Chapter 6by Rick Beckham

The rudiments and styles ofdrum and bugle corps fieldpercussion may never have beeninvented if not for the drum’sfunctional use in war. Drill movesthat armies developed -- such asthe phalanx (box), echelon andfront -- were done to the beat ofthe drum, which could carry up toa quarter mile.

Less than 10 years after theCivil War, fife and drum corpsorganized and held competitions.These hard-fought comparisonsbrought standardization andgrowth, to the point that, half acentury later, the technical andarrangement achievements of the“standstill” corps would shape thedrum and bugle corps percussionfoundation as they traded playersand instructors.

From this comes thedevelopment of allowing allpercussion instruments, no matterthe genre, into the pageantry thatis modern drum and bugle corps.

The development offield music competitionThe first major development for

field percussion was theorganization and explosion ofcompetitions. The desire toquantify the skills of fieldmusicians in order to find “thebest” had the added unplannedbenefit of setting the stage of fieldmusic progress, for the individualskills of the performers in theirstyle development and trainingtechniques, for the skills of thegroup pushing the envelope ofexecuting increasingly difficult

parts played inunison, and forthe technologicaladvancement ofthe instrumentsand implements offield musiccompetition.

Martial musiccompetition beganless than a decadefollowing the CivilWar, birthed in

the state ofConnecticut.

The firstwritten account ofa competition is1872, inWallingford, CT, 1and the earliestreference to prizesoccurred in 1876when a silkbanner made bythe Ladies ofRockville wasawarded for “bestdrum corps.” 2“Best drummer”awards were givento representativeindividual snareand bassdrummersselected from allthe competing

units. To illustrate how serious thecompetition had become, prizes for bestindividual drummer included gold-tippeddrum sticks, a set of dueling pistols, a safetybike, a rocking chair and a set of silver lovingcups, none of which were cheap items. 3

The growth of competitions continuedand, in 1885, the Connecticut Fifers andDrummers Association was established tofoster expansion and improvement. Annualfield day musters for this associationcontinue to this day and the individual snareand bass drum winners have been recorded

since its inception. Sam Hawkins from the Mattatuck Corps

was awarded first place snare drummer at thefirst Connecticut Fifers and Drummers fieldday held on August 2, 1885, in Wallington,CT. E.R. Parry from the Sassacus Corps wasawarded first place bass drum.

To further illustrate the seriousness ofthese competitions, J. Burns Moore, who laterbecame the first president of the NationalAssociation of Rudimental Drummers,became incensed after placing third in 1893and bet $25 that he could outplay the twogentlemen selected as first and second. 4

Connecticut would remain the nexus forrudimental drumming competitions foralmost a century, producing prodigaldrummers who would be largely responsiblefor improving the drumming in the buglecorps. “The rudimental explosion did notcome in the drum and bugle corps. It beganin the standstill fife and drum corps in the1930s,” according to Ken Mazur. 5

Military music contests rapidly grew

(Above) Connecticut Hurricanes, August 27, 1967 (photo by Moe Knox); (right) Chicago Royal Airs,August 24, 1966 (photo by Moe Knox, both photos from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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Mattatuck Drum Band, July 29, 1967, on the occasion of the organization’s 200thanniversary (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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during the period between the Civil Warand World War I. As the bugle replacedthe fife as the instrument of choice inthe military, the number of drum andbugle corps increased.

John Philip Sousa, who helpedpopularize brass instrumental martialmusic starting in the 1880s, insisted onstrong rudimental technique before onewould even be considered for a positionas a percussionist in his band. 6

As Sanford Moeller later commented,rudimental drummers were the onlydrummers who could play the difficultquicksteps. The growth of rudimentaldrumming pervaded and dominated thepercussion community.

“In the professional field, drummers weretaking the drum rudiments seriously enoughto argue about them where previous to 1918they had been slighted.” 7

Drum and bugle corps continued theirgrowth following World War I. During thisperiod, several classifications of corpscompeted: fife and drum corps, drum andbugle corps and corps made up of fifes, buglesand drums. The fife and drum corps alsodivided into the Ancients -- those that playedtempos at 110 -- and the Moderns, playing at120 beats per minute.

A state contest would normally consist of100 units of the various categories, as well asindividual competitions on drumming,bugling, fifing and baton twirling.

Competitions continued to flourish and,by 1921, the American Legion held a nationalcompetition for senior corps in Kansas City,MO, during their convention. The Veteransof Foreign Wars followed suit, holding its firstnational contest in 1928 at Indianapolis, IN.

Junior corps were added to the VFWNational competitions in 1936 and to the ALNationals in 1937. There were very fewdifferences between the AL and VFW rules,but for membership, the AL required thatmarchers have served in the military, whileVFW members had to have served onforeign soil. Membership requirements onlyapplied to the seniors.

Both organizations remained strongduring the decade following World War II.Eventually the AL relaxed the membership

requirements; a corps only had to besponsored by an American Legion Post.

Dwindling membership within the VFWforced it to drop the senior competitions in1964. The following year, Drum CorpsAssociates was formed in Scranton, PA, as anindependent organization dedicated to thecontinuance of senior corps competitions.

The last VFW nationals for junior corpswas held in Chicago, IL, in 1984. TheAmerican Legion sponsored a senior andjunior corps national championship until1980 and then discontinued the contest for17 years. In 1997, the AL once again begansponsoring a national competition, for seniorcorps only, and continues to this day inconjunction with the DCA Championships.

During the latter part of the 1960s, severaljunior corps directors felt discontent at therigidity of the rules. People, some who nevermarched drum corps within the VFW and ALorganizations, were deciding how the corpswould be judged. Corps staff felt the need to

expand the creative envelope;to swing the pendulum fromthe militarily judged systemwhere execution, inspectionand precision marching werethe deciding factors, towardone that allowed morecreativity and expression.

In 1971, the Combine, agroup of corps directorsdetermined to control thedirection of the junior drumcorps activity, was formed and,

in 1972, theCombinebecameDrum CorpsInternational.

