2014 TMEA 5A Honor Band

[Rubisco]

So, who's actually heard groups this year? Anybody stick out as being particularly amazing? I'm doing my video rounds. Definitely not the same thing as listening to groups live, or listening to their recordings.

[Percussionization]

It is too early in the season. If people haven't heard drum corps shows yet, I really doubt that they have heard high schools.

[Chryco4]

This conversation comes up every year, but the Honor Band process needs to become way more open to the public. Being able to listen to a variety of competing bands is not easy, especially if you try to hear them live. It ought to become prevalent enough so that Honor Band is something that people can actually get really hyped about, like with marching band. Currently, the whole Honor Band process is an afterthought for most band students. Some don't even know about it!

 

Anyway, I haven't been able to hear anything, but I doubt that Spring will make it past Area this year. It's always a hard Area, but drama within the top group has caused a sizable setback. Advancing to state in 2012 was honestly a miracle considering the attendance problems we were having at the time.

[jmj]

I saw Westlake on the livestream of the State Wind Ensemble Festival.  They sounded incredible - lots of lovely nuance and clarity on some very difficult music that they made sound effortless, particulary on Barber's School for Scandal. I expect that they'll be a very strong contender to advance from their region and also out of TMEA Area E based on the performance that I heard. 

[Rubisco]

I'd like to hear a recording of this one. I think it would be stronger than what you hear in this video, although it's definitely a higher quality video than I had of them last Honor Band season. I'm hearing lots of intonation stuff, and I'm not sure it's just the way it was recorded. (In all fairness, much of that intonation stuff is from the characteristically weaker sections of a high school band *cough*frenchhorns*cough*.)

 

[Rubisco]

Here's a group that a lot of people thought was going to take the title last season. Assuming this recording is of them (haha), it's a pretty strong performance. Not quite the attention-grabbing kind of performance you got from them last season, but still very solid. I'd love to hear their other two pieces. I feel like a lot of these groups are going for cleanliness over passion and fire. Haha.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dLSVDwOVX0

[Rubisco]

Really tough march. Did this when I was in high school, and boy it wasn't easy to clean. (I like how much better the quality of the videos are this season. I feel like everyone's gotten an HD recorder.)

 

[Rubisco]

Overall, I'd say Johnson is probably the strongest from the videos I've seen thus far. Be sure to watch the other two videos for the other pieces. Metamorphosis sounds a bit clinical in parts, for lack of a better word. I wish the brass were stronger in it. Also, 3rd movement is way too fast. That's a piece that needs to be full of longing. I feel like they're just going fast through the motions on it. Still, very strong overall. I think they'll repeat their finals success this season.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vttcX3WUnM8

[Rubisco]

Edited.

[Rubisco]

On the up and up. (I feel like I've almost exhausted YouTube. Note that I'm jumping around in the performances quite a bit. I'm a sampler.)

 

[jmj]

  On 5/19/2014 at 9:13 PM, Rubisco said:

Overall, I'd say Johnson is probably the strongest from the videos I've seen thus far. Be sure to watch the other two videos for the other pieces. Metamorphosis sounds a bit clinical in parts, for lack of a better word. I wish the brass were stronger in it. Also, 3rd movement is way too fast. That's a piece that needs to be full of longing. I feel like they're just going fast through the motions on it. Still, very strong overall. I think they'll repeat their finals success this season.

 

Agreed on the 3rd movement of the Hindemith. That fast tempo removes the melancholy mood of the piece and just turns it into a technical exercise.  In particular, the flute solo (while a ton of notes and really high) should be this nice little buoyant, delicate theme floating on top, but now sounds like a furious race to the finish line.  Good on the flute player for keeping up with the brisk tempo that was set.  Hopefully, their judges advised them to SLOW it down for future performances.

[Rubisco]

This is actually a really good example of why you shouldn't judge a band by these videos. There are two videos of this group by the same poster, and the recordings are quite different sounding. The only way you can say that one group is stronger than another is if you've heard the actual Honor Band recordings. Anyway, this is another very strong group, but they have really stiff competition the whole way up to state. The performance order here is a bit strange, as they perform their march last. Also, I'm not sure I would have gone with The Pines of Rome, although this transcription isn't as wretched as it could be, I suppose. It's just one of those really technically difficult pieces that exposes traditionally weaker parts of the ensemble (like the horns), although this is probably about as good as it gets for a high school group. On a side note, I love their second piece, even though I have no idea what it is. It fits very nicely with TPoR.

