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I really like the recording of the 1984 Phantom Regiment, but I think the new arrangement sounds too old school. It's the only part of the show I do not like.

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I really like the recording of the 1984 Phantom Regiment, but I think the new arrangement sounds too old school. It's the only part of the show I do not like.

Too old school? Really?

To me, the 1984 recording sounds old school, not the 2006 version. Heh...to each his own.

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When will Phantom play Alexander Nevsky?

Ooh! You have no idea how long I've been thinking what an awesome closer "Alexander's Entry into Pskov" would be! It's perfect! The only problem is that if you made it the whole show, the melodies might get a little over used. But I even tried arranging "Alexander's Entry" and "Arise Ye Russian People" one day from the score, but we won't go there. I think J.D. Shaw is a little better than I am. :beer:

But if they played this, it would be amazing.

Phantom Regiment 2007: Alexander Nevsky

Opener: Arise Ye Russian People

Ballad: Song About Alexander Nevsky

Drum Solo: Battle on the Ice/The Crusaders in Pskov

Closer: Alexander's Entry into Pskov (which incorporates themes from the other movements= the ending is also really loud-perfect for the Regiment)

b**bs :lol:

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I know lots of people don't seem to like this tune, however....it is vintage Prokofiev, and I dig it.

I think I mentioned in another thread how my high school played "Adoration of Veless and Ala" and "Dance of the Enemy God" my freshman year. It was really cool to hear the J.D. Shaw arrangement- but at the same time, it was so similar in design to what we did it was scary: the drum solo was in the same place, same themes taken from the movements, even similar visuals during "Veless and Ala" etc. The only real difference is that we had a short build at the beginning instead of just bringing it like Regiment, and we played them as 2 seperate movements (the break after the little soft interlude) instead of tagged together.

I like Regiment's better though. :)

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I know this is OT, but your post reminded me of something I'd wanted to ask you for a while... Back in 94, I don't remember the location, we had some extra down time one morning and were all lumped into a classroom, trying to get some extra sleep. The tenors hacking away outside made this kinda hard, so everyone starting shooting the bull. The topic of future show concepts came up, and you said it would be totally bad*** for Phantom to play Shost. 5th, in all black. (As I recall, there was a marching demo to go along with it :) )

Later that fall, I ran into Mark Waymire [marching staff] at a high school band contest in Texas. He mentioned that the corps was going to be in all black the next year. Playing... you-guessed-it. He also said Greg Cesario would be writing drill. I was pretty shocked. Obviously, the idea must have been shelved but, sure enough, there it was in 96. Soooo... were you just one heck of a guesser, or did you have inside info? (Or wisper it into the right ears?) I've always wondered...

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I know this is OT, but your post reminded me of something I'd wanted to ask you for a while... Back in 94, I don't remember the location, we had some extra down time one morning and were all lumped into a classroom, trying to get some extra sleep. The tenors hacking away outside made this kinda hard, so everyone starting shooting the bull. The topic of future show concepts came up, and you said it would be totally bad*** for Phantom to play Shost. 5th, in all black. (As I recall, there was a marching demo to go along with it :) )

Later that fall, I ran into Mark Waymire [marching staff] at a high school band contest in Texas. He mentioned that the corps was going to be in all black the next year. Playing... you-guessed-it. He also said Greg Cesario would be writing drill. I was pretty shocked. Obviously, the idea must have been shelved but, sure enough, there it was in 96. Soooo... were you just one heck of a guesser, or did you have inside info? (Or wisper it into the right ears?) I've always wondered...

Heh...this actually goes back all the way to 1992, the end of the season.

In the back of the horn bus, a whole bunch of us started to lament the season that had "gotten away from us." We started thinking about all the things we didn't like about that season, and we decided to make a list...

This "master list" was to be typed up by me at the end of the season, and was to be sent to Dave St. Angel.

I wish I would have kept a copy of this list, but I think I can remember the following "demands" of ours:

- More demanding warmups

- More demanding drill, and more time to clean at the end of the year

- More downtime (we got a lot of 4-hour nights that year)

- More demanding show music

etc. you get the drift.

Anyhow, many tunes were suggested for the 1993 show, my particular contribution was the Shostakovich Fifth, which I was (and still am) goo-goo gaa-gaa over. I think I also added the black unis in that letter, though it might have also been in a letter to Nancy St. Angel (we used to correspond).

By no means do I think they got the idea from me, though...still, it's kinda cool that I had the idea as far back as 1992.

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I remember people commenting how cool the Regiment DM uniform was in 1989, and along with that went the inevitable "wouldn't be neat if the whole corps was in black." There was a lot of talk about it among drum corps fans even back to 89 and 90; I do remember a staff member in 91 saying it would "never happen."

The 95 uniform is very much like the 89-91 drum major uniform, with the silver sash. A natural progression, I'd say, but I never thought the black uniform was a good idea visually, and I still don't. Personal preference, of course. :)

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...my particular contribution was the Shostakovich Fifth, which I was (and still am) goo-goo gaa-gaa over.

Hee hee...I wrote my term paper Senior Year about Shostakovich's Fifth and Seventh Symphonies and the political interpretations/inspirations for them. Actually what spurred my interest in DSCH was Phantom Regiment 1996- after watching the show I was like "who is this guy?" So I decided to write my paper about him. I based a lot of my research from that book "Testimony," (claims to be DSCH's memoirs to Solomon Volkov- a really interesting read :) ) even though it's pretty controversial. Heck, my teacher didn't know that, and it sure supported my topic, which by the way was: "The Defiant Heart of Dmitri Shostakovich." :whistle:

Oh yeah. I'm a dork. But boy I got to listen to some good music while writing that paper! (Fifth Symphony, Tenth Symphony, Eighth Symphony, Seventh Symphony, Eighth String Quartet, Novorsiissk Chimes/Fire of Eternal Glory, umm...can't forget Phantom Regiment 1996, Phantom Regiment 2002 (:))...the list goes on and on... :blink: )

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Hee hee...I wrote my term paper Senior Year about Shostakovich's Fifth and Seventh Symphonies and the political interpretations/inspirations for them. Actually what spurred my interest in DSCH was Phantom Regiment 1996- after watching the show I was like "who is this guy?" So I decided to write my paper about him. I based a lot of my research from that book "Testimony," (claims to be DSCH's memoirs to Solomon Volkov- a really interesting read :) ) even though it's pretty controversial. Heck, my teacher didn't know that, and it sure supported my topic, which by the way was: "The Defiant Heart of Dmitri Shostakovich." :rolleyes:

Oh yeah. I'm a dork. But boy I got to listen to some good music while writing that paper! (Fifth Symphony, Tenth Symphony, Eighth Symphony, Seventh Symphony, Eighth String Quartet, Novorsiissk Chimes/Fire of Eternal Glory, umm...can't forget Phantom Regiment 1996, Phantom Regiment 2002 (:))...the list goes on and on... :blink: )

I think "Testimony" has be pretty much discredited now hasn't it? In the recent biography of Shostakovitch that I read in preparation for a gala performance of Shotakovitch music conducted by his dear friend Rostropovich, the author essentially set forth all of the works that had discredited the book. I still have "Testimony" and will likely read it just to see how different the interpretations can be, but I really did enjoy the book that I did read. Unfortunately, I don't remember the title right now.

And BTW, you aren't the only dork, when I was in college I believe that I usurped some classic drum corps show titles into the titles of some of my papers, including my study of Shakespeare's "Antony & Cleopatra" entitled "Dreams of Desire". I'm sure some of you recall that title. But it really worked well with the actual content of the paper, so why should I have to think up a title all on my own?

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