Argonne '73
Michael Anthony Smit
Was listening to Argonne Rebels 1973 show yesterday...one of my marching days favorite recordings
Some questions:
Who arranged their horn charts?..I know it was a Hall of Famer
What was the placement of the hornline at finals that year?
Was the drumline as dirty as they sound on the recording?(placement?)
Was the '72 hornline even better than '73 (as I've heard)
Thanks in advance...
MikeS.
MM 74-79
--
Steve Sorrell
>
>
> Was listening to Argonne Rebels 1973 show yesterday...one of my marching days
> favorite recordings
>
>Some questions:
>
>Who arranged their horn charts?..I know it was a Hall of Famer
>
>What was the placement of the hornline at finals that year?
11th place corps with a second place hornline...Madison was 1st.
Steve
Dan Scerpella
Sandy Opie was the horn instructor, apart from that, I know little except I
thought they were great.
They still in my mind possess the definitive rendition of "Fanfare and Fugue"
(I think it was called!! Guardsmen attempted it in 79.)
What's the point of having an opinion if you're not going to
cram it down someone's throat?
Jerome Kimbrough
I have also heard that their drumline didn't make finals.
J
Sambuca312
was "Fanfare Fror the New", originally written by Keith Markey for the USAF
Academy Drum Corps back in 1968 (they were also among the first to use GF horns
too). Hugo Montenegro originally composed the number. I don't remember WHO
wrote it for the Rebels, but Matt Springfeldt, Argonne's drum major in 73 had a
brother who was in the Academy drum corps, so there is a connection. "Malaga"
was the second piece they used, and I believe it was written for them by Frank
Minear of Seattle WA. It was Argonnes great misfortune to have a "less than
spectacular" drum line. Mitch Markovitch was brought in to clean it up in
1972, which helped them upset the Chicago Cavaliers at Legion Nationals, after
having lost to Chicago all season long. The 1972 hornline WAS cleaner, but the
music was not as hard, and they had been playing "Barnum" and "JC Superstar"
for 2 seasons. Sandie Opie was the horn instructor, and her husband Glen was
the director. They both retired from the corps after 1973, and are now
completly retired from their respective careers. Sandie is a "Hall of Famer".
She was also a DCI horn judge for many years after leaving Argonne.
SAM
Robert Brown
>
And somebody we enjoyed to have judging us ( her tapes were great ).
Rob
BD 81-85
>SAM
Tom & Karen Peashey
Argonne... To make a long story short, they were in no position to make
finals... The horn line was amazing, the drum line was pretty bad (I may be
on the kind side there) and the visual did not feature the horns well...
In a matter of a couple days, Vince repositioned the horns for maximum
effect and for all practical purposes saved their position in finals...
Visual fell only slightly and the brass finally got the numbers they
deserved... and even though no one thought they would stay in finals -
they did...
The brass book was probably one of the best I have ever heard - certainly
one of the most difficult... they treated triple tongue passages as if they
were mere warm ups... Sandra Opie herself was quite a person to meet and
work with...
Quick story... before finals ... she was tuning the line with a strobe in a
room at the Whitewater dorms... We came in to meet her for dinner... she
stopped... we said "finish the tuning - we can wait".... she said "that's
ok... they KNOW what I want"... as we were leaving and my jaw was on the
floor... the kids were beginning to finish tuning alone with no staff
members.... and of course it was flawless...
1972 was amazing and had a much better drum line and drill... but I believe
1973's brass was better...
Tom Peashey
"Michael Anthony Smit" <ms...@uoguelph.ca> wrote in message
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Shreff1
again (after his RA days).
Frank Schoenbach
>Argonne's hornline was one of THE best EVER. (I go back to 1958). The opener
>was "Fanfare Fror the New", originally written by Keith Markey for the USAF
>Academy Drum Corps back in 1968 (they were also among the first to use GF horns
>too). Hugo Montenegro originally composed the number. I don't remember WHO
>wrote it for the Rebels, but Matt Springfeldt, Argonne's drum major in 73 had a
>brother who was in the Academy drum corps, so there is a connection. "Malaga"
>was the second piece they used, and I believe it was written for them by Frank
>Minear of Seattle WA.