With thecreation ofindependentdrum corpsorganizations-- DCA for the seniors and DCI for the juniors-- the bonding that existed between the twoin the VFW and AL days would dissolve.National competitions for both divisionswould no longer be held together.

“Big brother”-type relationships woulddiscontinue as junior and senior corps thatwere sponsored by the same VFW or AL post,

church or other organizationwould now be independentlyoperated.

The influential sonof Connecticut

Earl Sturtze was born in1901 and began takinglessons from Carl Frolich, aBurns Moore student, whenhe was 10 years old inHamden, CT, playing with the

Fire Department Drum Corps organized byhis father. He set the standard for rudimentalexcellence.

Though he won many local and stateindividual titles and taught many winningdrum lines, his biggest impact was as teacher.He would teach more than 5,000 students inhis lifetime.

A list of some of Sturtze’s students is animpressive five decades of individualchampions and winning drum instructors.The list included Frank Arsenault, athree-time national snare champion who latertransformed Midwest drum lines intonational prominence; Bobby Redican,two-time national champion, winner of 45contests and said by many, including EricPerrillioux, to be the best rudimentaldrummer of all time; Hugh Quigley, two-timenational senior AL snare champion andsix-time recipient of the Dan English Trophy,senior class division; Mike Stefanowicz, anational champion who became a Ludwigclinician and wrote many method books andarticles on style and technique; Ray Luedee,who steered the Connecticut Hurricanessenior corps drum line into winning theAmerican Legion national contest and takingtop drums at DCA four years; and GaryPagnozzi, three-time winner of the VFWsnare individuals, junior division.

As for the accomplishments of hisstudents, consider this legacy. It is said bymany that Arsenault’s move to the Midwest isthe biggest reason for the spread of qualityrudimental drumming to the rest of the

nation.Arsenaulttaught MitchMarkovich,three-timenational VFWjunior snarechampionfrom1961-1963who went onto teach thetwo-timenationalchampionChicago

Royal Airs (1965-1966), a corps that stunnedmany with an incredible display ofdrum line solos that were rudimentallydemanding and included backsticking.

Arsenault also taught Larry McCormick,who took over the helm of the ChicagoCavaliers’ drum line after Frank left in 1961and remained until 1971, spanning an

Chicago Cavaliers, August 27, 1967, at American Legion Nationals in Boston, MA(photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

27th Lancers, 1980 (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights, June 3, 1962 (photo by Moe Knox from the collectionof Drum Corps World).

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impressive 10 years during which the “GreenMachine” won many titles.

Bobby Redican gave private lessons to ayoung Charlie Poole, who later won theAll-American national snare drum title(1968, 1970, 1971) and went on to instructthe 27th Lancers’ drum line.

There are several reasons for Sturtze’steaching success. One, he refined the gripthat had been passed down since the CivilWar where he emphasized a firm, but not tootight, placement of the fingers. He spentconsiderable time with his students

developing their grip. Secondly, Sturtze had a strict regimen of

teaching the rudiments and their properexecution. He would judge the long roll atthe beginning of each lesson. When thestudent achieved a score of 24 out of apossible 25, he would then allow the studentto progress to the next rudiment. The lessonwould begin by playing two rudiments.

This would continue, possibly for severalyears, until the pupil was capable of playingall 26 drum rudiments. The student who

achieved this goal was awarded what Sturtzecalled the Double A Certificate. Very fewstudents earned this certificate.

Keep in mind that he judged therudiments the same way rudiments werejudged from the 1920s through the 1960s;deductions were from one-fourth of a pointfor minor mistakes to several points formajor infractions. Inconsistency in accentsor note volume, starting or stopping on thewrong hand, stick clicks or hitting the rim,flams and drags that were too closed or tooopen, and tempo jumps were all reasons for

deductions. Additionally, the rudiments

were timed. They had to be exactlythree minutes long. Theacceleration-to-peak and thedeceleration each had to equal oneand a half minutes. Timingpenalties were issued for eachsecond over or under threeminutes and for differences of timebetween the acceleration anddeceleration.

Third, he believed incompetition. Not only did he urgehis students to compete in manyindividual competitions, hesponsored an annual competitionamong his students, awarding aribbon medal to the winner.

“I competed and won againstSturtze students at four straight

Connecticut statecompetitions with Sturtzejudging. No one questionedwhether he should judgecontests where his studentswere competing. Hisintegrity was a result of hislove of the art of rudimentaldrumming,” Poole commented.

Bobby Redican used thesame rudiment progressionmethod with his students. “Ispent a year working on thelong roll with Redican beforemoving onto the flam, where Ispent another year. Two yearson two rudiments. How manykids today would have thepatience to spend one year onone rudiment?” Poole said.

There is no way to measurethe full impact Sturtze had onrudimental drumming. To doso would require measuringnot only his and his students’

success, but also the impact they had oncompetitors who had to crank the notch upto stay in the game.

What better way to sum up his drive toperfect the art of rudimental drumming thanwith this reflection from Gary Pagnozzi: “Earlwas tough. He used to always say, ‘Practicedoesn’t make perfect unless you practiceperfectly’.” 9Standardizing rudimental contests

Because of the explosive growth of fieldmusic competitions during the 1920s, people

were traveling from state to state and intodifferent regions of the country to compete.However, judges from different areasrequired separate compulsory sets ofrudiments.

The New England Drum and Fifer’sAssociation sponsored drum corps contests inthe East and had adopted the Strube (1869)method of rudiment breakdowns. 10 That isto say, the rudiments were played open (slow)to closed (fast), with the contestant stoppingupon reaching fastest peak speed.

Contests in the Midwest were followingthe Bruce and Emmett method (1862), wherethe rudiment was played open to closed, backto open.

[It’s not clear at what point or how manycontests in the New England area requiredthe Strube method of breakdown. Accordingto conversations with students of Sturtze,who competed in the 1920s, he alwaysadvocated the B&E method.]

J. Burns Moore, also from Connecticut,endorsed the B&E method during that firstNARD meeting. Additionally, B&E placed anaccent on the second beat of the doublestroke, whereas the Strube method did not.

