NYSkyliner Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Hy Dreitzer The “Patron Saint” of Drum Corps Music Instructor of 1975 Champion horn line New York Skyliners Hymen Dreitzer. The name conjures up an echo in the distance of time. An echo of precise bugling in red and black uniforms, crisp, clean, and driving. Pictures of "Manhattan Towers" and "42nd Street" appear on the movie screen of the mind, feeling, like Times Square on New Year's Eve, there is nothing in this world like it. The man behind that sound is "Hy" on drum corps.... Q. What do you recall as your first experience in drum corps? A. Well, this is funny; when I was a kid of 9 years old, well, all kids like to build icehouses, right? Well, we built one, but we forgot to build a fire in it and we sat there for hours and hours. I got double pneumonia. It was nearly fatal but I pulled through. The doctor told my mother that if you want him (me) to have normal lungs for the rest of his life, you better have him do some kind of special exercise, maybe take up a wind instrument or something. Well, there was a kid on the block that was in a little local drum and bugle corps. I joined. I don't recall the name, but I think it was a VFW unit. But, I will tell you that I remember they were clean, even on the old straight bugles. Then there was another corps in Brooklyn, that's where I lived, that had *valve* horns. Well, we had to get to that! WOW! It was not too long after that that I noticed that if you played this note and I played that note we had harmony. I guess that's how it all started. I was writing before I knew it! I entered the service in 1945 and afterward entered music school. Q. What school did you attend? A. It was the music school of the Henry Street settlement. It was a good school then. We had some really great teachers there; our music theory teacher was Felix Eberhardt who was a graduate of the University of Heidelberg. I learned a lot from him... Q. You were once a soloist with the Skyliners. When did you start with them? A. My first year was 1952 and I was on lead soprano. Then the next year I dropped out because I knew I could not make the Nationals in '53. Moreover, of course the American Legion Nationals was it. What was the sense of competing if you could not go to Nationals? Now in '54 there was a big shakeup. A bunch of people left the Skyliners and went over to Hawthorne. We lost the cream of the old Garbarina corps. And shortly thereafter, Hawthorne became big winners. But we lost about 14 or 16 guys; in those days that was a lot of people. Especially when usually you went with about 32 horns and you were lucky if you had 3 or 4 snares. Today, we have two more people in the drum line than we had in the whole horn line 22 years ago! Q. What do you consider your greatest triumph in senior corps? A. The Skyliners of course, have won just about every major title. But the first show in 1960 - St. Pat's Preview of Champions in Jersey City. Hawthorne had been unbeatable the year before, and we went out and knocked them off. I was playing in the line then, too. That was a very gratifying experience. You could talk about the three DCA Championships we've won, you could talk about the "Dream"; winning the "Dream" is always a great feeling. Last year's DCA Championship was a little watered down! But it was great because we won high horns despite the rain. Q. You mentioned earlier the fascination you had for the first single valve horn corps that you ever saw. How do you feel about the new double piston valve bugles? Do you think DCA will take this path in the future? A. Well, if you remember the last meeting we had on it, the feeling was the hell with the two-valve horn, let's go to three but keep it in the key of G. I was amazed because I introduced the idea to DCA. What we are using now is a two-valve G trumpet, with the rotary. The horn ceased to be a bugle when we stopped using Army Regulation bugles and added a valve. So now, there are G trumpets. DCA said in effect, "Why be hypocritical, let's go to the three but keep it in G because we still want that drum corps sound; we don't want that... Bb band sound." Personally, I do not care if we went for six valves; as long as it is in G, we still have the same sound but with more versatility. We would still have drum and bugle corps! Hy Dreitzer is a helluva man to talk to. Had we not been both so tired on that spring morning at 2:15am we could have talked drum corps all night. I personally feel that this person is the patron saints of drum corps music. I do not know that anybody could challenge that... Mr Dreitzer, if alive today would be celebrating his 80th birthday ! He will be celebrated this year by the Buglers Hall of Fame in Conn. June 29th and 30th, 2007. His legacy is being celebrated everyday by those of us who were instilled by him with his love of music and "love of drum and bugle corps". P.S.: I can just hear Hy and Colonel "C" up there debating the question as to whether it should be 2 valves or 3,.......But I KNOW they both are in agreement, it should always be in the key of "G". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpsBuff Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 (edited) Great read, and Hy was a GREAT man. Edited June 15, 2007 by BucsBuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melligene Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 Very nice Mike. Great read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYSkyliner Posted June 14, 2007 Author Share Posted June 14, 2007 Great read, and Hy was a GREAT man.Although I think this might be closer to the Patron saint of drum corps... Your sarcasm is duly noted and definitely removed from this reply. And, as quoted in your signature, I really don't consider your reply in keeping with the attitudes of those of the Reading Buccaneers. <**> <**> <**> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYSkyliner Posted June 14, 2007 Author Share Posted June 14, 2007 Very nice Mike. Great read. Thanks Gene. It was from an audio interview taken back in 1976 by a person named Steve Anderman. Geez, how he is missed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melligene Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 Speaking of Nostalgia, Mike, (I know.....poor segue) I have a video my wife shot at DCA in, I believe, 1994 or therabouts when the TBIRDS did there first tribute to Sky for minicorps'. (ya.....we won that one too.) We were in the infamous parking lot at Scranton after finals playing our show for the crowd when a bunch of SKY members joined in. The best part? Konga also joined in to direct and we were playing directly at and for "Butch Anderson" who was, at that time, wheel chair bound. One of my proudest moments. That was the last time I saw him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegalEagle50 Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 that would be 1993, not 1994 Gene. Butch passed away shortly after the 1993 finals. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 Think the interview was also printed in the 1976 DCA Finals program. Will have to check my copy in the cellar but think a write up was done on the caption winners for the year before. Hy (Sky took High Horns) , John Flowers (Yankee Rebels took drums) and (I think) Jim Costello (Cabs took M&M). Funny thing is when the Bb proposal came up the first thing I remembered was the "six valves.... keep it in G" quote but I forgot it was Hy Dreitzer who said it. One of the great interviews, thanks Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melligene Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 that would be 1993, not 1994 Gene. Butch passed away shortly after the 1993 finals. :( Thanks for the correction Liz. Couldn't remember if we did the Cabs tribute first or Sky. 1993 was our first year for minicorps'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Gibbens Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 Gene, 1993 was the DCA Tribute show, including "Elks Parade" that you speak of. Great memories! I still look at that video ofted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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