Loudest corps each year?

[Jared_mello]

Some caption heads give them equal weight. Dynamics ARE important you know

i dont think youll find one in the activity who is okay with prioritizing it before any of the aforementioned concepts (intonation, blend, etc.). brass caption heads are rarely to blame (though some are just better at their jobs than others), its the members that dont apply the concepts correctly.

intonation, blend, matched articulation......all of those are EFFECTS. playing maturely on the field is just as much of an effect as volume. while its possible to play loud while ignoring some of these, its simply not as effective, and in general, surely distracts me from enjoying whatever volume is being put forth.

i listened to colts '97 last night. i promise im not a "technique elitist." i just cant believe that people philosophically think its alright to sacrfice so much in the name of volume, when you can just do everything at once. thats what being a musician entails, but people seem to want to make excuses so they dont have to accomplish all of it.

[whitedawn]

Some of this stuff is just so ####### stupid!

I challenge anyone on this forum to go find a brass caption head that does not teach balance, intonation, and section blend over volume. You're not going to find them.

anyone from the wayne downey "parallel balance" school of thought.

[kksop17]

I don't think anyone here has been advocating for loudness over intonation and tuning. As I mentioned in my post; no one wants to here 64 brass players blow the #### out of their horns and have it sound like crap.

That being said; am I willing to sacrafice some musicality at certain points in the show to have my face blown off? Yes. Do I expect the hornline to overblow their instruments as a whole, get a screeching, out of tune, ##### sound. No.

However, I don't think it's that absolute. I don't think it's a question of 64 brass players valuing dB over tone. Or Brass caption heads for that matter. Everyone on this board consistently tries to make things as black and white as possible. Life, Drum Corps and virtually everything else simply isn't like this. It's not a question of 64 players playing with ##### intonation for volume (at least not anymore).

It is a question of reaching that edge and excitement that is supposed to permeate the drum corps activity.

Please read this line carefully before replying with more black and white intonation crap. I do not advocate for overblowing, poor intonation, lack of matching within a hornline. I do not advocate for playing without musicality. However, in an 11.5 minute show am I willing to have numerous loud impacts where the tone isn't matched perfectly, or the sound isn't totally uniform? Yes, absolutely. Especially if it's that much louder than if the corps stayed well within it's limits. Am I willing to listen to a fully ##### hornline just trying to play loud? No. I agree with your point that everything can be done at once; I am not advocating from the camp of "sacrafice everything in the name of volume." However,I am advocating for hornlines that aren't afraid to push the limites of their musicality.

I believe that tone must come before volume; but if you are all relatively close in tone and tuning.... let is loose. Overblow a bit sometimes. Blow the face off the crowd. Should this be done all the time? No.

[bradrick]

The show as a whole may not register on anybody's short list of "loudest corps ever" but I believe that in 1990 our last chord of Gypsy Dance (after we spelled out SCV and came down to the front sideline) was the loudest and most in-tune hornline wall of sound I was a part of from a single hornline during my Drum Corps days. B) (I'm talking about the end of the tune before our closer.)

------------

Sidenote: I said "from a single hornline" because the 1988 Drum Corps Midwest All Star Drum and Bugle Corps was just plain STUPID LOUD. And that was way bigger than a standard hornline. But lordy lordy we were loud. I think on the TV broadcast of the Orange Bowl Parade, they had to stop talking because they couldn't hear themselves.

I'm mean... This is just some of the contras that were there.

(I count 24 in this picture... so you can imagine how big the rest of the hornline was. My group photo is too big to scan but I think there were possibly 11 or 12 horns from every hornline in DCM.)

Edited April 11, 2007 by bradrick

[raphael18]

1988 Drum Corps Midwest All Star Drum and Bugle Corps

Does any video or audio recording of that still exist? I would love to hear that!

[bass5]

I remember 1975 Madison OTL "Slaughter On 10th Ave" woke a few people up.

[Fincis]

Play loud then figure it out > Figure it out then play loud

just mho

Agreed, especially in the form of drum corps at least.

[Fincis]

A tiger dies a single death, a coward dies a thousand. If you don't have the guts to get out there on the edge, then don't be surprissed when people aren't impressed.

After the fact, people remmember when a tiger was there.

I like the way this is put and gets my point across in a shorter statement.

[Hrothgar15]

A tiger dies a single death, a coward dies a thousand. If you don't have the guts to get out there on the edge, then don't be surprissed when people aren't impressed.

After the fact, people remmember when a tiger was there.

Phantom Regiment: The Tigers of DCI.

[Einstein On The Beach]

I love a good chainsaw

Edited April 11, 2007 by Einstein On The Beach