Visiting contestants from other regionscould be at a disadvantage. Thus, it becameevident the rudiments, and their method ofbreakdown, needed to be standardized.

On June 20, 1932, 13 prominentdrummers met at the American LegionNational Convention in Chicago and formedthe National Association of RudimentalDrummers. 11 J. Burns Moore, four-timeindividual snare winner of the CFDA (1891,1895, 1897, 1900) and timpanist with theNew Haven Symphony Orchestra for 45 years,was elected as the first president by his peersand he served until 1945.

Those peers included William F. Ludwig,George Lawrence Stone, Bill Flowers, EdStraight, Harry Thompson, GeorgeRobertson, Bill Kieffer, Bill Hammond, JoeHathaway, Roy Knapp, Billy Miller and M.M.Gerlach 12; a diverse collection of prominentrudimental, studio and symphonicdrummers.

The Bruce and Emmett method ofbreakdown was chosen. The selectedrudiments, which included the “B&E Lesson25,” became known as the 26 StandardAmerican Drum Rudiments. The first halfwere named the 13 Essential DrumRudiments and became the requiredrudiments one had to play in order to becomea member of NARD.

“In the school field, there was a greaterconfusion than in professional and amateurfields. Students felt content to take shortcutsand neglect rudiments. This conditionprevailed for a number of years, until banddirectors found poorly trained percussionsections were a serious handicap to thenatural progress of the band or orchestra.” 13

When A.R. McAllister, a good friend ofWilliam F. Ludwig, became president of theNational Association of School Bandmasters,he helped spread rudiments to the nation’shigh school music programs by adopting the

(Above) Phantom Regiment, August 20, 1996, at the DCI Championships inPhiladelphia, PA (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World);(below) De La Salle Oaklands, 1973, at DCI Prelims in Whitewater, WI (photo byJane Boulen from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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began a five-year study on revising andupdating the list of rudiments with the intentof organizing the rudiments into a morereasonable structure and including rudimentsnon-traditional to NARD that had gainedpopularity through the 1960s and 1970s.

Many years prior to this, some membersof PAS had openly questioned rudiments. Forinstance, George Allan O’Connor, whileagreeing that rudiments increase control andfacility in performance, openly challenged thevalidity of rudiments as the primary trainingtool for percussionists. 17

Dick Berkley stressed teaching only themost basic rudiments necessary for concertapplication; that is, singles, open and closedrolls, flams and ruffs. 18

By 1982, a committee of 20 PAS membershad drafted the PAS International DrumRudiments, a proposal that included 40rudiments split into four groups: theroll, diddle, flam and drag families.Seven of the 40 were identified asessential. 19

Even though the PAS proposal wasfinalized in 1984, neither the committeenor PAS in general made a commitmentto actively promote the rudiments asbeneficial toward increasing percussiveskills.

Rudiment breakdowns continued tofall out of favor at individual contestsand band auditions, beginning after the

breakup of NARD and continuing to thepresent despite PAS’s efforts.

Imagine if a trend developed where scaleswere no longer considered mandatory forwind players.

The metamorphosis of field percussion

Since military musicians organized fieldmusic competitions, it was natural that thebasis of field percussion was rudimentaldrumming. Rudiments became the“alphabet” and language of drumming, whichbegan as troop signals, each unique enoughto distinguish by ear.

Creating new troop signals was a simplematter of playing combinations of rudiments.It’s evident some drummers during the CivilWar prided themselves on how manyrudiments and signal calls they knew, as well

The second president ofNARD was GeorgeLawrence Stone, servingfrom 1945 to 1954. Hewas author of the mostpopular drum book everprinted, Stick Control, abook of more than 800exercises that exploredvarious coordinativerudimental combinations.

Stone playedpercussion in the Boston

Festival Orchestra and the Boston OperaOrchestra. He also ran a popular drumschool in Boston, the Stone School of Drumand Xylophone. His most famous studentwas jazz legend Joe Morello.

Stone also privately instructed GerryShellmer, who not only won the 1962 VFWsnare individuals for seniors, but led theBoston Crusaders’ drum line to a nationalchampionship in 1970.

Arsenault took over aspresident of NARD after Stoneand remained in that positionuntil 1966, at which timeLudwig took the helm.

Members of NARD weretold by mail in 1975 that theyhad the opportunity to electthe new president. A bookletwas included listing 16candidates and theircredentials.

Mitch Markovich won theelection by an overwhelmingmajority, becoming the fifthpresident of NARD.

NARDfolded in1978,having close to 10,000members in its ranks.If it was so popular, whydid it fold? ExplainsMarkovich, the lastpresident, “The majority ofthe members were notpaying their yearly duesand paying for 10,000-piece mailings was verycostly to the LudwigCompany.” 16

The following year, thePercussive Arts Society

NARD list of rudiments for use in all highschool bands in the country.

Soon, individual rudiment contests weresponsored for high school band percussionplayers and, according to Ludwig, “Thesecontests proved atremendous incentive toindividual rudimentalpractice for schooldrummers and, as a result,improved the schoolbands.” 14

Ludwig believed sostrongly in rudiments as away to improve the playingskills of all percussionists,he allowed LudwigIndustries to back andsupport NARD.

Membershipapplications and rudiment sheets featuringthe standard 26 were handed out at band anddrum corps conferences and mailed to musicstores. Ludwig sponsored as many as 200clinics a year for students, teachers andinstructors promoting rudiments andrudimental drumming.

It was Ludwig who hired Frank Arsenaultas a clinician and spokesman for LudwigIndustries in 1954. “Today all drum contestsare judged on the basis of the NARDrudiments. Bandmasters as well as drumteachers became conscious of theirimportance with the result that todayAmerica can justly boast that we have thebest drummers of any country in the dancefield, concert, drum corps and schools,”Ludwig wrote. 15

The truth of that quote can be directlyattributed to the promotion of the rudimentsby NARD and Ludwig.

