[Todd R]

Literally!

Anyone into Marching bands?

I was honored to see The Michigan State University Marching Band last night. They came to our little town (pop 1134) yesterday.

During the day held music clinics with students from local high schools.
That night we were treated to their half-time show at our high school football game.

The band came into the stadium..........and kept coming, and coming, and coming.
Approximately 360 members! Biggest band I'd ever seen.

I got up on the top row of the bleachers at the 50 yard line for the show. The sound of this band was amazing, the playing was tight, percussion was incredible. When they spread out to cover the whole field I got that 100 yard wide soundstage. I haven't been flooded with sound like that in a long time. What a feeling.
(wish I could have recorded it)

I just can't say enough good about these guys & girls. The energy and enthusiasm was contagious. They cheered for our team, really got the crowd fired up, and had a whole lot of fun.
(and we won the game too)

Most of the band members spent the night with host families in town.

Saturday they will be playing in South Bend, IN at the Notre Dame vs. Michigan State game.
Go State!

 

[KYTGuy]

Played Flute and Piccolo in Military Band in college, both Marching and Orchestral versions...a lot of work, but a lot of fun too!

 

[JMT]

I was in my high school marching band for 3 years, and was the Drum Major during my senior year. We were nowhere near the caliber of any of the college marching bands, but we always had a good time. I also marched with a Drum and Bugle Corps for a couple of years called the Freelancers. I still enjoy watching/listening to drum corps competition. In fact, just the other day ESPN2 televised the DCI (Drum Corp International) Finals that featured the top 12 Corps in the Nation.

 

[Todd R]

Yeah,
I was a band geek too.
Tenor sax most years, bass drum once, bells once (ugh!) for marching band. Alto sax and oboe in concert band.
Had lots of fun, marching and concert band from 6th grade through high school.
Now I want to rent Drumline again

TR

 

[fr4c]

Baritone in my high school marching band. Trombone and tuba in Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble. Our high school was New Jersey State Champions (Group 6) last year and the year before that, and also BOA at the Tropicana Dome amongst other top bands in the nation.

But with college apps and senior course load, decided to drop it.

 

[Firam]

I was lucky to see a DCI competition this summer. IIRC there was 8 bands there. It was trully amazing.

P.S. Drumline is a great movie if you can get around the god awfull plotline.

 

[micaela]

I was a bandie - high school & college & then was a high school band director. Writing marching shows is not easy & teaching them can be hard too! But its such a cool thing to see your ideas on paper come to life on the field. I have lots of respect for those who do it really well -- -DCI's were always my favorite time!! There is no sound that gives me goose bumps as much as that wall of sound that comes from a good strong marching band or drum corp.

 

[EricP]

This has nothing to do with marching bands, but everything to to with a 100-yard sound stage.

One of my music professors in college was the original pianist for Chicago. He wrote Color My World. Anyway, a few years back, he did a concept concert where he piezoed each piano string individually and fed it through its own amp channel and to its own speaker. He said he placed the speakers each one yard apart in a semicircle shape and the audience sat in the focal point of the semicircle about 40 yards away.

How cool of a concept is that? I think it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to hear something like that. Obviously an enormous cost of equipment for 88 speakers, several amps, cabling nightmare... but the end result would be a soundstage larger than the R10!

 

[Todd R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EricP This has nothing to do with marching bands, but everything to to with a 100-yard sound stage. One of my music professors in college was the original pianist for Chicago. He wrote Color My World. Anyway, a few years back, he did a concept concert where he piezoed each piano string individually and fed it through its own amp channel and to its own speaker. He said he placed the speakers each one yard apart in a semicircle shape and the audience sat in the focal point of the semicircle about 40 yards away. How cool of a concept is that? I think it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to hear something like that. Obviously an enormous cost of equipment for 88 speakers, several amps, cabling nightmare... but the end result would be a soundstage larger than the R10!

Cool concept, but I'm confused.
Colour My World, Performed by Chicago, composed by James Pankow. Pankow plays the trombone.
Robert Lamm plays keyboards.
Who was your professor?
TR

 

[EricP]

His name is Dr. James Wegren and he wrote the lyrics, not the music, iirc

He left the band back when they were still known as Chicago Transit Authority to pursue his career as a concert pianist.

 

[JMT]

Interesting claim. If you read the history of Chicago on their website there is no mention of Dr. Wegren. In fact, when they speak of adding a keyboard player it says:
Quote:

Pankow's recruitment brought the new band's complement of horns up to three, but they still needed bass and keyboards. They thought they had found both in a dive on the South Side when they heard piano player "Bobby Charles" of Bobby Charles and the Wanderers, whose real name was Robert Lamm.

Quote:

Lamm met the rest of the guys at a meeting set up to determine how to go about achieving their musical goals. The date was February 15, 1967. "We had a get together in Walter's apartment on the north side of Chicago," says Pankow. "It was Danny, Terry, Robert, Walter, Lee, and myself, and we agreed to devote our lives and our energies to making this project work."

And this is James Pankow's discussion of writing "Ballad for a Girl In Buchannon."
Quote:

Perhaps the album's most ambitious piece was Pankow's "Ballet For A Girl In Buchannon," which affected the tone of the whole LP. "The second record had more of a classical approach to it," says Parazaider, "whereas the first one was really a raw thing. The second one seemed a little more polished." "I had been inspired by classics," says Pankow of the Ballet. I had bought the Brandenburg concertos, and I was listening to them one night, thinking, man, how cool! Bach 200 years ago, wrote this stuff, and it cooks. If we put a rock 'n' roll rhythm section to something like this, that could be really cool. I was also a big Stravinsky fan. His stuff is classical, yet it's got a great passion to it. We were on the road, and I had a Fender Rhodes piano between Holiday Inn beds. I found myself going back to some arpeggios, a la Bach, and along came "Colour My World." It's just a simple 12-bar pattern, but it just flowed. Then I called Walt into the room, and I said, "Hey, Walt, you got your flute? Why don't you try a few lines?," and one thing led to another. These things were disjointed, but yet I liked it all, and ultimately it was a matter of just sewing these things together, creating segues and interludes."

 

[ooheadsoo]

I think there are 3 strings per key...

 

[Todd R]

Yeah, it sounds like your Prof might be yankin your chain. See Chicago II

Didn't find a James Wegren, but I did find a Dr. Thomas Wegren who was a Chicago native who is now in the music department of The University of Minnesota. Is that who you meant? No mention of him writing any Chicago lyrics either.

 

[EricP]

Yes, it's Thomas, not James, I looked back at my old transcript and saw I had not gotten his name right. He's at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. This wasn't like an unsubstantiated report or anything, he brought in lots of old memorabilia/recordings/videos/taped conversations with band members.

He accepted tenure in 1973, according to his bio, so his involvement with the band was prior to that.

 

[Todd R]

I wonder if they owe your Prof any money if that's true?
TR