Prelims Rankings 2015

[ContraMan]

It shouldn't affect any corps imo. BD went first in Rockford last month and still won. It shouldn't matter when you perform. Get out there and take care of business on the field, and it will reflect in your score.

While this is ideal in assuming that the judges will be completely objective, the reality is that they aren't. You can look at some historical performances and see that the seeding still affected outcome as much as performance. Judges can, and have, boxed themselves out in a category.

[N.E. Brigand]

never know with PC, one night they're up, and the next night they're taking a tumble score-wise. . . . still don't totally understand the constant +/- 3-point swings lately for PC at the regionals: San Antonio and Allentown. Is that corp just having horrible regionals compared to their other head-to-heads with Mandarins and/or OC?

Pacific Crest had obvious trouble with their sole, large, focus-of-the-show prop in those two regionals. That may have been part of the problem. Another is that their show is the most difficult to make sense of and probably the hardest to execute of those three corps (in terms of challenges for the brass especially: enormous field coverage, lots of playing while marching, playing extended passages clearly while facing the back or side, and incorporation of body movement.) And those two aspects feed each other. It wasn't until my third viewing, for instance, that I realized the "angry" trumpet sounds about halfway through are connected to the physical actions of the corps members, who are trying to damage or open the cube at that point, and who pull away in fear or shock as the trumpets hit their harshest tones. But if that isn't made crystal clear through the timing and expressiveness of the body language, the effect is lost.

[BRASSO]

Pacific Crest are an example of a staff giving their Corps a show that was far more demanding than its MM's could execute. The theme was confusing, the music unappealing for many. If you know your chances of making Finals are slim to none, then for heavens sake give your Corps a show and music that audiences will enjoy. There is nothing less unfortunate for the MM's experience than to bust their butts all season to then produce a show design performance that results in not only low placements, but head scratching responses from audiences, and mostly golf claps at the end. I see nothing particularly ennobling, nor enriching, subjecting a lower tier MM's to this all summer. Pacific Crest should take a page out of the Mandarins playbook. Do a show with a coherent theme, appealing arrangements,....one that audiences respond favorably too, and thus have the MM's have the satisfaction of genuine, appreciative applause all summer long with their show design performances. ( ok, enough of this unsolicited, armchair advice from an outsider like me)

Edited August 2, 2015 by BRASSO

[corps8294]

Pacific Crest are an example of a staff giving their Corps a show that was far more demanding than its MM's could execute. The theme was confusing, the music unappealing for many. If you know your chances of making Finals are slim to none, then for heavens sake give your Corps a show and music that audiences will enjoy. There is nothing less unfortunate for the MM's experience than to bust their butts all season to then produce a show design performance that results in not only low placements, but head scratching responses from audiences, and mostly golf claps at the end. I see nothing particularly ennobling, nor enriching, subjecting a lower tier MM's to this all summer. Pacific Crest should take a page out of the Mandarins playbook. Do a show with a coherent theme, appealing arrangements,....one that audiences respond favorably too, and thus have the MM's have the satisfaction of genuine, appreciative applause all summer long with their show design performances. ( ok, enough of this unsolicited, armchair advice from an outsider like me)

You actually make very valid points, and it's a shame because Pacific Crest does have a very good corps; however, they were given a show that even the mighty Blue Devils would be scratching their heads with. The days of straight up esoteric have faded; a lot of corps, even those at the very top, have learned their lessons in that regard. Now, we are seeing corps that are performing shows that are somewhat on the esoteric side with a balance of entertainment. Now, does this mean that Crest has to go out there and completely cheese up because of where they are in the mix? Absolutely not. As stated, the Mandarins have one of the most appealing shows, this year, and they aren't going to be a finalist. Hell, I go as far as to say that the Mandarins have a show that just as, if not more, entertaining that a lot of the top 12, this year. With all that being said, I'm sure Pacific Crest will be fine; hopefully the design staff learned from this year and will give the members something they can take and run with next year.

[N.E. Brigand]

I recognize more of Pacific Crest's music than of Mandarins' music. So should everybody, because Mandarins' repertoire is all original to their show. Admittedly, it is fairly tuneful as original corps works go. But as regard's Crest's repertoire:

1. Corps have been playing Prokofiev's Scythian Suite, with which P.C. opens their show, since at least 1972. CorpsReps lists nine previous versions, the most notable example of which is Phantom Regiment's silver medalist show, Faust, in 2006. I recognized Crest's opener immediately as music I'd heard before.