Skokie Indians, 1957, at American Legion Nationals in Atlantic City, NJ (photo from thecollection of Bob BellaRosa/Eastern Review).

Reilly Raiders, 1968 (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

Sons of Liberty Fife and Drum Corps, 1957 (photo from the collection of BobBellaRosa/Eastern Review).

Hawthorne Caballeros, 1972 (photo from the collection of Peter Bishop).

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as how well one could play therudiments.

When discussing the flamrudiment, George Brucecommented “Some practitionershave accomplished a flam roll!” 20

Much like scales to melodicinstruments, rudiments are thefoundation for increasing one’spercussive development.

Judging developed objectivelyas proper sticking and correctexecution of the rudiments,whether by the unit as a whole orby individuals, could be examined.

Playing styles during the CivilWar period were very similar to the oneadvocated by Sanford “Gus“ Moeller. Hevisited Civil War retirement homes duringthe 1920s and interviewed drummers in aneffort to preserve their drumming heritage.

The style was a flowing, high armmovement with a looselyheld grip. Playing highwas necessary, since thedrum was the primarycommunication devicefor troop signals fromthe commanders duringthe war. The louderplayed the better, so thesound would carry to thetroops.

The reason for thelooseness was tominimize playingfatigue; a happy mediumof just enough tensionto execute, but notenough to produceexhaustion. A drummerduring the war wasexpected to play all day, from the firstmorning wake up call to the Taps “time forbed” signal.

Bass drummers during the Civil Warperiod usually played the rudimental bassstyle with two sticks. Cymbals weresometimes included in the drumlines, but most lines primarilyconsisted of snares and bass, andwere assessed not as a separateunit, but, rather, in conjunctionwith the fifes.

Moeller taught drum setlegend Gene Krupa, who becamethe first person to use the trap setas a solo instrument, and JimChapin, who wrote “AdvanceTechniques for the ModernDrummer,” a best selling drumbook widely regarded as the mostground-breaking book forindependence ever written.

Moeller was a staunchadvocate of the rudiments, notjust for rudimental drummers,but for all areas of drumming.He traveled with a musical showacross the continent teachingdrummers everywhere the

importance of rudiments. His belief was sofirm, he decided to write the most compre-hensive book on rudimental drumming up tothat time. “The Moeller Book” was publishedby the Ludwig Drum Company.

Despite the beliefs of some, the drumming

of drum and bugle corps went through manychanges through the years. Following WorldWar I, tenor drums were added to the drumand bugle corps, 21 adding a middle voicebetween the snares and bass drums.

The tenor drum parts were rudimental,

second only to thesnares. Eventhough rudimentalbass had been apart of the fife anddrum standstillcorps, themarching corpsused the bassdrum to keeptempo formarching.Rudimental basswould not beintroduced to themarching and

maneuvering corps until the 1960s.The AL rules book from 1929 shows that

the scores were broken down as follows: 15points for inspection, 10 points for cadence,15 points for marching ability, 20 points formaneuvering, 20 points for the bugles and

fifes and 20 points fordrumming. The subcategories of thedrumming captionincluded position ofinstruments,execution, ensemble,expression, rhythm,originality and flash,and repertoire. 22

In 1946, the NewYork Skyliners seniorcorps ushered in thebig drum lineconcept, marchingeight snares, fourtenors, two bassdrums and twocymbals. 23

De La SalleOaklands from Toronto marched 32 snaresone year in the 1940s. 24 The numberdropped in the early 1950s to a standardthree or four snares, three tenors, two bassdrums and one or two cymbals, and wouldremain that size until the 1960s.

JohnDowlan, whowould becomethe three-timenational VFWsenior snarechampionfrom1949-1951,inadvertentlyinventedbackstickingin 1938. Hestates, “At thetime, I didn’tthink of it as avisual. Iwould turnthe left stickover in amatched gripfashion tohelp me

Blue Rock, July 17, 1971, at the World Open (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

Archer-Epler Musketeers, July 1959, in Bridgeport, CT (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

Reading Buccaneers, July 3, 1971, in Bridgeport, CT (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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1960s. In 1961, Parks successfully argued before

the AL governing body that timbales were, infact, drums, opening the floodgates fornon-traditional marching equipment. Parkshad to argue again the following year to getbongos and congas, the instrumentationwhich eventually gave the Caballeros theirtrademark Latin sound. 27

Dowlan comments, “In 1961, whileteaching the Vasella Muskateers junior corps,we were penalized for not playing Swiss

rudiments.” This clearly demonstrated how change had

become accepted, where less than a decadeprior, the fear of penalties kept drum linesfrom experimenting.

Blessed Sacrament is credited for not onlybeing the first junior corps to use

backsticking (1960) andrudimental bass (1962), but takingboth to new heights, playing morecomplicated rudimental patternswith each.

“Without a doubt, BlessedSacrament was the best juniorcorps drum line I ever saw. Theyexecuted cleanly and took chanceswith risky arrangements,”Pagnozzi said.

Markovich introduced tunedbass drum parts in the Royal Airs’Watermelon Man, in 1965, foreverchanging the bass drum from aunison third voice to one withrhythm and pitch. He publishedan article in the Spring 1965 issueof Ludwig Drummer, titled “New

Concepts in Bass Drumming.” He said thattwo to six bass drums, all pitched differently,would provide a more interesting line,melodically and rhythmically.

Also in 1965, Flowers, of theWestshoremen senior corps, introduced asnare-tenor combo unit, where tenors weremounted to each side of the snare.Although this didn’t catch on, it was theprecursor to the timp-tom trios first

as the “Bobby Thompson Grip.”This grip, along with low grace notes,

would help establish the Blessed SacramentGolden Knights as a powerhouse drum line inthe 1960s.

Marty Hurley, who marched in BlessedSac, would later teach this grip to the snaredrummers of the national contendingPhantom Regiment junior corps.

Parks and Thompson marched togetherin one of the most prestigious drumlines ever, the Sons of Liberty Fife andDrum Corps.