That was the best arrangement of Malaga ever by a corps---yes even
Madison----was pretty much verbatim
> It was Argonnes great misfortune to have a "less than
>spectacular" drum line. Mitch Markovitch was brought in to clean it up in
>1972, which helped them upset the Chicago Cavaliers at Legion Nationals, after
>having lost to Chicago all season long.
Actually they brought Mitch in in 1971---he got rid of their high
stepper snares and really cleaned them up.
>The 1972 hornline WAS cleaner, but the
>music was not as hard, and they had been playing "Barnum" and "JC Superstar"
>for 2 seasons.
I think 71 was better---the 72 hornline had problems with the fugue
going into Love Story. I still remember the big frack when they came
off the line at VFW nationals that year, it was so un-Argonne like.
haring
1972? Not totally sure that this is the case. (And I have no idea who did
the arranging job in '73).
Argonne's hornline was amazing for those three years... '71 through '73.
Their brass performance at the 1971 VFW Nationals was damn near flawless...a
full, balanced sound that still sounds great today!
Another Argonne Rebels note: they, and the Madison Scouts, were featured on
a record album called "5.0" from, I believe, after the 1971 season. From
what I understand, Argonne and Madison were the two corps that had scored a
perfect 5.0 in the brass content-analysis caption that was used in those
days for junior corps.
Fran Haring
"Michael Anthony Smit" <ms...@uoguelph.ca> wrote in message
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>
>
SCOTT36104
RWhalen675
don't know. Why do they start the 72 year off the line with a big drum solo?
Thankd Ron
Frank Schoenbach
I believe they played Barnum and Bailey's from 69 thru 72 off the line
with the same drum thing. And yes, the drumline was bad until
Markovitch took it over in 71.
Davidkamp
Paul Scouts hornline....name escapes me as a seniot, but he wrote great
innovative material for the Scouts as well; he performed as a terrific
low-brass player!
This might stir others to mention his name.
Catherine
"Davidkamp" <davi...@aol.com> wrote in message
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Someone call Hank of MBI...
Frank Schoenbach
wrote:
><!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
><html>
>SCOTT36104 wrote:
><blockquote TYPE=CITE>I believe Opie arranged Fanfare didnt' she?</blockquote>
>
><p>Sandra was not an arranger.
><p>Both Keith (Fanfare For The New)
><p>&
><p>Frank (Malaga)
><p>had the original charts from The Creative World Of Stan Kenton!
><p>McMe Too</html>
>
Didn't Doug Dennison write alot for them? He did for St. Paul Scouts
too.
Davidkamp
Argonne, specifically the JC Superstar show as I recall.
Quite an underrated arranger because of his limited exposure via the St. Paul
Scouts.
Thanks for triggering an old guys memory!
DLK
Mike Duffy
> Didn't Doug Dennison write alot for them? He did for St. Paul Scouts
> too.
Bingo, McFrank!!
Frank Schoenbach
wrote:
>Frank Schoenbach wrote:
Cool Doc Dave and McDuff!!! What do I win???
Actually, Doug wrote a chart called Gole Gandom for us (Northernaires
in 73)....and Argonne played it a few years laer.
Mike Duffy
> Hi Frank and Michael: Bingo! Doug Dennisen wrote many great charts for
> Argonne, specifically the JC Superstar show as I recall.
>
> Quite an underrated arranger because of his limited exposure via the St. Paul
> Scouts.
Doug also wrote for Blue Rock and De La Salle Oaklands.
McDuffy
And we have the original Mr. St. Paul Scout arranger, Corky Whitlock.
Good tunes, and great brass judge.
Stu Hanson
would add the little bit of info I have on Doug Dennison. He did do most of
the arranging for Argonne during those great years. Awesome Contra player,
originally from Austin Lancers "SPAMTOWN" many a great horn player came from
that area. Doug rewrote the JCSS for the Govenaires from St Peter in 72-73
added a few licks to it that I always wish Argonne had done. I had the great
honor of playing the Contra lick in King Herod. I had him do some other
arrangements for Govenaires in mid 80's last time I talked to him he was on
the gulf coast in Florida teaching school, but I don't remember the city.
Stu Hanson
St. Peter Corps '58 - '01
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