borchnork

i was shocked at fhs' results. it took them 100 years, but they finally placed at a major competition... wow, sorry that was really low. anyways, it's interesting to see the Duncanville marching invitational placed against the PE marching competition. Berkner and Poteet only ended up 4th and 5th at duncanville.

I loved Marcus and Hebron ... my two favorite shows in the same place... it was pretty cool. and I'll hafta agree w/ the performance by birdville. I was less than impressed... but it seemed like they had a lot of holes in their show, because we had competed against them earlier that season (and again later in the season) and the numbers were WAY different... they went from like... 14 guard members to only like... 3.

It's to late to apply, but I must say that DCI soponsored an All-American Marching Band, for seniors '08 ONLY! It included all instruments and is supposed to do something VERY DCI esque. They'll be performing at half-time in the "all american Bowl" in January. But, yes to add ww's in drum corps is stupid... you can only hear them if there's like... 16 of every instrument, and that would completely throw off the sound that the brass would be allowed to make.

Hm, I've said this before in another room, but our show music this year is "Bells for Stokowski". our directors seem to have hit some trend w/ Michael Daugherty.

Hah, conceited much?? Honestly, CHS isn't one of THE best yet, but I can gaurantee that we have the POTENTIAL to get there. I would hafta say (based on this years shows that I saw and liked) would be Marcus (easily, i love that show!! and the birds last year... that was great) LD Bell (of course, you can't forget legends like that.) Hebron (but that's based only on this years show, it was sooooo cool, but they have a lof of work to do if they really wanna start competiting in 5A like they did in 4A) Poteet (the 4A legend... blegh.) and I've started to like bands like the Woodlands as well. I'm not really BOA savy, so hopefully i'll find out who a lot of these other bands are when we compete more.

Yah David, birdville is in our Area, I think that we actually compete in their stadium, but I'm not quite sure. I have a feeling it may actually be in Abilene, just like Area auditions were. And thanks for clearing up the whole fossil ridge issue. Unfortunately, I've been looking at the bands in the regions of area B (which is what we are in now, sorry I got them mixed up earlier) and I don't think we will have 15 bands make area. Therefore, the competition in the top four (birdville, centennial, the colony and sherman) only gets harder, and the blood bath will only get bloodier.

Both Hazzard and Hoefslinger went to Creekview... apparently it pays really really well, and they were given a lot of extra incentives to coming. But about the third director... I honestly don't know what happened to him... Their new director is from Clark H.S. in Plano... I don't know if it sounds really promising though, just because Clark only competes in U.I.L. and that's it. I do hope that they stay on the road to success that they have been on though. It makes everybody better eventually because of fear from new competition.

Welcome. And yes, bigger bands make everything better. Well as long as Toby stays there, it looks like FHS will continue to have the dominant color guard in the area...

haha, i know, my cousins band is now in our area and they are rather... uhm, lacking in the talent department (granted, they are a 2A band and our school has more people in it than their town does...). I'm also extremely curious to see what Poteet is going to be pulling out this year. Hopefully they won't have the same opening set as last year, and the year before, and the year before. lol. Does anybody have any info on how the 4A bands in South Tx are? I've never heard any big names from the 4A category come out from there, but I'm extremely curious to see who could appear from that area.

well, there are no such things as gaurantees. while marijana was right, the thing that really hurt us this year was our size (Judges literally wrote "GREAT! Only thing missing is numbers..." on our sheets) I'm a little afraid that if we add in a bunch of freshmen, the quality might not be as good. And sorry for offending you, whoever the girls is from Fossil Ridge. I didn't mean it like, overly negative, but it's no lie, our school was shocked to find out that we placed behind you. And we are slighly revenge seeking in our program. I remember my freshmen year, Frisco High beat us at a competition in Denton (They were 3rd, we were 4th). Basically what we did from then out was mop the floor with them. We destroyed them at U.I.L. (straight 1's vs. straight 2's) and we beat them at our spring trip (2 1st place finishes vs. ... well idk what they placed). At area the next year, we made 6th and they made 14th... so yah, that's the only logic I have behind it... And there's also the fact that they 5 bands that did beat us at area 2 years ago competed against us at some competitions last year, and we always made it a point to at least ATTEMPT to beat them, and that turned out ... ehh, slighly succesful.

and actually, it's Preston Hazzard.

You know, Centennial is actually greatly afraid of the potential Wakeland has under your director... If only he could pick a better show outside of "Rhapsphody in Blue" ....

