SCV 2015

[perc2100]

"Highest score ever" stuff is IMO meaningless. Drum corps scores are not an absolutle measure of anything so comparing them outside of that single show instance is silly. And comparing them year to year is even sillier. I know -- we all pretend they're meaningful. But...they're not.

OTOH your point does highlight that the 2014 top 5 were all d##n good. So...there's that.

As for SCV... well i guess ill just agree that tastes vary.

Can we agree that retreads are mostly boring? Mostly? </newt>

yes

(and YES! at the ALIENS reference!!)

[xandandl]

Unfortunately, NEB, some of these units did not make finals nor even semi-finals. Therefore, they might not be on the legacy collections (which I don't own any more. The house fire in 2012 took all my DCI tee shirts and recordings. Luckily the corps jackets were out at the dry cleaners for the annual post-tour re-gentrifying.)

I was also reminded of a NJ h.s. band who did the flags from behind the props idea a decade ago. The local drill writer had marched CBC who had at one time experimented and placed battery members behind props; the move never made it out of practice sessions and thus did not appear in competition.

[GUARDLING]

Unfortunately, NEB, some of these units did not make finals nor even semi-finals. Therefore, they might not be on the legacy collections (which I don't own any more. The house fire in 2012 took all my DCI tee shirts and recordings. Luckily the corps jackets were out at the dry cleaners for the annual post-tour re-gentrifying.)

I was also reminded of a NJ h.s. band who did the flags from behind the props idea a decade ago. The local drill writer had marched CBC who had at one time experimented and placed battery members behind props; the move never made it out of practice sessions and thus did not appear in competition.

youre right and they took it from a HS back in the 90s at WGI. there was nothing new there. That old trick was done by many after that for a while in WGI BUT the original still did it the best and 2 tiers high layered platform. If I remember correct it was Lassiter HS

This does not mean it wasn't done well but we can go down the line to many corps including the winner and ones I also have been involved with alot is always re cycled and hopefully done with a new twist. BUT there are also those who just do that and hope noone remembers...lol...NOT!

Edited February 13, 2015 by GUARDLING

[Lincoln]

Edit:

Edited February 13, 2015 by Lincoln

[corpsband]

I'm not sure I agree. Certainly in the other arts, it's commonplace to revive older works, whether Shakespeare or Beethoven. There are two major summer theatre festivals a few hours' drive north of me that exist and thrive on presenting a classic repertoire. That said, comparisons naturally happen. I felt that SCV's 2014 "Scheherazade", while wonderfully executed, didn't quite have the excitement of their 2004 version, but that their 2013 "Les Miserables" equaled or surpassed what Cadets had done in 1989. (And immediately after SCV played in the 2013 Finals, I wrote on these forums that if ever a presumable fourth-place performance deserved a score of 97, that was it; an hour or so later, the judges almost agreed with me.) In neither case was the show a very close copy of its most-notable predecessor--far less so than, say, SCV '89 as compared to SCV '88. But it would be worth thinking about why, e.g., the Cleveland Orchestra can play the same work every few years, with each performance much more alike to another than any two drum corps productions are, and yet not be subject to the same complaints about boredom that would happen in drum corps.

I think comparing a drum corps show -- any drum corps show -- to Beethoven or Shakespeare is silly.

On the one hand -- music and art that has endured for centuries

On the other hand -- marching band competitions.

Apples and oranges.

Not to mention the fact that originality is an expected attribute (especially at the very peak of the drum corps activity).

[corpsband]

yes

(and YES! at the ALIENS reference!!)

thanks for seeing that :-)

[corpsband]

I had thought of Cadets 1998 with "Stonehenge", when, at about halfway through the show, the guard flashes three different sets of flags over the course of a few seconds along the back sideline and right end zone, but in my opinion, SCV borrows that from idea not so much with the move I described--which is different because (a) you can't see SCV's guard and (b) they're tossing to each other, not just spinning--as with the move closer to the end when SCV's guard flashes the set of enormous multicolored flags on the front sideline.

As for the other precursors you cite, are they on the Fan Network? (Or the Legacy DVD Collection, given how many shows have been (temporarily?) removed from the Fan Network?) I'll be delighted to see someone else doing what I described. There are certainly models for hiding the corps while they play--mostly by SCV themselves in the late 1980s and early 1990s (plus Phantom in 2010)--but the use of all those placards for that technique, and especially for the guard, was new to me.

And had someone really done wordplay like "VAN [guard]" on the field before?

"At its head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame. The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man. The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr he was, and his name is remembered in no tale; for he himself had forgotten it, and he said: 'I am the Mouth of Sauron.' ....

'Is there any one in this rout with authority to treat with me?' he asked. 'Or indeed with wit to understand me? Not thou at least!' he mocked, turning to Aragorn with scorn. 'It needs more to make a king than a piece of elvish glass, or a rabble such as this. Why, any brigand of the hills can show as good a following!'

Aragorn said naught in answer, but he took the other's eye and held it, and for a moment they strove thus; but soon, though Aragorn did not stir nor move hand to weapon, the other quailed and gave back as if menaced with a blow. 'I am a herald and ambassador, and may not be assailed!' he cried.

'Where such laws hold,' said Gandalf, 'it is also the custom for ambassadors to use less insolence.'"

So you're this guy?

[N.E. Brigand]

So you're this guy?

While I know who that is, I've actually never seen the Extended Edition of the films. Anyway, no: I'm the guy he's talking to.

[N.E. Brigand]

Not to mention the fact that originality is an expected attribute (especially at the very peak of the drum corps activity).

It's an expected attribute in drum corps now. It certainly always wasn't. (And not just in drum corps.) Preferring originality is an entirely subjective decision.

And if you don't like my Beethoven and Shakespeare comparison because they've endured, change it to John Adams and August Wilson. Artists who have done most of their work in the DCI era, many of whose works have been performed repeatedly by orchestras and theatres.

[corpsband]

It's an expected attribute in drum corps now. It certainly always wasn't. (And not just in drum corps.) Preferring originality is an entirely subjective decision.

And if you don't like my Beethoven and Shakespeare comparison because they've endured, change it to John Adams and August Wilson. Artists who have done most of their work in the DCI era, many of whose works have been performed repeatedly by orchestras and theatres.

I think competition vs concert pretty much explains it.

And I don't think originality is necessarily required except at the highest level. Certainly not to the same degree.

Edited February 15, 2015 by corpsband