Rubisco

I think visually the biggest thing I notice is that the guard is working better as an ensemble. In the past, they've been sort of distracting. This year it looks much better. Yeah, the drill could be cleaner (and maybe more interesting in parts), but it's early. I haven't seen any group yet that I didn't think looked really dirty. That includes Cedar Park and The Woodlands.

I have to say... I think this group sounds and looks significantly better than usual. A very real shot at finals. Sure, the concept may be a little cheesy to some, but you can't deny that saying the pledge of allegiance halfway through your show is gonna make the judges remember you. Also, I adore the swing section. Some really great playing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL13XKVMAgA

I think they were 4A last year. If they falter a bit this year, there's a very real chance that each class will be swept in prelims. The Woodlands in 4A, Cedar Park in 3A, and Dripping Springs in 2A. I'm not sure about 1A. What this means is that we really won't know who is on top going into finals. I suppose that's always the case, but last year, did anyone really doubt Marcus was on top?

I'm most eager to see Dripping Springs and Stephen F. Austin. The top spots will probably be divided between The Woodlands, Cedar Park, and SFA, like usual, as long as SFA hasn't taken too much of a hit with the director changes. If the TX Bands predictions are any indication, The Woodlands is going in as the overwhelming favorite to win. It's hard for me to say at this point who will win, since the only band I've seen a decent amount of is Cedar Park. Supposedly CTJ is no longer attending/was never actually going to attend. That's really disappointing and will make the competition near the top a little bit duller, but it is what it is. I had CTJ predicted for second place. But not all is bad, since this frees up some finals space for another fine group. Who will it be? Here are my new predictions: 1st The Woodlands 2nd Cedar Park 3rd Stephen F. Austin 4th Ronald Reagan 5th Dripping Springs 6th Spring 7th Winston Churchill 8th Brazoswood 9th Pflugerville 10th The Woodlands College Park Music: The Woodlands Visual: The Woodlands GE: The Woodlands The last two spots are the ones I think bands on the bubble will be scrambling for. Also, if SFA is as good as they've been in the past, I might change my predictions to give them second place (maybe even first) and the visual caption.

Yes, usually in the form of a pre-show.

It wouldn't surprise me. First dome performances can be rough. Still, if videos can be trusted, the tone quality issues I heard at UIL were not fixed at nationals. There was a sort of freight train drone to much of the music. I can't imagine that not also being a big reason UIL docked them. Anyway, it's long past. It's not an issue I hear as prominently in SFA today. I just brought it up to point out differences I notice in BOA and UIL. On a side note, I'm sort of surprised by SFA's low visual performance scores from 2004, although at least the judges were consistent.

I just did a search on the BOA forums. Oh... What a trip down memory lane! Here are SFA's UIL prelims results: Austin HS mus1 21 mus2 31 mus3 3 vis1 21 vis2 22 total 98 placement 22nd And some reactions: SFA 22nd? TWENTY-SECOND? That is absolutely ridiculous. I hope they win nats. God UIL pisses me off so much. EDIT: OMG music 2 had SFA as 31st, DEAD LAST. YEAH RIGHT. SFA the worst playing band at the competition? AMAZING I don't see how SFA can get those scores. WOW! I guess there are some discrepencies (sp?). wow, the music judges did a very poor job ranking these 31 bands. Austin 22nd? wow... congrats to the marching judges for being sort off close to each other. Ld bell would have won if one of the judges didnt screw them over. boo.. SFA had really serious problems musically. Their music was tearing very badly in many parts of the show and there were a lot of intonation problems. I was really disappointed with SFA; I was expecting a lot out of that Applachian Spring show. That last one was the one and only Xenon. Heh. Another odd one out!

