titancoaster

Lol, I know this is rediculously old BUT, as I was Drum Major that year and flattered you liked the show (or atleast want to find out more about it). The Music was an arrangement by Shane Kellbly of Nessun Dorma, Music from "Batman Begins", Song of the Spirit, and some minimalistic piece that had a name revolving around bats or night or something (its not a great piece, imo, but our arranger did a GREAT job with it and it is the second movement of the show).

^wow I never knew thats why we have 8min shows...The More You Know!!

Sure just give me your address and Ill mail it to you...and the white powder is just flower not anthrax..I promise

$100 says I can predict the finalists bands in random order with perfect accuracy

Band is a subjective art...it will always be viewed differently from person to person. When you choose to judge something that is subjective judging controversies will ALWAYS occur (find me one sport or art that requires subjective judging that hasnt had a controversy and ill bake you a cookie). The BOA system is no better, its just as other people have said, its just harder to detect as each judge is judging completly different aspects of the performance (minus GE Music Judges), so no one questions the judges scores. I have seen bands miss finals at various BOA events due to one of the two music GE scores being 2 to 3 points lower bringing the band down from 10th to 15th. No system is perfect, you dont like the way the UIL system works than dont go.

Pflugerville to make 5A state finals

GE is a rediculously hard to explain judging catagory. In essence the visual GE has little to do with the "ooo thats cool" effects but instead it has to do with having everything you do visually heighten the music. (IE; is you have fast music your drill should look fast, or a hit in the show should be a powerful form, so no scatter drill). The vis GE judge will also look at your ability to tell a story/portray a theme through the visual elements that match the music/ Music GE is more about having good quality music, whether its arraingments or custom music, and making it as interesting as possible and it is supposed to make somesort of cohesive story. The "ooooh" factor is involved with music GE, as you really want your music to impress the judge and keep him/her on their toes with excitement. Now this is not an end all answer to the waht is GE question but it is a simple answer that matchs similiarly to the BOA judging sheet/rule sheet. So you do not need props to score high in GE at all...but if they are used to amplify the story or are used to visually portray the music than the can help. I personally prefer having little to no props but there are shows I love that had props in them. (Marcus's Greek gods/godesses show to name one)

^Well I think apart of Pville's underrating came from the fact that the other two schools in the district (Hendrickson and Connally) had made such huge names for themselves that Pvill became the forgotten sibling. However this year they are obviously leading the pack, placing highest of non-Dallas area schools. I am very proud of them and cant wait to see how Area fares for them...

^what is ironic about the poor diction of the announcer is he is the head of UIL Drama

Hmmm...I have quite a few songs in my head right now, but the two that shut up the least are: Love the Way You Lie by Eminem ft. Rhianna and Nimrod by Elgar

txbands is a seasonal site, its the busy during competition season (late September through Grand Nationals) and gets some activity during summer with Drum Corps and Honor Band talks. In two weeks txbands should get pretty active

I can definantly hear Equus by Whitacre in Pflugerville's show (melody heard easiest in clarinet solo).

Friendswood will not be attending Grand Nationals this coming fall, instead they will be competiting at all three texas regionals. There were issues that kept them Texas bound for the 2010 season, but they are hoping to attend at some point in the future. FHS will be building off an amazing UIL year last year and try to take the BOA circuit by storm as they hope to see another finals show in San Antonio.

kind of sounds like what SFA did this year with the whole classical versus street dancing....

You are right, I forgot about them, but yeah they competed right after moving down. I also skimmed the rules for UIL marching contests for the 08-09 allignment years and there is not anything mention about ineligibility due to change in classifications.

It would have to be a recently passed rule because Richland was a 5A in 2001, but moved down for the 2002/2003 (and won 4A state), and then moved back up to 5A the following year. Oh and in talking with the Connally directors at TMEA, they are fully expecting to compete at Area in 2011.

Area D 4A Marching Contest: Dripping Springs (2009 4A State Champ) Hendrickson (2005-2009 4A State 5th Place Finalist) Hays (2009 4A State Finalist) John B Connally (2007 4A Silver Medalist, 2008 5A State Alternate) Cedar Park (2008 5A State 4th Place Finalist) Vista Ridge (2007 4A State Finalist, 2008 5A State Qualifier) Vandergrift (2009 4A State Alternate as a first year school, marching 50 kids) Holy bloodbath Batman, this be a great contest in about two years.

At state the largest two were Azle 240 and Friedswood with 235, after that I didnt really pay attention.

heck i think making semi-finals is something to feel great pride in. When we (Connally) went in '06, we had no idea of what to expect when it came to results, and when we were announced as a semi-finalist you would have thought we had just recieved a first place medal. We celebrated then, and still hold our heads up with pride as being a grand national semi-finalists. I have met different LD Bell kids over the years and every single one has been nothing but nicde individuals who take pride in how great their band program is, but never once have gotten close to boasting.

^how do you have half a student?

Oh and Connally is more than likely going to move down to 4A as well (we barely squeeked in the 5A side of the line two years ago). Area D is going to be completely brutal in two years, with 6 previous state finalists, Dripping Springs, Connally, Hendrickson, Vista Ridge, Cedar Park, and Hays. Then you have schools like Vandergrift and Steele which are young and can make a huge splash with two more years of building.

Ug, every year after the state contest (atleast 4A) there is always a thread about how this band behaved rudely, or these parents wouldnt clap.... Lets face it, this is an activity for high schoolers, when they win yes they are going to be proud of it, and as long as they dont break out into a chorus of "we are the champions and you are the losers" they arent being boastful. I personally know two of the Dripping Springs drum majors, and I know for a fact that they would never do ANYTHING to be rude or boastful towards other bands. I believe that the bands at the state contest behaved well and I saw nothing too extreme to condemn society or anything, kids will be kids. That being said I first like to thank Danpod for the nice comments on Friendswood's performance, we are very proud of the hardwork we put in this year, and even though we slipped down a notch from prelims we still feel like we "owned the dome". I also agree that state really is two seperate contests, looking at the judges sheets for FHS and the recaps from prelims to finals, the panels had VERY different ideas of what a state champion band looks and sounds like. I think that all bands should be proud this was one of the most difficult 4A state contests in a long time, and all represented themselves and their schools with dignity, hard work, and amazing performances.

Congrats to all who made it to finals, it was quite a contest! Congrats also goes out to Dripping Springs for taking home the gold, and to Poteet for the Bronze, it was a tough race for the top three.

^I wish it would move to St. Louis, that way we still get the midwest bands, but it is a little closer for the Southern bands.

With Heart and Voice was done by Hays last year actually, it worked pretty well for them.