(no subject)

[reldnahkram]

I went to the Wissahickon High School Marching Band Competition (Cavalcade of Bands) tonight. It was cold. Also very strange, full of highfalutin concept shows with original music. They went in order of size, but backwards, large to small. And by large I mean smallish medium, and by small I mean really tiny. Overall, the scores were low for mid-October (tops in the mid-80s). I was impressed by the relative sizes of the guard and the overall quality, but none of the bands blew me away on the field.

Archbishop Wood had a ragged but spirited Beethoven show. Note the guard using cardboard cut-out dance partners (a fairly up-tempo Fur Elise). They had five marimbae - the second movement of the ninth on them was fun.



Newtown-Marple had a very avant-garde concept show with original music called "Circuitry". The execution was very good, but I thought the material left quite a bit to be desired. They used the THX audio blip before the third piece - "Overload". There are no good pictures of this show (I didn't figure out until about halfway through that I could crank up the ISO and get exposure times under 1/10 of a second - I figured it would do that automatically if it could).

Harry S. Truman had a show celebrating 50 years of NASA. It had (mostly) original music, including an opening that came awfully close to directly ripping off the first bit of Appalachian Spring. It had voice-over quotes from Kennedy (put a man on the moon in ten years), Armstrong (one small step) and Apollo 13 (Houston, we have a problem). And it had the guard dressed in these blue jump suits (again, sorry about the blur). It was well-intentioned, but it wasn't very good.



Upper Dublin had a show of original music (and some Cirque de Soleil music) based around dreams. Once they had taken the field and were waiting for the judges to be ready, they were horsing around on the field. When the judges were ready, the drum major informed them that it was time for bed. The band went awww and took their positions. It was cute. During the nightmares section, the whole band gathered around the bed and menaced one of the guard, who was trapped on the bed. During the awards ceremony, their delegation danced a little jig for a salute. They were clearly the band that had the most fun.



I have no idea what Archbishop Ryan's show was about. I didn't take any pictures. It was that flat.

Wyoming Area didn't show.

Pottsgrove was small. Like 20 marching winds small. They were also really tight and really good - easily the best band of the night, in my opinion. They had good control and sound - they didn't sound thin, like you'd expect and band that size to sound, and they got plenty loud when they needed too. They didn't really have a pit - the drumline played the pit instruments in parts. They had recognizable music (What the World Needs Now, Dona Nobis Pacem, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring) and really pushed the tempos in spots, and the marching held up. Yes, the backdrops are silly, but they were better than Truman's moon.



But wait, host Wissahickon was even smaller. Twelve marching winds, one of whom split time as drum major. They had these nifty flaglets that were nine small flags joined together to form a big flag. The guard was pretty good, the band wasn't. Their show also used Cirque de Soleil. They were the only band not to use a tractor to haul pit equipment onto the field (that's what the band parents are for - just grab something and run - tractors are for lame schools).



Oh, and the procession of the representatives was weak too. They came in from a near corner of the field, rather than down from the far side. Then they stood front and center for a good ten minutes before the scores were run in by a little kid. And did I mention that it was cold?

Comments

[wayman.livejournal.com]

iTunes started playing "Fur Elise" as I was reading this.

All he had was eight little notes, just eight little notes, just eight...
But he wrote nine symphonies and also some great
Quartets, quintets, fugues, and sonatas
Plus an opera and a few contatas
Using only eight little notes in a row, Oh!
Do re mi fa so la ti do
Do ti la so fa mi ra do!

Oh, you don't mean that one?

[leepinleemur.livejournal.com]

That is pretty cool. Nice report!

[trinfinity2001.livejournal.com]

ah, the years of freezing in the stands for a competition. Gah, I'm so jealous! I think my mom and sister went to see that one. I'm surprised how small wissahickon has gotten, they used to be 100+ strong when we played them! How was plymouth whitemarsh? They went from being one of the best bands in the area to being so small that the drum major had to march on the field with the band. Do you know of anything 'round thanksgiving?