What are some school's individual styles with shows?

[Bonelife]

As we look forward to next marching season, what kind of shows can you expect from certain schools? I know that from us at Westlake it's pretty much always based around a piece that is famous but not overplayed in our director's mind, which is why we end up not using stuff like Simple Gifts for the part of Appalachian Spring we did last year.

[Nny14]

Funny you should mention that...

[principalagent]

There are some pretty obvious ones. Hebron plays very heavy technical passages throughout their shows, The Woodlands often incorporates more popular music along with esoteric 20th century art music, Marcus plays a very true to the page classical music book. CTJ pushes the envelope, especially visually. Round Rock plays music that caters to their bigger, bulkier sound with drill that covers the field to match. Cedar Park usually plays and marches hard music and drill with few other frills.

[Statebound]

Flower Mound always has a very unique stand alone ensemble set in the middle of their programs in lieu of a ballad. I've also noticed that they've taken a more classical turn the last couple years after the Paris and Big Top shows from a few years ago. I really like the creativity of the FloMo shows.

 

I'm sure I'll get some push back on this, but I think one of the things that has held Hebron back is that their musical book is always so difficult. CTJ and maybe Coppell, Bowie, and LD Bell are the only other bands that come to mind that try to be that ambitious. Marcus does not push the envelope nearly as much musically nor as part of their drill, but they play it concert hall perfect and it has obviously paid dividends.

[Xenon]

  On 2/24/2015 at 4:50 AM, Statebound said:

Marcus does not push the envelope nearly as much musically

Sabre. Dance. :o :o

[Jellyfishes]

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[LKendrick]

  On 3/8/2015 at 6:59 PM, Xenon said:

Sabre. Dance. :o :o

 

Yeah.  lol

 

I'd say their books are just as difficult as Hebron's myself, in different aspects however.  Their music might not sound quite as difficult all the time, but some of the the things they do.......let's just say without their precision it wouldn't sound very good or effective.  They tend to stay VERY close to the originals that they put on the field, some pretty complex stuff they're doing that's meant for the concert hall.  They sound SO good, that some of the insanely difficult stuff they do can start to sound a little easier, because they do it with such accuracy and musicality.    How they get so polished every year blows my mind.  (fyi, not discounting Hebron, I'd say a lot of the same stuff for them too).  

 

The two best sounding bands in the country in my personal opinion in terms of blend, tone, musicality, all of the stuff that some marching bands can forget about for the sake of being loud and "effective" sometimes.  A little more subdued perhaps, but in a way that takes something pretty darn special to achieve.