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Bring Back the Oldies


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And not always to the best ends. Early 2000's BD members refer to "Channel 0.5 Suite", and do not do so incorrectly.

Bringing back the past isn't always the best thing to do if you aren't going to do it justice.

Its pretty much impossible for Corps today to do similar lengthy renditiions of the older classics. So it should be impossible to expect this, imo. Heck, when the Corps in the 70's, 80's were playing songs, THAT rendition arrangement was not like rendition arrangements from Corps that played that song in earlier times either.

Also, in earlier decades, the music was predominent. Guards were an auxilary. Visual was an acompaniment to the Music. Fast forward to today however, and the Music oftentimes is the simple acompaniment to the Visual and the Guard. The Cavaliers of the 90's ( imo ) ushered in what I refer to as " The Visual Age of Drum Corps " in the history of the activity. Their success in the 90's, turned the activity upside down. The Cavaliers had unbelievablly creative shows, with outstanding Guards, Visuals. And the Music complemented that. Star of Indiana had great talent in Brass and Percussion. But when Zingali got there,he wrote them visuals that put them into the winner's circle. Initially, BD was caught flat footed in this evolutionary change ( BD always had great brass lines, drum lines ). But BD saw what was happening, adjusted to that, and has been successful since. As such, there is no way in the world that a Corps like BD can play the oldie classics in the lengthy versions heard before. If they did so, it would compromise what they are attempting to do with staging, and the visual and with the guard. So they don't do the same arrangement that was arranged for them years before, and by the same brass arranger for both renditions. All that said, I have yet to hear or see ANY DCI competing Corps, from any year, bring back an oldie classic with the exact same arrangement written as before by themselves or from that of any of the other Corps that have played the composition before. So anyone that is expecting to hear oldies played with the same arrangement as decades earlier, probably would be better served, going to the Corps Alumni performances. This is where Corps tend to play the oldies as was written 20-50 years ago ( and heck, now that I think olf it, many of them sometimes change the original arrangements too... haha! ).

Edited by BRASSO
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Here's my question: What's the most successful instance of a corps bringing back a classic after 10+ years?

The one that first comes to mind to me is Madison Scouts 2010. I thought they actually did Slaughter justice there (2004 and 2009 Malaga, not so much). And of course Santa Clara's most recent Appalachian Spring.

Phantom Regiment 2011- 2012 fell flat for me, with Nessun Dorma and Elsa's, and same with Cadets 2009 West Side Story.

What are some others?

Edited by Hrothgar15
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Here's my question: What's the most successful instance of a corps bringing back a classic after 10+ years?

The one that first comes to mind to me is Madison Scouts 2010. I thought they actually did Slaughter justice there (2004 and 2009 Malaga, not so much). And of course Santa Clara's most recent Appalachian Spring.

Phantom Regiment 2012 fell flat for me, with Nessun Dorma and Elsa's, and same with Cadets 2009 West Side Story.

What are some others?

Music wise, not so much ( although Cadets played songs from " West Side Story.. a lot before 1984's winning with it ). Theme wise, it has been done before. Phantom Regiment's third bite of the apple with the " Spartacus " theme worked like a charm for them.... with both audiences and judges alike. SCV did a redo of " Phantom of the Opera " theme, its music too and it put them into the winner's circles as well. There have been other duplicative themes ( or like kind themes ) done before by a Corps, where the second or third go around turned out better for them with judges and fans.

Edited by BRASSO
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Music wise, not so much. But Theme wise, it has been done before. Phantom Regiment's third bite of the apple with the " Spartacus " theme worked like a charm for them.... with both audiences and judges alike. SCV did a redo of " Phantom of the Opera " theme, and it put them into the winner's circles as well. There have been other duplicative themes ( or like kind themes ) done before by a Corps, where the second or third go around turned out better for them with judges and fans.

Wasn't sure to include Spartacus since a lot of that material was new. SCV 1989 of course, but that was just a repeat of the prior year, not a reprise >10 years down the line.

On that note, I wasn't a fan of them sneaking Music of the Night into the 2012 show. That company front is almost too sacred to be attempted out of context...

Edited by Hrothgar15
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Wasn't sure to include Spartacus since a lot of that material was new. SCV 1989 of course, but that was just a repeat of the prior year, not a reprise >10 years down the line.

On that note, I wasn't a fan of them sneaking Music of the Night into the 2012 show. That company front is almost too sacred to be attempted out of context...

Ah, you see 2012 was the first year I started following drum corps, and that company front was one of the reasons I fell in love with vanguard!
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Here's my question: What's the most successful instance of a corps bringing back a classic after 10+ years?

The one that first comes to mind to me is Madison Scouts 2010. I thought they actually did Slaughter justice there (2004 and 2009 Malaga, not so much). And of course Santa Clara's most recent Appalachian Spring.

Phantom Regiment 2012 fell flat for me, with Nessun Dorma and Elsa's, and same with Cadets 2009 West Side Story.

What are some others?

What? PR 2011's rendition of Elsa's seems to be pretty universally loved.

As for 2012 Nessun Dorma, most people prefer the original, I'm not one of those people.

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What? PR 2011's rendition of Elsa's seems to be pretty universally loved.

As for 2012 Nessun Dorma, most people prefer the original, I'm not one of those people.

yeah, 2012 made me tear up near the end. Maybe it was a little busy, but it worked with the context of the rest of the show!

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yeah, 2012 made me tear up near the end. Maybe it was a little busy, but it worked with the context of the rest of the show!

They built it up really well visually. Lots of slow and careful movement during the solo all slowly leading into that huge impact in the company front and finally the kick halt really made it for me. I think it's a little underappreciated.

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They built it up really well visually. Lots of slow and careful movement during the solo all slowly leading into that huge impact in the company front and finally the kick halt really made it for me. I think it's a little underappreciated.

Definitely! I wish it'd gotten more love than it did/does.

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Here's my question: What's the most successful instance of a corps bringing back a classic after 10+ years?

The one that first comes to mind to me is Madison Scouts 2010. I thought they actually did Slaughter justice there (2004 and 2009 Malaga, not so much). And of course Santa Clara's most recent Appalachian Spring.

Phantom Regiment 2011- 2012 fell flat for me, with Nessun Dorma and Elsa's, and same with Cadets 2009 West Side Story.

What are some others?

You've picked some good shows. Please allow me to add to that list:

Phantom Regiment with Spartacus ( '81 and '82 -> 2008) ...

Cavaliers with the Planets' show ( '85 -> 1995).

I'll add a worst list:

Cavaliers with Firebird Suite - ( '88 -> 1997) - 9 years. I guess that doesn't count, but I've just gotta "Shoop" in and give it a shout out...

Blue Devils with Channel One - ('86 -> 2002) - ...and the 2002 corps still almost overcame early season design flaws to win it all. They reworked the crap out of that show from beginning of the season to end of the season.

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