I tend to agree with UIL music judges more than BOA ones. I feel like BOA music judges reward groups highly for rhythmic accuracy and clarity, which are of course important performance considerations, but they tend to overlook fundamental deficiencies in other areas (i.e. tone quality). I think good examples of this are last year's nationals (Avon = 1st in music performance, The Woodlands = 5th in music performance) and the 2004 Stephen F. Austin BOA versus UIL debacle. I was probably in the forum minority back in 2004 when I agreed with SFA's low UIL music placements. (One music judge had them 20-something, another had them dead last, and Alfred Watkins, perennial BOA judge, had them 3rd). I don't know if I would have had them dead last in music performance at UIL prelims, but certainly not high enough for finals. Once again it was a fundamental issue of tone production. SFA 2004 sounded very crass to my ears (and probably to those two UIL judges as well). BOA didn't seem to care, though, and rewarded them the high music caption at nationals. I wasn't at nationals, but it seemed highly suspicious to me at the time. On the whole, though, I prefer BOA judging, if only because they take the whole package into account. They reward both design and performance. It is a common misconception that GE is all about show design. In actuality, a band cannot expect to receive a high general effect score even with a stellar show design if the performance qualities are inadequate. Anyway, this is definitely more than 50 words, and I feel like a broken record. I've said this stuff so many times before.

Considering that the older, more seasoned players are typically the ones playing confidently during marching season, I think playing some Bach this past concert season will afford Marcus a bit of an advantage. (Heck, any exposure to playing Bach's richly contrapuntal music is an advantage.) That said, it's not like Marcus wasn't already going to be the best sounding band this year. Seriously, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say they've been the best band musically every year since 2005. So.... yeah...

Wow! That's, uh, pretty surprising, to say the least. Haltom was supposed to be awesome. No Spring, either. I guess that's just the way a competition like this plays out. Always expect the unexpected! Congrats to Brazoswood!

Updated with the remaining results.

Updated with Area A and E results.

Updated with Area C and D results.

Oh, wow!

Honestly, this just makes my stomach churn. With all these top-notch groups, you knew something like that was bound to happen.

No need for salt. Saying that Duncanville sounds great is like saying that you think ice cream tastes good. If anybody else were there, they'd probably say the same thing. Have the other two bands performed? Time to put you on the spot: who do you think will advance?

Yay! You're there! I'm just happy that we'll get the results ASAP. I'm assuming the other recordings are being played right now. Unless the difference in quality between the regions is very substantial, I'm expecting rankings to be all over the place.

Thankfully, we don't have to wait much longer to hear the results. It's just 5 (soon to be 4) days away! Area E is another one I'm interested in. It's just a couple days after Area D.

Here are my worthless predictions, based almost entirely on name recognition! Area A - Marcus and Keller Area B - Haltom and Richland Area C - Berkner and Rowlett Area D - The Woodlands and Spring (Area D Prediction Methodology: Believing firmly that the Area D state advancers would be composed of Region 9 and/or 20 groups, I accessed an online Magic 8 Ball from a Purdue University website and asked for each band, "Will such and such make state?" five times. A "yes" answer counted as 1, a "no" answer counted as 2, all others were ignored. In the first round, surprisingly, Duncanville was eliminated (12222), while all the others got scores of 11122. This began the sudden death round(s) for the other 3 bands. What a band got this round in a single asking would determine if it made State. The Magic 8 Ball said yes to The Woodlands in this round, but confusingly said no to the other two. This called for another sudden death round, in which, after giving both remaining bands a lot of maybes and try-again-laters, the Magic 8 Ball declared Spring the other advancing band. It has thus spoken.) Area E - Reagan and Langham Creek Area F - Brazoswood and Clear Lake Area G - Lopez and Clements Best of luck to all!

