If Vanguard had had a better visual program and better visual executio

[Hrothgar15]

Note this scenario does not involve better musical execution or a better musical book.

I picked 4th.

[geluf]

Outcome would have been pretty much the same, IMO. It was SCV's MUSIC captions that were the weakest on finals night (BK almost beat them in brass), quite a bit below par for the course.

[geluf]

Also, keeping in mind that the poll reflects NO change in the music captions, the person who picked 1st place is a little overzealous I think...since without an improvement in the music captions, 1st place would have been mathematically impossible. :P

[PhantomR]

5th.

~>conner

[Hrothgar15]

I don't get it, what so bad about their hornline? I don't notice any issues whatsoever on the finals recording, that I don't hear in any corps from the 4th-7th place. Their hornlined sounded much better than in 2003 and 2002. They had a great, solid sound. So what really happened?

[MiamiSun76]

I will admit that visuals suffered as a result of the constant change during the season, however, by finals both music and visuals were top 5 material.

To me, the hopeless task was trying to rationalize the total thematic concept. Problem 1 was the mixture of Shostakovich's most stridently nationalistic orchestral piece with Reed's tribute to the USSR, composed for wind ensemble.

Problem 2 was the decision to interpret the theme in a religious context. For a show with historical representations, the history was just plain wrong. For example, there was no "Revolution-Evolution" logic to the change of formations from CCCP to USSR. They both mean Soviet Union, just in different languages. There was no more or less religious freedom under Nicholas (and Rasputin) than under the Soviets. In short, given the musical and thematic mess, Myron never had a chance.

Let me hasten to add that I greatly respect Key Poulan as a musician. His compositions are super and he is the best that this activity has seen in capturing the essence of original composers as an arranger. This was the "1917" that I had been longing to hear in drum corps for years. The overall package was just impossible to integrate. The programming ball got dropped early on in the process and it was down hill from there.

[melloageout07]

All of Vanguard's visual scores were Box 5 finals night, Vis ex. was an 18.5. Which is not weak.

[GMichael1230]

Huh ? How many of you folks responding saw them on finals night ?? Their execution, visual execution was sharp as a tac. Solid transitions with command of movement, solid forms, sold dparture from forms, no phasing, no spacing problems......their best execution of all three nights.

And, as far as their "design" the writing was just fine, highlighting the music, staging was ok, and the guard accented throughout.

There was plenty of exposure and demand, and a lot of GE.

~G~

[Carl306]

Huh ? How many of you folks responding saw them on finals night ?? Their execution, visual execution was sharp as a tac. Solid transitions with command of movement, solid forms, sold dparture from forms, no phasing, no spacing problems......their best execution of all three nights.

And, as far as their "design" the writing was just fine, highlighting the music, staging was ok, and the guard accented throughout.

There was plenty of exposure and demand, and a lot of GE.

~G~

Not trying to single you out, but just out of curiosity, why do you think they placed lower than normal then?

[PhantomR]

Huh ? How many of you folks responding saw them on finals night ?? Their execution, visual execution was sharp as a tac. Solid transitions with command of movement, solid forms, sold dparture from forms, no phasing, no spacing problems......their best execution of all three nights.

And, as far as their "design" the writing was just fine, highlighting the music, staging was ok, and the guard accented throughout.

There was plenty of exposure and demand, and a lot of GE.

~G~

and the cause of the 8th place finishing spot was...

~>conner