During the1950s, Dowlan,John Flowers,Rodney Goodhardtand John Bosworthhad entered the AirForce to play in theBolling Field AirForce Drum &Bugle Corps inWashington, D.C.,and the fourformed arudimental drumquartet.

Recalls Dowlan,“John Flowerscame to me in 1958and said, ‘Whydon’t we use thatthing you used todo?’ referring to thebacksticking. Our quartet was scheduled toplay as an exhibition for Blue Rock’s winterI&E in Wilmington, DE, and we figured wehad nothing to lose since, as an exhibition,we couldn’t be penalized.

“So we modified our quartet score toinclude some backsticking and practiced.

When we performed at the exhibition, thecrowd went crazy. They loved it!

Dick Filkins was there that night, so thevery next year, in 1959, credit goes to theArcher-Epler Muskateers senior corps forbeing the first to use backsticking, featured intheir concert number, Dipsy Doodle.”

The impetus for change had begun in thesenior corps and would eventually spread tothe juniors that would snowball through the

limber my wrists before a competition,” hesaid. 25

Field percussion had always been visual,especially with the high sticking unison armnotion of the fife corps drum lines.Backsticking would later become the firststick trick to augment the visual element ofdrum lines and individuals.

Dowlan showed his backsticking trick tothe Reilly Raiders in 1951, under theinstruction of Harry Ginther, with theintention of incorporating it into the show,but it was turned down. At the time, it wasviewed as too difficult to clean and, due to therigid atmosphere of the VFW, any new changewas viewed as a potential to get penalized.

Several major developments occurredduring the 1950s that would revolutionizefield percussion. The first was whenArsenault was hired by Ludwig to be aspokesman for his drum company, located inChicago, in 1954.

Arsenault brought with him to theMidwest the powerful, high precisiondrumming of the fife and drum corps whichpropelled the Skokie Indians senior corpsinto the nationals three years running(1955-1957).

At the same time, his Chicago Cavaliersline was largely responsible for breaking theEast drumming stranglehold when they wonthe 1957 VFW Nationals in Miami.

[While some attribute the Cavaliers’ drumwin that year to the fact that they were theonly line to sport plastic heads in the hot,humid Miami climate, being the only snareline to maintain a crisp snare sound, theaccomplishment could not have occurred,plastic head or not, without Arsenault’sinvolvement.]

Eric Perrilloux is credited withintroducing bass drum rolls with ReillyRaiders senior corpsin 1956, a veryunorthodox move thatallowed the bass drumto eventually movefrom traditionaltimekeeper to anindependent voice.

His majorcontribution occurredin 1957, when thedrum line solo firstappeared front andcenter, winning theReilly Raiders theVFW NationalChampionship.Perrilloux also usedSwiss rudiments inhis arrangements, breaking the mold for fur-ther experimentation with accents and tex-ture. 26

As a percussion instructor, Les Parkswould begin a remarkable run of sevenconsecutive national AL titles with theHawthorne Caballeros senior corps startingin 1958. He also developed the “teacup” grip,later mastered and refined by BobbyThompson, which eventually became known

St. Lucy’s Cadets, July 26, 1969, in Bridgeport, CT (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of DrumCorps World).

Boston Crusaders, 1970 (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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marched in 1968. Percussion instructors successfully

lobbied for marching tympani at the 1967 ALRules Congress and the following winter AlLeMert and Jim Sewrey developed themarching tympani and timp-tom trios for theLudwig Drum Company. 28

John Flowers, with the ReadingBuccaneers senior corps, introduced themarching cymbal rack in 1967, later used bySt. Lucy’s Cadets junior corps in 1969.

The Boston Crusaders junior corps andthe Sunrisers senior corps are credited withmarching keyboard instruments in 1969,both instructed by Gerry Shellmer. Bostonused a vibraphone, the Sunrisers had bellsand a xylophone.

Due to VFW restrictions, the Crusadersdropped the vibraphone at the nationalchampionship. DCA allowed the Sunrisers touse their mallet instruments. 29

Shellmer, who had studied under Stone,would naturally be influenced by the jazzplaying of another Stone protege, JoeMorello. Shellmer’s marching percussionarrangements for Dave Brubeck tunes likeUnsquare Dance for Boston in 1968 and BlueRondo A La Turk for the Sunrisers in 1969, 30

would open the doors for odd-time meterarranging and non-traditional marchingmusic to fit the rudimental idiom.

At this point, rudiments were still thebasis of the percussion arrangements and stillconsidered important for coordinative andphysical development. “Everyone, no matterwhat they played -- snare, tenor, bass, cym-bals, whatever -- was given a snare lesson atevery practice.”

The size of the drum lines started to growfrom the mid- to late-1960s, with some linesmarching four or five snares and four or fivetenors. Adding the accessory percussion, the

numbers could easily reach 15 to 20. In 1971, Blue Rock junior corps, under

Joe Marella, marched eight snares and theReading Buccaneers senior corps, under JohnPratt, marched nine snares. The nine snaresof the Bucs were split into three separatesnare voices. 31

This started another growth spurt thatwould continue through the mid-1970s,where some lines would reach 32. Styles hadto change to accommodate more players.Among some corps, maximum playingheights went from 24 to four inches or less.This meant decreasing arm motion andincreasing the use of the wrists.

Matched grip wasn’t feasible when slingswere used to carry the drums until the levelbar was invented. The Royal Crusaders juniorcorps from Finleyville, PA, was the first corpsto use matched grip in 1972, but it wasn’tuntil Santa Clara Vanguard, under theinstruction of Fred Sanford, won the DCIdrum title in 1978 that matched grip gaineda short-lived popularity.

The invention of the snare harness easedthe transition to matched grip much morethan the level bar. By 1981, almost half ofthe top 12 DCI corps played matched grip,but by the late 1980s every drum line in thetop 12 would return to traditional. The lastdrum line to win a title using matched gripwas Empire Statesmen senior corps whenthey won high drums at DCA in 1997.

The introduction in the early 1970s oftape recorders for adjudication was amilestone for increasing the analysis andgeneral effect portions of the score.