2. By contrast, I don't know P.C.'s second number, "Liberi Fatali" from the Final Fantasy video game, because I don't play video games. But lots and lots of people do, and I've seen people on these forums praising Crest for playing this music, which they recognized.

3. P.C.'s next selection is a rock/pop song, Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" from 1990. That song hit #8 on the U.S. "Hot 100" pop chart, #1 on the U.S. modern rock chart, and did similarly well on other charts around the world. The melody was familiar to me right as soon as they started it, although they're taking it a bit slower than the original version. In that regard, the choice is very much like the selection of ballad by the Cascades, who are playing Soundgarten's "Black Hole Sun", a song that had similar chart success in 1994.

4. The show closes with Ticheli's Angels in the Architecture, which Cadets just played in their championship show four years ago, Between Angels and Demons. Crest's treatment is not identical to Cadets, to be sure, but some of the exact same passages can be heard very clearly.

So I don't believe that song selection should be hurting Crest's appeal relative to Mandarins or other mid-to-lower ranking corps of presumed Semifinalist caliber.

There is some murkiness in P.C.'s theme. Probably no more than Cadets this year or in 2013, mind you--although naturally I'm not claiming the two shows are anything alike in quality. But many fans have no problem ignoring most of the "Power of Ten" concept (it's an arbitrary number whose only importance comes from the fact that we have ten fingers)--because Brutus is wrong about the importance of theme, no matter how interesting his insights into the subject might be--and apart from logistical challenges, the audience largely didn't worry about Cadets' 2013 concept either, in which we were apparently meant to understand that the only way to cross the barrier of towers at the end (and why did that exist?) was to be carrying a musical instrument (and who made that rule? and what does it have to do with the rest of the show?).

But apart from also having logistical challenges with a large prop, what Crest needs is clarity about who those two figures in white are, and why they emerge from an object that, via the sound associated with it and the corps' reaction to it, suggests the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey (a film that is highly regarded but which still confuses many people).

Despite recognizing the closing music as something they've heard in drum corps before, probably a goodly portion of the audience has no idea that its title is "Angels in the Architecture". Once you know that, you realize that the figures--who do, after all, come out of architecture!--must be angels, not aliens. (Now there's an idea: has anyone read Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End?) If Crest wants the audience to appreciate that, they need, as was recently mentioned, to give them wings or some other accoutrement that clearly conveys "angels". And even that won't answer the further question the audience might ask, which is, "OK, so they're angels. But what does that mean?"

That problem may be impossible for Crest to solve with the time that remains (unless they've long had some championship week plan in the works, which is unlikely).

So in short: if they had just played their four musical numbers, using approximately drill of the same complexity they have now, without hinting at any theme at all, they'd perhaps have a more pleasing show.

Edited August 2, 2015 by N.E. Brigand

[luv4corps]

Mandarins were the last World Class corps to face SCVC and BDB. That was July 5 in Sacramento. These were the scores:

64.200 -- Mandarins

61.900 -- Blue Devils B

61.100 -- Vanguard Cadets

Meanwhile at Dallas on July 20, this happened:

70.950 -- Mandarins

64.150 -- Genesis

And this happened on July 14 at Bentonville:

71.900 -- Spirit of Atlanta

62.950 -- Genesis

So either the Open Class corps have improved at a much faster rate than the World Class corps.

Or they're being over-scored when they don't appear at the same shows.

This was an issue last year.

[luv4corps]

I have to jump in and say that I enjoy PC's show a lot. The theater is great. The kids do an excellent job of building mystery and intrigue around the cube. The only part of the show that seems to let me down is when the cube opens. Something really spectacular in there should pop out OR... it has also occurred to me that since the cube splits in two, maybe that's the point! Like cells dividing or something along those lines. I don't need to get it to like it though. I find the show creative and sophisticated.

But I have to say the show is better (to my sensibilities) than it is being given credit for. I enjoy the storyline, the drill, the music, all of it.

Edited August 2, 2015 by luv4corps

[DCIroxx]

Has the judging panel been announced yet?

[Kamarag]

Has the judging panel been announced yet?

Panels are usually announced on the Wednesday of Finals week.

[ftwdrummer]

Slightly off-topic: is there a theater of choice for the DCP crowd in the DC metro for the simulcast? I just moved here, and am still getting the lay of the land, as it were.