Reprinted from wgi.org by Michael Boo -- In the Percussion Scholastic Concert World Class Finals at Wright State University’s Nutter Center on Friday, April 16, 2010, Ayala HS bested Muscle Shoals HS, 95.875 to 93.875, to win the WGI Percussion Scholastic World Championship.
Tunstall HS followed with a 91.425 and Goshen HS took 4th place with 89.900. Ayala won every caption from every judge, with Muscle Shoals taking second in seven of the eight captions from the four judges. Tunstall was second from one judge and bested Goshen on three of the four judges’ sheets.
Of interest was the similarity of themes between the top two groups. Ayala’s “Home” featured much narration about a serviceman wishing to get home for the holidays in 1944. A recurrent vocalization of “Silent Night” was both comforting and torturous, being that the serviceman suspected he would not pull off his arrival for his loved ones. The narration and accompanying music captured the horror of war and the mental challenge of leaving all that behind. But in the nick of time, we heard the serviceman’s family greet him with surprise when he walked in the door.
Muscle Shoals also featured narration in “Letters from War,” focusing on war heroes sharing their experiences to the backdrop of Morton Gould’s “American Salute” (“When Johnny Comes Marching Home”) and William Schuman’s setting of “Chester.” Quite a bit of monstrous mallet technique was employed to capture the essence of these two wind band classics. As with Ayala’s show, the serviceman comes home at the end and all is well with at least one little corner of the world.
Tunstall’s “Survivors of the New World” was based on the Dvorak Symphony, “From the New World,” with a few contemporary twists on the symphonic warhorse. Goshen’s “When the Split Hits the Fan” incorporated a number of nursery tunes such as “B-I-N-G-O,” with a most impressive feature when eight mallet players gather at the front and back of four marimbas and wove in and out of each other.
In Percussion Scholastic Concert Open Class, Golden HS bested Portsmouth HS, 94.400 to 93.250, taking five of the eight captions across the four judges, with Portsmouth ranging from three first place captions, through two 2nd and 3rd place captions and one 4th place finish. Hickory HS took 3rd place with a 91.725 with four each 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Clayton HS scored 88.550 for 4th with caption placements ranging from 2nd to 6th, followed by 5th place East Central HS (86.250) with caption placements from 4th through 6th and 6th place Glenwood Springs HS (85.800), with all caption placements in 5th or 6th.
Golden’s fiery Spanish “Sol de Oro” succeeded in topping Portsmouth’s “Scheherazade,” which had topped Golden in the preliminary round one day earlier. An interesting element to Portsmouth’s program was the use of six bass drums, one concert and five different sizes of marching bass drums, each with a single player; much like in the marching band, (except the drums were stationary).
Hickory utilized cajon drums for the bullfight music-inspired “Little Flamenco,” and Clayton, passing up East Central from prelims, utilized popular tunes such as “Linus and Lucy” in its “Dream Sequence” show. East Central delivered much funky peppiness in “Hurry Up and Wait.” Glenwood Springs’ show was titled,” Where the Rivers Meet.”