In 1973, DCI approved the use of twomarching mallet instruments and allhand-held percussion. The following year,DCA decreed that any percussion instrumentthat could be carried could be played.

The capitulation of addingmore percussion instrumentsreached a climax in 1977 whenthe Spirit of Atlanta junior corps,under the percussion direction ofDan Spalding, used a total of 120separate playable instrumentswithin the percussion section ina show in Atlanta. 32 Thisoccurred five years before theadvent of the pit.

DCI drum corps were scoredin 1980 as follows: 25 points formarching and maneuvering, 25

points for brass, 20 points for percussion and30 points for general effect, which wasfurther broken down as 10 points for GEpercussion, 10 points for GE brass and 10points for GE M&M.

The 20 points for percussion was divided

into 12 points for execution and eight pointsfor percussion analysis, which was subdividedinto four points for exposure to error andfour points for degree of excellence.

Ticks could also be tabulated for visualerrors such as variance in stick grips, positionand angle of the drums, height of stick riseand arm motion. 34

In 1982, multi-tenor drummers for theBridgemen junior corps, taught by DennisDeLucia, would start a trend. During thedrum solo, Black Market Juggler, the tenorplayers executed sweeps, where each note of adouble stroke was played on a separate drum.

The Bridgemen only used right handsweeps in a Swiss Army right-right-leftpattern, but it was enough to open the door.In the following years, more sweep patternswere invented, such as helicopters andbutterflies, and by the late 1980s, some tenorlines had taken center stage as the focal pointof the battery (snares, tenors, bass).

Three events occurred during the 1980s

Long Island Sunrisers, July 5, 1969, at Bridgeport, CT (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

Empire Statesmen, August 30, 1997, at DCA Prelims in Allentown, PA (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

Santa Clara Vanguard, 1978 (photo by Art Luebke from thecollection of Drum Corps World).

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up.” 38 Who knows how many titles may havebeen won by champions like Dowlan had itnot been for Schlecta’s iron rule.

Contestants at the 1950 American Legionnational individuals had to break down fourrudiments, demonstrate playing a 2/4 or 6/8piece of music not to exceed 16 measureswhile marching, and play a solo not to exceedthree minutes. Only one rudiment, the longroll, was known ahead of time. The otherthree were drawn from a hat that day.

The scoring had 10 points allotted forinspection, five points per rudiment for atotal of 20 points, 10 points for propermilitary marching, 20 points for playingwhile marching and 40 points for the soloselection. 39

The solo was judged on execution of

rudiments, accents and dynamics. Eachcontestant could take as much as 15 and ahalf minutes of judging time. Additionally,the AL National Individuals, at least from1950-1954, had four categories of entries: thesenior veteran, for veterans of the Spanish-American War and World War I; the juniorveteran, for veterans of World War II; thesenior open, for anyone 21 years and older;and the junior open, or anyone between theages of 14 and 20.

The winner of each category was engravedon a perpetual trophy, awarded a medal andgiven a $25 U.S. Savings Bond. Anyone whowon twice was automatically inducted as alife-time member, had yearly fees waived forthe Rudimental Drummers of America 40 andwas awarded a special plaque noting atwice-won national title. Medals were alsopresented to second and third place.

Connecticut drummers won three of thefour divisions in the 1952 AL nationalindividual snare competition. Therudimental quartet had remained popular atlocal contests and was reintroduced at thenational level in the 1961 VFW juniordivision. Rudimental tenor drummingindividuals began the following year at the1962 VFW Nationals.

Mike Stefanowicz, a Sturtze student, wasthe final VFW senior snare drum champion in1963. Senior drum corps drummers would

drumming. 36

Daniel English, another Burns Moorestudent, was considered one of the finestsnare drummers of his day. He played withthe Lancraft Fife and Drum Corps, winningtwo national snare titles during his tenure.After dying at the young age of 28 from heartdisease in 1931, Lancraft began the DanEnglish Trophy the following year, to beawarded annually in honor of the bestConnecticut senior and junior drummers ofthe year. Those who have received thisdistinction were considered the best of thebest. The last year the trophy was awardedwas in 1988.

By 1939, individual contestants werejudged on four rudiments and a solo,requiring a total of 13 minutes minimumplaying timefor eachcontestant --three minutesfor eachrudiment andone minutefor the solo.Snare duetsandrudimentalquartets hadbeen addedto thecompetitionsby this time,and at mostindividualcontests, eachcaption wasdivided intomale and female.

NARD and the Ludwig Drum Companysponsored an “East meets West” nationalindividuals contest to decide which regionhad the best rudimental drummers. Thecontest was held September 23, 1940 inBoston, MA, and judged by Moore andLudwig. In this contest, five top drummersfrom the West or Midwest competedagainst five top Eastern drummers. Theresults placed all the Eastern drummers wellover the Western drummers.” 37 Bob Redicanwon.

A week later, Connecticut drummersdominated the 1940 World’s Fair AmericanDrummer’s Association National Contest,with 11 of the 21 total junior contestantscoming from that state, taking the top nineplaces. For the senior division, seven of 11total, and the top six finishers, hailed fromConnecticut.

Dowlan recalls an interesting anecdote.After he won his third straight snare title forthe senior division of the VFW in 1951,Tony Schlecta, who was in charge of VFWrules, approached him. “Don’t come backnext year, you’ve won enough,” saidSchlecta.

Dowlan, who at first thought Schlecta wasjoking, responded, “I didn’t realize it was inthe rule book.” Schlecta looked Dowlan deadin the eye and replied, “It isn’t. I just made it

that lessened the impact of rudiments forfield percussion arranging.

First, in 1982, DCI created a groundingzone, later called the pit, on the frontsidelines between the 40 yard lines for anyconcert percussion equipment. The pit areawas expanded in 1987 to stretch between the35 yard lines. 33 Adding concert percussioncreated a new genre, where integratingconcert percussion into a martial musicidiom diminished the importance of thebattery, subsequently altering the rudimentalcharacteristic arrangements.

