ftwdrummer

Agreed, it certainly could be. I personally want them to integrate the whole "classic American music" thing with narration...that's right: I want to see Lincoln Portrait on the field.

Paschal 2008

Maybe...maybe not... Am I being overly paranoid about having more of a long-term relationship with one of the school marimbas than I've had with any one human?

Not that I know of...but if you used that, you could also use selections from Johann de Meij's "Symphony No. 1: The Lord of the Rings."

2003: Medusa (Key Poulan) 2004: Valley of the Kings (Stephen Melillo, arr. ?) 2005: Jidai: The Phenomenon of Time (Stephen Melillo, arr. Victor Stauffenberg) 2006: Red (Key Poulan) 2007: The Inner Mechanics of Da Vinci (Selections from "Minimally Speaking" [saucedo], and "The Machines" [Gilroy]) 2008: When We Left Earth ("To Tame the Perilous Skies," David Holsinger; arr. Michael Klesch)

Random question, to bump this thread now that we're all looking forward to next year's marching season (and if you believe that, you can have my oceanfront property in Arizona for $.02 an acre)... Other than "Sweeney Todd," has any of Stephen Sondheim's music been used on a marching field?

"Kingfishers" is on the PML already? I wanna play that!!!

You and everyone else, Jason. You and everyone else.

Probably. Ties get broken by highest GE score. I would almost be wholly unsurprised if Bell and Avon tied, but Avon won GE.

Y'all do know that at some point, some kid's going to go off the deep end about this thing and try to kidnap Montoya at Nationals to torture answers out of him, right?

Yeah, Southwest is going (ran into Hicks at the TCU percussion ensemble concert two weeks ago and chatted with him about it). Good luck to all!

So...who all's going? And in what division? And at what time? Paschal Drumline is going on in (I believe) Division 1 Standstill at 5:00 PM.

OK. Based on the each-person-by-section thing: Paschal's pit plays for approximately 7:30, and marches for 0:00. Man, we don't march and play at all.

I dunno...TCU's looking pretty good, and they won it two years ago...then again, I might be biased: I take private lessons from Dr. West, and Dave Hall (the guy who wrote their PASIC show) is an ABD at Paschal... w00t. Just when you think everything has settled down, I go and start stirring the pot on a totally different gig.

Hebron did the Soulja Boi dance in 2007. One of the more entertaining things I saw at BOA Arlington that year (when I wasn't falling asleep...5 AM call at the band hall will do that to you).

Another interesting idea I came up with...anyone done Don Quixote for a show before? There have been several musical interpretations of it (Nabakov wrote the music for a ballet of it, Strauss has an interpretation of it, etc.)...you have some interesting visual possibilities for it (double swing flags in the guard windmill-style, anyone?). And it makes perfect sense for one of the lower bands in 5A Area B (see: my school) to do, just because for a fair amount of us, making it into the state spots is "The Impossible Dream"...much like Quixote's quest to become a knight.

Random draw (I believe)...

You could use Televators as the ballad. And if you wanted, you could probably roll Son et Lumiere into that opener. I've personally always wanted to see someone do a rendition of "A Tale of Two Cities" on the field, if for no other reason than to have such different styles of music on the field together (Debussy and Berlioz countered with Elgar and Lloyd Webber, anyone?).

At least you got there... we had what was, by all accounts, probably our third-best performance ever. Not too bad, for having added in three new visuals two days before contest. But we got 25th. And can't even blame it on inconsistent judging (though by all accounts except those of the judges, we had a better prelims performance than, say, Wylie [who went right after us], but they made Finals and we got...25th). Depressed beyond belief? Heck yes. Lashing out at the universe for just existing? Heck yes. Unable to come to grips with seemingly wasting five months of blood, sweat, and tears after holding the band together while we went through a complete change in staff? You'd better believe it. As such...I'm sorry if I offend anybody with what I've been posting over the past 24 hours.

Sorry for obsessing like this (and completely changing the topic of discussion, seemingly)... But was anyone on here there to see Paschal's performance? If so...any commentary? I felt it was one of our better runs (but two...maybe three things prevented it from being our best)...just curious to see if anyone else had any assessment.

Two years ago, it was Summit knocking on their heels. This year, a different Mansfield school took the slot. I'd wager (about $0.02) that in two years, it'll be Legacy doing the same thing.

Eh...6th at Plano East is something. We went to a slightly podunk contest in Glen Rose....came in second, in Finals, to Cedar Hill. Yes, the Cedar Hill that didn't even make it to Area. I kinda have a reason to be really depressed and annoyed with the universe, right?

Yes, I did...but we left after Richland. I actually built myself a simulated UIL judging panel: me, my best friend, and little sister each judging music, and my dad and our color guard captain judging marching. When we left, of the seven we saw (we got there too late for Allen) we had it like so: Bell Marcus Hebron Richland Mansfield Plano East Wylie Nice to know that at least we seem to know what we're talking about when we rank schools. I loved Mansfield's performance. Some great guard work (and really loud parents...that's always cool). And, just in general, I love Bernstein...especially "On the Waterfront." Kudos to y'all.

I know...I'm grasping at straws. In that whole "dealing-with-things" thing, I'm up to "bargaining." It's not the score consistency thing I'm looking at, though...it's just what they score, and how they score it (music execution and marching execution only, minor regard given to difficulty and effect of show). Then again...BOA didn't like us either. Maybe I just don't want to admit we stunk.

Depressing beyond belief...that's the only way I can describe tonight. Especially when the consensus of every person anyone could find to ask said that Paschal was third at worst in our block (and much better than, say, Wylie), and we came in fifth. I know it's UIL, and the system's facacta at best (gotta love Yiddish)...but still. The last competition of your career being lost on UIL judging just kinda hurts.