Jump to content

If It Were Like it Used To Be?


Recommended Posts

"Lucky to Have Drum Corps at All":

Well said (As usual). Although I never had the honor of meeting Mr. Donnelly, or playing any of his music (Our cross town rival St Raphael's Buccaneers did), both Joe Genero and Hy Drietzer who wrote and taught for us in the Royal lancers talked about him often as well as mention Bill Hayes, the Mura's, (One of whom, I understand just died), Frank Bergdoll, , Scotty Chapell, and several others whose names escape me.

Elphaba

WWW

Yes one of the Al Muras just died and was very involved in the history part of cadets and teaching new members. there is a video of him singing the corps song and talking. i have to look for it. Heart warming for sure. I also had some of those instructors Including Hy Drietzer

( scary to a little Boy) and of course Mr ironlips,lol, Don Angelica and scary Truman Crawford, some of the many.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scotty Chapell, and several others whose names escape me.

I have a great audio tape that Scotty recorded for me about a year before he died. He talks about the history of the bugle (much of which he was responsible for) and the history of drum corps in general. He even talks about the days when Academy Award winning best actor (1935) Victor McLaglen was a drum instructor for the San Gabriel Dons Drum & Bugle Corps.

I really need to post that recording on the internet some day.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When did Scotty pass on Brian? I want to remember a long letter he wrote to DCN about listening to the latest DCA (or was it DCI) recordings. Corps by corps with the memories each brought up. IIRC he was blind at the time which made his mental pictures even more special.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I appreciated what the corps members before me did, I liked what we did in the 1970's but I love what is happening today! To many times over the past decade or more, men and women (my age and older, even younger) have blamed DCI for the failings of the activity. I was one of them many years ago until i stepped back and looked at everything. The times were changing! That's all! Drum corps, due to the creation of DCI and the termination of AL and VFW score sheets, changed because the men that led those top groups decided it was time to change. Would anyone of you bad mouth the activity if Gayle, Jerry, Jim and the others were still here today? These were men that were highly respected then and still today. I think they would set a lot of people straight!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When did Scotty pass on Brian?

Hey Jim, in doing a search for him....(isn't it sad that there isn't more info on him readily available?) I had to search geneology records to see when he may have passed on. I know his full name was Arthur F. Chappell, and he lived in the state of Kentucky in his later years. There is a listing for an Arthur F. Chappell, born in 1898 and died November 7, 1987 in Fayette, KY. That must be him. The dates seem correct. He once stated that he began playing in a drum & bugle corps in 1916.

Here's a link to a letter he wrote to Drum Corps News in 1979, with much of his personal story:

http://rec.arts.marching.drumcorps.narkive.com/iiVAKQLx/1979-scotty-chappell-the-evolution-of-dc-in-the-us

Edited by Northern Thunder
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Brian, sounds right considering when DCN stopped publishing. Want to think I read where he was living with family outside the Northeast but too many years ago to remember that well. And love the old RAMD thread as I've met all the posters.

And 1929/30 for the crook in Scottys letter. Have a 1930 Ludwig DC manual selling that crook. And back of the manual has charts for corps with the crook. Top line is for horns without the crook and bottom line has for horns with the crook. Kicker is they take turns playing.

Edited by JimF-LowBari
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And 1929/30 for the crook in Scottys letter. Have a 1930 Ludwig DC manual selling that crook. And back of the manual has charts for corps with the crook. Top line is for horns without the crook and bottom line has for horns with the crook. Kicker is they take turns playing.

It's amazing those guys could get ANY kind of music out of those old horns!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have a Tenor Bari with a valve lock which dates it 30s/early 40s and it's even smaller than the Tenor Baris used in the 50s.

Considering the lack of playable notes and less than great tone I too am amazed... and in awe..... .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't look now, guys, but there's da&n little left now. And the currently popular "societal fluxuations" argument contains just enough truth to make it seem plausible if you're pre-disposed to believe it. The original basic concept behind the rise of drum corps was as a small, community based, inexpensive activity for ordinary humans, who had no desire to "be serious" about music. Other than the elite units, it was perhaps the collective faults of the hundreds of "ordinary humans corps" for not totally shunning the elitist few.

Unfortunately that didn't happen. Many of us strongly advocated that course.

We all began as eager amateurs, and wished devoutly to retain our amateur standing. Whether we worshipped at the alter of Tony S, or not, we were immediately singled out as being" part of the problem" by those, to paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, "Drum Corps Nazis". As with Ironlips, my undergraduate major was history. A couple of points should be raised. Prior to DCI drum corps was in a constant state of striving for survival. Corps formed, and other corps disbanded with regularity. It was almost never about finances. Corps were cheap to operate. It was one of the prime raisons d'etre of drum corps. After DCI it was ALL ABOUT money. Many national caliber units, who had been in existence for over 20 years in 1972, folded within a season or two, strictly for financial reasons. e.g. Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights, a charter member of DCI, didn't survive long enough to enter a single championship contest.

DCI, as we suspected they might, scapegoated thousands of us eager amateurs. They threw out the baby with the bath water in their eagerness to cleanse and purify the original concept of drum corps, and mold it into something exalted, and available only to the anointed professionals. They shamelessly devoured the acceptable personnel of the ordinary human corps, putting added survival pressure on those outside the inner circle. Nearly every new "innovation", and management stricture they put in place was designed to increase costs and therefore force more "unworthy" units to disband. It was, I believe, a calculated measure of drum corps genocide.

I had originally thought that they were honest sincere folks who got a little carried away in the initial rush of power, and would soon recognize the damage they'd done, and take corrective measures. I was an optimist.....or perhaps, naive.

Many of them are truly evil people, who set out to destroy we poor folks who were just having fun. Whether they actually enjoyed watching the pain and anguish they were causing is unknown. Since 1972 hundreds of thousands of kids and volunteers have been systematically excluded from whatever that "activity" is that the powers-that-be have created. Thank God it's not drum corps. I knew drum corps, and DCI ain't it.

"Little left"??? Hardly. The state of competitive marching/music is larger than eve. Between DCI and DCA in North America, corps circuits all over the world, the competitive HS marching band scene, indoor guard/percussion like WGI nationally and regional circuits such as TIA, USBands, MAIN...to name a few in my area alone...more kids have the chance to march and compete than ever before...at every level.

BS, my personal favorite corps as a kid growing up through the mid/late 60's, folding had zero to do with DCI. The inner city turmoil all over the country, including Newark where BS came from, greatly impacted their ability to survive. The benefited briefly when St Lucy's folded after the 1969 season, fielding their last great corps in 1970. After that it was a quick downhill ride in 71 and 72; even adding a girl guard could not save them.

You made a good point that corps were starting and folding all the time...at every level from beginner to local competitive to national...the changes in the economy and overall society through the 70's and into the 80's to today made it impossible for a seat-of-the-pants operation to start. You need to have an infrastructure in place today to operate...insurance, finances, transportation, etc...and that is ONLY a good thing;

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...