Second, in 1983, Drum Corps Southeliminated the tick system of execution,thereby changing to a complete buildupsystem. The focus was now on the ensemblerather than on individual units within theensemble. DCI followed suit in 1984.

Without execution to temper the demandof the drill, marching speeds increased torunning tempos, making it more difficult forplayers to play rudimentally challengingarrangements. The general effect captionalso increased, absorbing the points that wereonce allocated for execution.

Third, the invention of free-floating snaredrums necessitated a style change where thegrip had to loosen to accommodate the kevlarheads, made from the same material used forbullet proof vests. Additionally, over-torqueing of the kevlar heads, coupled with areduction in size of the snare line down tofour or five players, created concern that thesnare voice had been lost. Perhaps thatconcern was what drove the movement toincrease the snare lines back to eight or ninemembers by the late 1990s.

Drum solos started to wane in themid-1980s. Integration of judging elementscontinued and, in 1994, the DCI percussionscore was reduced to 10 points whilepercussion ensemble and effect wereconsolidated with the brass to create musicensemble and effect. 35

DCA currently uses two judges forpercussion that is broken into two 20-pointcaptions -- field percussion and ensemblepercussion. The two captions are averagedfor the total percussion score.

Individual and ensemblecompetitions

When field days began having separateindividual contests in the 1880s,contestants were judged on properrudiment breakdown, execution andtiming. Much later, a one-minute solo wasadded to the requirements to judge thecontestants’ rudimental repertoire andtransitional flow from rudiment torudiment, the beginning of more complexcoordination.

The timing judge determined if asteady tempo was maintained throughoutthe solo.

As an example of the staggering numberof individual competitions, Frank Fancher, astudent of J. Burns Moore who played withthe Chapman Continentals Fife and DrumCorps and Gramaphone Corps, won close to200 first prizes in individual snare

Bayonne Bridgemen, 1982, at DCI Championships in Montreal, QUE (photo by Dale Eck from the collection ofDrum Corps World).

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not have another national level competitionuntil 25 years later, in 1988, the year DCAgauged the potential interest of an I&Ecompetition by hosting a snare drum contest.The VFW would discontinue the juniordivision following the 1966 season.

By the 1960s, individual snare and tenorplayers had to break down a long roll andflam-paradiddle and play a solo between twoand three minutes. The quartets played aselection, without leadership of direction,timed between two and three minutes.

Pagnozzi of the Bridgeport PAL Cadets,the last Sturtze student to win a nationaltitle, won the junior individual VFW nationalsnare title three years running from1964-1966, the final years VFW held thejunior individuals at their nationals. Hereceived a perfect score on theflam-paradiddle in 1965 and in 1966, anincredible accomplishment.

He recalls, “There was tremendouspressure at contests. The timing judgenodded to you when to start eachrequirement. You couldn’t look at yoursticks or the drum. You could lose thecontest after playing the first five notes of thefirst rudiment. The solo was judged onexecution, how many rudiments you couldplay and how those rudiments segued fromone section to the next.”

His streak of winning may have continuedhad he not enlisted in the Navy when heturned 18. [He enlisted to avoid beingdrafted into a military service not of hischoice which, having A1 status, wasguaranteed to occur on his 18th birthday.]

The mayor of Bridgeport, CT, wrote aletter to Connecticut Sen. Irwin asking forPagnozzi’s enlistment to be deferred untilafter the 1966 nationals giving him a chanceto become a three-peat national champion.Strings were pulled. Two weeks after he wonhis third snare title, he shipped out for activemilitary service. 41

“There were individual competitions allthrough the winter, every weekend you couldcompete at a contest and some weekends youhad to pick between several. No one liftedsticks higher than Connecticut drummersand we loved competing in the local contestsin Pennsylvania and New Jersey to prove wehad superior technique,” recalls Pagnozzi.

Charlie Poole reflects, “I can remembergoing to individual contests with my fatherand the competition would last through thenight. We’d go have breakfast in the weehours of the next morning and come back forthe awarding of the placements.”

In 1967, a group of drum instructorsdecided to continue a national levelcompetition for junior drum corps membersand formed the All-American Contest. MikeMeyers from the St. Mary’s Cardinals drumcorps was the first All-American snarechampion at the contest held in Boston.

The All-American lasted until around 1974and was probably discontinued since DCIstarted hosting individual and ensemblecompetitions in 1973. All-AmericanNationals was very similar to VFW, with

difficulty in the individual snare contests.Rudiments would fly by the judges so fast,they couldn’t pick them all out. Most of usplayed a section slow to make sure the judgesunderstood the difficulty, then sped the hellout of it for demand points,” Mazur said. 43

With the advent of timp-tom trios in thelate 1960s, the tenor individuals in the early1970s changed. Incorporating rudimentswith drum-to-drum and crossover maneuversbecame the fashion as judges, as well ascompetitors, learned to adapt.

In 1984, DCI dropped the tick system ofjudging execution and the rudimentrequirement. The contestants since that timehave been judged solely on a two- to three-minute solo. Execution is still on the judge’ssheet, but along with the demand and GEcaptions, it is judged subjectively.

In 1983, PAS began sponsoring anindividual competition for snares, tenors andmallets at the annual PAS InternationalConvention. Snares and tenors have to breakdown a rudiment -- the long roll for snares,the single stroke for tenors -- and play a solo.Mallet individuals played a solo only. Themaximum time requirement for the rudimentis one minute and between three and fourminutes for the solo, allowing a maximum offive minutes total playing time percontestant.

The PASIC rules state that contestants willbe penalized for timing infractions, buttiming judges are not used. Contestants havebeen known to play the required rudiment in20 seconds or less and not be penalized fortime differentials between the accelerationand deceleration. PAS has made no effort toenforce a standard for the rudimentbreakdown.

For the solo, contestants aren’t so much

judged on rudimental proficiency as they areon displaying a wide range of percussiveskills, some of which bear no relevance tosnare drumming.

For instance, demonstrating four-mallettechnique on a snare drum is equivalent to amallet player using 3S marching sticks to

respect to rules, requirements and categories. Rob Carson won his first of three national

snare drum titles at the 1972 All-Americanheld in Sarnia, ONT.