I do know that Frisco High School is lossing all three of their directors, Preston Hazzard, Kara Hoeflinger and Jason Gonzalez. Actually a major let down, because FHS was just starting to improve too... and the new directors have yet to FORMALLY be named.

mmm, i quit trying out for that stuff... didn't seem worth it. But I know of 2 people from my school trying out on picc. this year.

Yah, I just started this past year, and aside from the fact that the mat is like... a million lbs. I actually enjoy floor crew. Hopefully this year, we'll actually get shirts... But, yah, I loved watching our girls take home the gold numerous times. Can't wait to see them go to W.G.I. in two years.

Hah, yah Eric is such a great people person. I almost got a cell number outa him once. He's really been there for me, and even gave me advice in composing and his honest opinions of my band's marching arrangement of October...

That's very true, but somehow I feel that Whitacre just isn't in it because of the "Fun Factor". There's something more to his writing that makes me feel as if he'll be out there for a long time. I agree that there are plenty of smaller named idols of the Classical music industry that exist, such as Grainger and many more contemporaries. but, i still am not quite sure what it is that makes me feel as if Eric is different than that...

Well, yah, not only did he add it, but Ticheli actually WROTE the alma mater for them... And I can get the whole emotional connection behind it, but I guess for me, my director had October and Russian Xmas Music be his final two songs before he quit, so there is more of an emotional attachment for me to October than AE. And also, I've never heard a decent performance of American Elegy anyways, so ... yah.

wow, that's awesome to hear others say that CHS has a shot at getting after Poteet for state champs. And, it's also a major relief to hear that Wylie has moved up to 5A! GOD!!! We struggled to beat them this year at the Desoto Marching Classic... so that makes the top 5 in Area C go down to a top 4 battle royale... And I'm also very interested in finding out what area Fossil Ridge is in. I remember seeing them at Birdville, and (no offense to the band at all), but Centennial was actually rather surprised to be placed behind Fossil Ridge. Therefore, don't expect to get of easy with us this year. hahahaha. This year our show is based off of Michael Daugherty's "Bells for Stokowski" and is basically unlike anything we've ever done before. The show title is simply called "Bells!", it'll be four mvmts. long. Our highlight of the show is easily Mvmt. 3, lots of mixed meter and time sig. changes. It's supposed to be like a jazz section where we're basically going to drown the show in G.E. And, Like I said before, our closer is going anywhere from 180-210, so if that doesn't impress the judges, I'm not quite sure what will...

Whitacre is a genious. You can't keep judging who will be the next big thing in composition based off of what WAS there. People change, and so does music. Eric is revolutionizing the way people think of classical music. It still has that peaceful, surreal sense involved with it, but there's so much more there. Eric grabs onto emotions that I don't think that Bach, Mozart, Mahler or Beethoven were truly able to grasp. Don't get me wrong. I realize that Bach's Fugue in G minor, Mahler's Symphony #2 and Beethoven's works in general are filled with emotion. But with their pieces, it's always a SPECIFIC emotion. Whitacre's chordal structures and voice leading is so uniquely his own that somehow he manages to capture all emotions that are able to be felt by humans in one simple phrase. We also have to remember that Whitacre not only composes for band, but for choir and orchestra as well. He even stated in an interview that he'd RATHER NOT compose for band or choir, but would prefer to write music for string orchestras. He acknowledges the fact that entering into the world of classical music as the next big thing is difficult, not only because of the level of competition, but because of the fact that DIRECTORS today tend to keep most of the music in their programs similar to music they experienced during their years of playing. But Eric will overcome that. That's why he is the next big thing... And plus, all the girls seem to become obsessed with his charming good looks after about .5 seconds of staring at him, so of course, he'll rise up and above these previous composers. haha.

hah, well since I'm from Centennial I obviously have that bias... But if we march 7/8 at 180 and our closer at 210 like we want to, I'll be pretty pissed if we don't go all the way.

hm, i'll easily say Whitacre. No competition. Period. Even if you compare Whitacre's upbeat pieces to Ticheli's there is still no comparison. "Godzilla Eats Las Vegas" is AMAZINGLY FUN to play and up against songs like "Postcard" and "Blue Shades" it destroys Ticheli.

I think Poteet this year has more on their plate than they think. First off, there's always those classics like Birdville and Sherman. But now, The Colony High School is 4A, and since they have been 5A state Champions, I wouldn't be surprised to see an upset Poteet this upcoming year. Area C is going to be some stiff competition to qualify for the three spots to state. Centennial, Birdville, The Colony, Sherman, Wylie and Mckinney are going to be at each others throats to be the top three bands in that area. My bet is on Centennial, Birdville and The Colony to come out on top. Top 5 in the state would be those three along with Poteet and... who knows