 

http://vimeo.com/94760025

[mellopwn1]

  On 5/21/2014 at 12:06 AM, Rubisco said:

This is actually a really good example of why you shouldn't judge a band by these videos. There are two videos of this group by the same poster, and the recordings are quite different sounding. The only way you can say that one group is stronger than another is if you've heard the actual Honor Band recordings. Anyway, this is another very strong group, but they have really stiff competition the whole way up to state. The performance order here is a bit strange, as they perform their march last. Also, I'm not sure I would have gone with The Pines of Rome, although this transcription isn't as wretched as it could be, I suppose. It's just one of those really technically difficult pieces that exposes traditionally weaker parts of the ensemble (like the horns), although this is probably about as good as it gets for a high school group. On a side note, I love their second piece, even though I have no idea what it is. It fits very nicely with TPoR.

 

Pines of Rome is sort of the quagmire of high school band. Although the kids really buy into it because it is a sexy piece of music, you're right that the transcription is NOT that good. On top of that, it is just incredibly tough. I remember Coppell did it a few years ago and it turned out similarly (although TW probably gets the edge here). Another 4A school (I think Wylie?) did it a few years ago, too, and it had a lot of the same problems. And, of course, even Langham Creek's performance caught a lot of flak when they performed it in San Antonio as the reigning 5A honor band. It captures the extremes of volume and technique, which makes it darn hard to balance and clean, as you can hear. The moral of the story is that you play Pines of Rome to have fun, not win Honor Band (and there's nothing wrong with that).

[principalagent]

  On 5/19/2014 at 8:47 PM, Rubisco said:

Really tough march. Did this when I was in high school, and boy it wasn't easy to clean. (I like how much better the quality of the videos are this season. I feel like everyone's gotten an HD recorder.)

 

 

I'd just remember that although this is a recording of note, they are off this year for honor band. Next year, they'll be up for a tape.

[Xenon]

Some of the Regions have already been heard and most of the rest will have their hearings next week.

 

TMEA compiles all the advancement results here:

https://www.tmea.org/divisions-regions/band/honor-band/entry-list

 

Feel free to post detailed results if you have them.

[TXMarchingMadness87654]

Here's the results I've gotten from today:

 

 

 

[justabandkid94]

The Woodlands isn't listed under Region 9, did they not submit a recording this year?

[Rubisco]

  On 6/8/2014 at 8:41 PM, justabandkid94 said:

The Woodlands isn't listed under Region 9, did they not submit a recording this year?

 

I'm pretty sure I saw them on there earlier. They probably dropped out. Maybe their director didn't think the recording was strong enough to compete this year. I'm not sure whether they've done this before. It does seem to leave things wide open for Spring and College Park.

[Xenon]

State Advancers:

 

Advancers are listed by Area, then Region, then Alphabetical. The order listed below does not imply any ranking order from the Area round.

 

5A:

A: (24) Flower Mound

A: (24) Marcus

B: (5) Richland

B: (22) Coronado (El Paso)

C: (3) Berkner

C: (25) McKinney Boyd

D: (20) Coppell

D: (20) Duncanville

E: (12) Claudia Taylor Johnson

E: (12) Ronald Reagan

F: (17) Clear Lake

F: (23) Seven Lakes

G: (13) Clements

G: (28) Lopez

 

3A:

A: (2) Argyle

A: (24) Lone Star

B: (6) Big Spring

B: (7) Kennedale

C: (4) North Lamar

C: (31) Henderson

D: (9) Cleveland

E: (11) Boerne

E: (12) La Vernia

F: (10) Bridge City

G: (14) H.M. King

G: (28) Port Isabel

 

 

1A:

A: (1) Panhandle

A: (6) Forsan

A: (16) New Deal

C: (2) Knox City

C: (25) Honey Grove

D: (8) Italy

D: (8) Valley Mills

D: (26) Somerville

F: (21) Shelbyville

F: (21) Timpson

G: (11) Harper

 

 

1C:

A: (16) Littlefield

A: (16) Shallowater

B: (6) Reagan County

B: (7) Sonora

C: (4) Sabine

C: (25) Howe

D: (20) Travis

E: (11) Jourdanton

E: (12) Randolph

F: (10) Anahuac

G: (14) Mathis

G: (15) Brewster

[Jellyfishes]

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[Rubisco]

I don't know the results, but it seems that at least a few people thought Lopez was really great. I'm not at TBA, so I can't give my two cents!

[Rubisco]

Supposedly Marcus has been named the 5A State Honor Band. I think we all knew that was going to happen sooner or later. Congrats to the amazing Marcus Wind Symphony on their win and to Amanda Drinkwater for becoming the first female director to lead a band to the Honor Band title in the largest class since the competition's inception decades ago.

[Jellyfishes]

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[Jellyfishes]

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