Hanover (Pa.) Lancers - Crossmen - Cadets of Bergen County -USMC Drum and Bugle Corps

Just so everyone knows, the Gettysburg Brass Band Festival featured a number of groups from the area in town all day. The feature with the drum corps was the "Grand Finale." The title "Brass Band Festival" was therefore appropriate. Of course, considering the change in instrumentation for the Cadets, I thought it quite appropriate that they inaugurate their new line at a "Brass Band Festival." More on that later.

I enjoyed both Cadets and Crossmen shows. This show functioned as their preview, since they canceled their previously scheduled Allentown preview sometime in the last couple of weeks. Crossmen did a standstill performance of their show and then marched the field show. Cadets brass did a thirty-second snippet of Rocky Point Holiday while perc. and guard set up and then marched the field show. When I got there, Hanover (Pa.) Lancers were finishing their show, and the Marine Corps D&BC followed the YEA! corps. I left before the Marines because I had my sixteen month old son at his first drum corps show, and he was getting a little cranky after being mesmerized for about thirty minutes. It was a really nice Father's Day gift.

Well, the Cadets have their new instruments. The overall sound (of course) is brighter than a bugle line. There are times where you can't tell a difference, and there are times where you can. I don't know what I was expecting - not to notice? I especially notice it in the tubas and mellophones. (That was a shock, to look out and note the contra line marching, then to have to correct myself - "Nope, they're tubas.") I can't say I was sold on the sound. It's loud enough and in tune, but I miss the darker, deeper (IMO) sound of a bugle line. Plus there are times, especially when intonation is off, tone quality is poor or a mistake is made, that you could just tell the difference and have to adjust your expectations. I was expecting really not to mind and to be progressive about the whole thing, but I guess I was wrong. But I will say that there are plenty of people out there for whom it won't bother one bit in their enjoyment of drum corps.

And of course, the shows. The Cadets show is very good, of course. They begin with about a minute of some very beautiful backfield stuff with some interesting world percussion stuff. That world perc. stuff goes throughout the show. I didn't see all of the Cadets because Michael had had it and I had to take him down to the side of the stadium for a change of scenery. Watched the rest of the show from the track. As usual, they look in midseason form in mid-June, marching-wise, unlike the Crossmen, who are stumbling around looking lost at times. The Cadets brass do this show-stopper about seven minutes in where the instruments get together in sections and do a sixteenth-note bonanza, doing the fingerings on each other's instruments. It was messy, but fun.

The Crossmen also have some very good things about this year's show. There are some very nice soprano soloists and an excellent baritone soloist. The rest of the brass section is strong. In the Mood works as an opener, and the ballad features the aforementioned very nice soloists and is sweet. The guard will be exciting, once they get all of their routines written and learned. The drum line seems to be down in numbers - 3 Q, 6 S, 4 B. One thing - Birdland is back as the closer. Some people will really enjoy this, while others will be bored. Of course, twenty years ago, corps used to play the same music year in, year out, so who cares? I think they'll really have to have a unique visual program to score with this show and it's simply too early to tell whether that's there yet.

Again, I'm just not sold on the "any-key" instrumentation. It's simply going to require an adjustment of expectations on everyone's part - the sound is NOT the same. I think it's going to be strange judging bugle lines and any-key lines on the same sheet as well. But I found myself wondering whether the Cadets (or BD, or anyone) would ever switch back and I found myself saying, "Not in a million years."

Chip Frontz Gettysburg, Pennsylvania