Pageantry vs Marching? (opine)
14/10/17 17:01
I know I'm dragging on and rambling through multiple posts, but I did make a reference to the current state of the concept of "pageantry" vs "marching band" that really got me thinking. Then I remembered how Jim Jones with NAMMB said this exact same thing back on Marching Roundtable. This was back in 2015, well before my current epiphany.
We're not at the point (yet) where we really need to separate a Pageantry Band away from a more traditional Marching Band. The edge of the cliff is getting awfully close, though.
There is a growing divide between a Pageantry Band that would compete at Bands of America (again, not disparaging them) and a more marching oriented group that BoA would just annihilate on judging sheets. It isn't that the more traditional marching group isn't viable. It just means that under BoA-type judging rubrics, the more traditional groups are so severely handicapped that they might as well not compete at all.
So what is a good solution? It's pretty clear that DCI and BoA-type groups are not going to budge. They think it represents the future of the activity (it's really just uncharted waters, but I digress). Going genre-neutral, as Texas tries with their UIL system, is an option, but where does the UIL system go from this point?
It's pretty clear that Pageantry Bands have been here to stay and have been developing into what is essentially their own style. The system behind it all for adjudication purposes isn't adapting at all. If it is adapting, it's adapting to favor the Pageantry Band more than anything else.
This is an overwhelming problem for anyone that isn't a Pageantry Band. How can you compare a Texas military band to a five to ten minute stage play on the field? Or how do you compare a more traditional Marching Band with a five to ten minute stage play?
The short answer is that you simply cannot. The short answer isn't "Well, if you don't like change over," because that simply isn't happening.
The easy answer is just to separate Pageantry Bands from everyone else, and they do via Bands of America (again, not disparaging BoA) to a small extent. However, this isn't feasible in many states, because of the fact that
I know of many in California, tons in Texas, and several in Ohio that still march in a more traditional style, which may or may not be military styled. Perhaps we in the more traditional world of Marching Bands, which includes the military bands also, should form our own league. That is something that could be looked into, but the question then becomes "How do you start it and how does it keep going onward?"
We're not at the point (yet) where we really need to separate a Pageantry Band away from a more traditional Marching Band. The edge of the cliff is getting awfully close, though.
There is a growing divide between a Pageantry Band that would compete at Bands of America (again, not disparaging them) and a more marching oriented group that BoA would just annihilate on judging sheets. It isn't that the more traditional marching group isn't viable. It just means that under BoA-type judging rubrics, the more traditional groups are so severely handicapped that they might as well not compete at all.
So what is a good solution? It's pretty clear that DCI and BoA-type groups are not going to budge. They think it represents the future of the activity (it's really just uncharted waters, but I digress). Going genre-neutral, as Texas tries with their UIL system, is an option, but where does the UIL system go from this point?
It's pretty clear that Pageantry Bands have been here to stay and have been developing into what is essentially their own style. The system behind it all for adjudication purposes isn't adapting at all. If it is adapting, it's adapting to favor the Pageantry Band more than anything else.
This is an overwhelming problem for anyone that isn't a Pageantry Band. How can you compare a Texas military band to a five to ten minute stage play on the field? Or how do you compare a more traditional Marching Band with a five to ten minute stage play?
The short answer is that you simply cannot. The short answer isn't "Well, if you don't like change over," because that simply isn't happening.
The easy answer is just to separate Pageantry Bands from everyone else, and they do via Bands of America (again, not disparaging BoA) to a small extent. However, this isn't feasible in many states, because of the fact that
I know of many in California, tons in Texas, and several in Ohio that still march in a more traditional style, which may or may not be military styled. Perhaps we in the more traditional world of Marching Bands, which includes the military bands also, should form our own league. That is something that could be looked into, but the question then becomes "How do you start it and how does it keep going onward?"
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