Posted by Hate to be that guy… on 4/8/2025, 1:52 pm
It seems like every year the SR pieces are so inconsistent with what’s on the UIL website. This year was a little better than last year, I will say.
The 1 & 2 were fine. The 3 was OK, but still not what it could’ve been. It just didn’t seem melodic or make any sense musically? The 4 was like…what just happened?! The 5 was great because…Willie. We get it. And the 6 was actually very nice, however I don’t recognize the composer? Who is he? Again, IMO, all better than last year.
Why is it so hard to get parts to MATCH?! The score should never been different from the parts? Is there not a process to verify before these are handed out across the state? My kids read the IV, and struggled. LOTS going on in the work, and just not fitting for a “SR” process.
IDK…maybe I just needed to vent.
Re: UIL SR
Posted by DesertJazz on 4/9/2025, 9:38 pm, in reply to "UIL SR"
I didn't judge anywhere this year, so I only saw Level 1 and 3. For me Level 1 fit 1C Varsities, and the non-varsities for 3A/2C/3C fine. It really didn't fit the non-varsity 1C group of mine unfortunately. It really was tougher than our stage music! We had the .5 during COVID, I wish they would put that back out there for 1C and 2C Non-Varsities. It's crazy that our varsity and non-varsity kids have to read the same piece! (I've always felt this way)
Level 3 was actually a catchy tune to me, reminding me of a few Japanese inspired tunes. It definitely had a couple of gotcha moments that I think bit some groups. One random Dotted Quarter measure, and the trade off measures were I assume the pitfalls that got some groups. When the low brass had the melody it was so thickly scored... I'm grateful for the rehearsal time where I can 'edit' those parts some with the kids to thin it out.
For both levels I've definitely seen both worse, and better pieces.
Re: UIL SR
Posted by BDSO on 4/10/2025, 4:16 pm, in reply to "Re: UIL SR"
Agreed on the Lvl 3. My only issue was the weird scoring. I would not have scored some of the melody sections like that. We still walked out with a sweepstakes. It wasn't the worst Lvl 3 ("Accession" gets that honor).
BTW, I've always said there needs to be a separate middle school level, different from the HS bands (including HS NV and sub-NV bands).
Re: UIL SR
Posted by Except... on 4/15/2025, 8:14 am, in reply to "Re: UIL SR"
...Paradigm was much worse than Accession ever was...and Accession was horrible!
Re: UIL SR
Posted by Me on 4/11/2025, 7:28 am, in reply to "Re: UIL SR"
Accession isn't anywhere close to Theme and Variant, which ignored the rhythm and scoring requirements for a Level 3 completely and yet was still passed on to us.
