WST veteran ODW poses the following question
The question should be - is panorama in its present format and judging criteria helping the steelband movement advance in the 21st century.
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No Its Not. Judges must allow arrangers the Freedom to be more Creative instead of trying To stifle their ability to carry the Music to another Level. There should not be any Format that they should follow. When they follow all these Formats the results is Plastic Music. If we Listen to the Late Great Clive Bradley, he never followed and given format . Most of these Judges have never arranged a Panorama Piece, yet they have the Authority to dictate how a Panorama Piece Must be Played. Its like the Blind Leading the Sighted.
I am in complete agreement , Val. As a matter of fact , I think the only criteria for the panorama tune should be length of tune , and tempo.
Whatever experimentation a band and arranger chooses to do with their panorama tune should be their right, and let their work be judged on its merit.
In the early days , parameters were needed to establish the criteria for how a panorama tune should be arranged and performed.
However, after half a century the panorama genre has matured,we no longer need "training wheels" for bands and arrangers.
Like Val said , that is stifling creativity.
Let bands and arrangers do their best as THEY see it , and let town be the judge !
Why can't the powers that be realize that there is a need for revision of the criteria for judging panorama and every 5 years or so there after. A public forum could be very helpful when dealing with such matters.
The old saying “if it isn't broken don’t fix it” was passed over a long time by Pan Trinbago and the tinkering of Panorama made the whole thing worse. It is crazy when you have seven judged and a band could win by just one point. If judging is to be taken seriously the crowd needs to have a part to play using social media and the internet to select their winner.
This is a great question; but the more critical question - "what is necessary and sufficient to move the steelband movement forward in the 21st century and beyond"?
People with a VISION, Ian.
Definitely not. Having Small, Medium and Large band categories defeat the purpose. Young arrangers would never know what its like , for example, to truly arrange panorama music and face men like Boogsie,Smooth, Holman or Andy Narell. I believe only when arrangers enter the large band competition they may have a chance to get better, other than that, is just practicing. Finally, to much complaints placed on judging, years ago small bands like Merrytones, Curepe Scheando (spelling wrong), Third World, Casablanca, seriously rock the savannah north and grand stand, so forget judging. Today's young arrangers need to understand that, they need to arrange something sweet and melodious for the people, non musicians, and make them very happy and you will get the win.