Now that all the Region results are in, it's time to look forward to Area and State. Posted below are the bands that have advanced to the Area level and their Region level rankings. If the Region rankings of the bands are unknown, I list them in alphabetical order. I will update this page with the Area results when they are known. Congratulations to these 42 groups for advancing to Area! The field has been cut down by more than 1/2 (including those who may have dropped out). Congrats to our 2012 TMEA 5A Honor Band State Advancers! Good luck to all! Marcus Keller Haltom Midland Lee Berkner Plano East Coppell Spring CT Johnson Westlake Brazoswood Clear Lake Lopez Dulles Area A (Listening on June 23rd @ Hebron HS) 1. Marcus (Advance to State) 2. Keller (Advance to State) 3. Lewisville 4. Keller Central 5. Lubbock 6. Monterey Region 2 Keller Keller Central Region 16 Lubbock Monterey Region 24 Lewisville Marcus Area B (Listening on June 26th @ Noel PAC) 1. Haltom (Advance to State) 2. Midland Lee (Advance to State) 3. Richland 4. Midland Region 5 1st Haltom 2nd Richland Region 6 Lee Midland Area C (Listening on June 19th @ Pearce HS) 1. Berkner (Advance to State) 2. Plano East (Advance to State) 3. McKinney Boyd 4. Rowlett Region 3 1st Berkner 1111(?) 2nd Rowlett 1(????) Region 25 McKinney Boyd Plano East Area D (Listening on June 19th @ Highland Park HS) 1. Coppell (Advance to State) 2. Spring (Advance to State) 3. Duncanville 4. The Woodlands 5. Westwood 6. Leander Region 9 1st Spring 11122 2nd The Woodlands 11222 Region 20 1st Duncanville 11112 2nd Coppell 12223 Region 26 1st Leander 11222 2nd Westwood 11223 Area E (Listening on June 21st @ Canyon HS) 1. Johnson (Advance to State) 2. Westlake (Advance to State) 3. Jersey Village 4. Langham Creek 5. Bowie 6. Reagan 7. O'Connor 8. Brandeis Region 11 Brandeis O'Connor Region 12 1st Reagan 11123 2nd Johnson 11233 Region 18 Bowie Westlake Region 27 1st Langham Creek 2nd Jersey Village Area F (Listening on June 22nd @ Clear Lake HS) Brazoswood (Advance to State) Clear Lake (Advance to State) Region 17 Brazoswood Clear Lake Region 19 Dobie Kingwood Region 23 Morton Ranch Seven Lakes Area G (Listening on June 26th @ Gregory-Portland HS) 1. Lopez (Advance to State) 2. Dulles (Advance to State) Region 13 Clements Dulles Region 14 Alexander United Region 15 Edinburg North McAllen Region 28 1st Lopez 11111 2nd Harlingen South 222(??)

Does anyone know how Marcus sounds this year? We haven't heard much about them besides the fact that they're going to Midwest again.

That makes more sense. Thanks! I would like to point out that I have full faith in Bill Watson's impartiality-- in this case, particularly, because he taught at Spring so long ago and the connection has probably, to some extent, withered. That said, typically, I would argue vehemently against the notion that a judge knowing the director of a group he is judging is the equivalent of a judge judging a group he has taught. Definitely not equivalent.

Wow, yeah. They've literally all produced honor bands of some kind in the past. They certainly know their stuff! Edit: Also, is it a conflict of interest that Bill Watson taught at Spring back in the 90's? Is this considered during judge selection?

I really can't imagine Duncanville failing to make it out of area D. If it happens, it would be the first time in decades. Then again, I would have said the same thing about Coppell before they got 3rd at area in 2010. Still, I expect Duncanville to make it out of area this year, and probably in first place. I've heard great things about their recording, although I have not heard the recording itself. As for the other spot, yeah, no idea, really. I think if it were business as usual, I would say Coppell, but after last time, I don't know. I haven't heard anything from Coppell or about Coppell. Also, I don't like the 3rd place vote that they got at region. That rubs me the wrong way, mainly because that's essentially what happened last time they didn't make it out of area. Could it be an omen? Is it just politics? A maverick judge? Who knows? I, too, think the region 9 groups could flip-flop; the scores are just too close. This is, by the way, what happened last time. College Park was second at region to Spring, and then College Park got first at area and Spring got fourth, I believe. I don't know how close their ordinals were at region, but they couldn't possibly have been closer than The Woodlands and Spring this year. Anyway, Daniel, I hope you check out the area D listening. I live in Houston, so I definitely won't be making the trip. You're obligated to your alma mater! (And I want those results ASAP!)

I was curious, so I looked up the repertoires of the region 9 and 20 ensembles. Coppell Commando March Symphony in Bb Symphonie Fantastique: Dream of a Witches' Sabbath Duncanville Overture to School for Scandal Pictures at an Exhibition The Cross of Honour Spring March to the Scaffold Lux Aurumque Belkis, Queen of Sheba, 4th Mvmnt. The Woodlands Invictus Trittico Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks To be honest, I'm sort of surprised/not entirely surprised that Spring is doing Lux Aurumque. It's a great piece to show off the musicality of an ensemble, and it's stunningly beautiful. At the same time, though, it seems a bit on the easier side for a group of Spring's caliber. Still, this may be compensated by the difficulty of the other two pieces. Edit: *sigh* iPhone formatting...Should be fixed now.