would be offloaded into the pit, especially those runs in Piano Concerto No. 2 today. Back then, the sops were playing the runs and moving pretty quickly at the same time. To me it was a very effective moment that was well coordinated. The effect wouldn't nearly be as great had those runs been in the pit. I'm sure I can find lots of other examples, but that whole show is great. No the "front ensemble" writing isn't up to today's standards, but the brass book couple with physical demand on the brass players seems greater to me overall. Honestly one of my favorite PR shows and just goes to show how strong the top five corps were that year if that was in 5th place. Only thing I hated was the musical moment around 7:00...that should have been the ending of the show!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 They did have a 19.5 in VA, so clearly the judges didn't see all the interval issues you speak of. Could be that the drill was designed so that not everyone was 2-3 steps apart constantly. Some designers choose a more organic approach with spacing. I think comments sometimes come from the BD approach to things... ...or maybe I should say that some people prefer one kind of design over another and are particularly sensitive to difference in what they believe is the correct way of doing things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 All the meat in today's books are played by the percussion and front ensemble, horn lines today simply cannot compete with that because of the athletic demands of the show. I know. The first phrase is what I stated, but then I showed an example of a horn line doing some incredibly demanding work in their show while also playing demanding music. It's just a different type of demand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 I think comments sometimes come from the BD approach to things... ...or maybe I should say that some people prefer one kind of design over another and are particularly sensitive to difference in what they believe is the correct way of doing things. Which is interesting considering that SCV and BD use two completely different styles of visual design and performance. I like what they do, Pete Weber does some beautiful drill On the subject of brass playing, maybe it's down to harder visual packages. Or it's that they can integrate parts across the captions now. Maybe it's the judging sheets. I don't really see a problem with it, but it's the era I'm from, so I could be wrong to most on here 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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