“The first year I won All-American in1968, there were a few contestants who wereexperimenting with backsticking and sticktricks,” Poole said. “The judges wereprimarily looking for how well the performerscould execute cleanly at faster tempos andhow well they could mirror the execution of arudimental passage off the left hand. You hadto show left hand control. Some people saywe weren’t very musical back then, which isarguable. One thing no one disagrees with isthat we were technically proficient to thehighest degree.”

During this time, some judges wererecognizing that stick tricks increased thedifficulty. Ken Mazur reminisces, “Iremember at a local individuals contest in1968, tossing a stick in the air and losing it inthe lights. I held out my hand as I hadpracticed and, boy what a relief when thestick fell right into my palm.” 42

The individual competitors between theyears 1968 and the mid-1970s were theinventors of GE as applied to solocompetition. Backsticking was very popularand competitors were constantlyexperimenting with new tricks. The generaleffect sub category began gaining points toaccommodate crowd-pleasing visuals.

When DCI began the individualscompetition, the flam-paradiddle wasdropped. One rudiment, the long roll forsnares and the single stroke roll for tenorsand mallets, and a solo were required. Thesolo and rudiment each had to be betweentwo and three minutes, and the accelerationand deceleration times of the rudiment hadto be withinfive seconds.

The scorebreakdownwas 15points fortherudiment;the solo wasbroken downinto 25points forexecution,30 points forexposure toerror and 30points forgeneraleffect.

A timingjudgesubtractedone-tenth ofa point for each second timing infraction andexecution of the solo and rudiment wasjudged using the tick system. Playing timefor each contestant was now between fourand six minutes.

“The early 1970s is where speeddrumming began to outscore coordination

Spirit of Atlanta, August 18, 1977, at the DCI Championships in Denver, CO (photo by Moe Knox from thecollection of Drum Corps World).

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Rick Beckham is an activerudimental advocate, writer,teacher and performer. Helives in Princeton, TX. Hemarched snare with GarfieldCadets in 1980 and 27thLancers in 1981. He was alsothe drum line instructor for

the University of Southern Mississippi’s Pridedrum line between 1980-1982. He hastaught or consulted with various drum corpsand marching band drum lines since.

He is three-time DCA individual snarechampion for the years 1999-2001 and is aformer member of the National Associationof Rudimental Drummers and theInternational Association of RudimentalDrummers.

Beckham received his bachelor of sciencedegree in computer science from theUniversity of Southern Mississippi and amasters of science in computer science fromthe University of Texas at Dallas.

He has worked at Nortel Networks inRichardson, TX, since 1990, teaches privatelessons on the side, maintains a Web sitededicated to rudimental drumming(www.rudimentaldrumming.com) and hastwo published books of rudimental snaresolos, “The Rudimental Drummer” and “TheBeckham Book.”

demonstrate high-lifting rudimental rolls ona marimba.

In 1994, the PASIC individual competitionwas divided into two separate divisions --high school and college. Each contestant atPASIC must be a member of PAS and be afull-time student at a college or high school.

DCA resisted hosting an I&E competitionfor many years because it was felt that therewas not enough time during Labor Dayweekend, the traditional time for the DCAChampionships, to fit in an additionalactivity. The organization finally acquiescedin 1988, though snare drummers were theonly ones judged in the beginning.

John Neurohr stated, “As soon as we cameoff the field from prelims, we had to report tothe judges stand, which was under thestadium. We had no time to warm up.” 44

Reports Frank Nash, “There were about 10to 12 snare drummers who competed thatfirst year.” 45

The next year, DCA opened the I&Ecompetition to all captions. It has becomeone of the more popular events of DCAweekend. The only requirement for thecontestants is a prepared piece of two to threeminutes in length.

SummaryField percussion and individual

competitions began rudimentally; the skills ofthe drum lines and individual competitorswere measured by how well they executed the

p. 2314. Ludwig, p. 2315. William F. Ludwig, “The Development of Drum

Rudiments,” two-page flyer published by Ludwig Industries, 1960s16. Mitch Markovich, 1986 interview17. George Allan O’Connor, “Where Are We Going -- What

Are We Doing?,” Percussive Notes, December 196818. Dick Berkley, “A Practical Approach to Rudiments,”

Percussive Notes, March 197019. Jay Wanamaker, “PAS International Drum Rudiments,”

Percussive Notes, February 198220. George B. Bruce, “The Drummers’ And Fifers’ Guide,”

1861, p. 721. William McGrath, “The Contribution of Senior Drum

and Bugles Corps to Marching Percussion,” The Percussionist,Spring 1980, p. 157

22. Jeff Mitchell, 1929 AL Scoring, e-mailed to author23. McGrath, p. 16024. Earl Orf, editor, “The Drum Corps Book of World

Records,” 2nd edition, 1980, p. 1325. John Dowlan, phone interview26. Jeff Hartsough and Derrick Logozzo, “The Timeline of

Marching and Field Percussion: Part 3,” Percussive Notes,December 1994, p. 31

27. McGrath, p. 16128. Spalding, p. 12729. McGrath, p. 16230. David Vose, “An Interview With Gerry Shelmer,” The

Rudimental Percussionist, Vol 4, no. 2, 1997, p. 4-631. McGrath, p. 16732. Orf, p. 1133. Jeff Hartsough and Derrick Logozzo, “The Timeline of

Marching and Field Percussion: Part 4,” Percussive Notes,February 1995, p. 32

34. “1980-1981 Rules and Interpretations Manual,” 1980DCI

35. Mitchell, e-mail36. Joe Gillotti, historian and librarian of Company of Fifers

and Drummers Museum, e-mailed scanned copies of FrankFancher files

37. Bob Redican, short bio mailed to Ken Mazur38. Dowlan39. Stuart Stack, Rudimental Drummer’s of America

scoresheet for 1950 AL Snare Individuals, e-mailed pdf files.40. Stuart Stack, Rudimental Drummer’s of America

Organization and Contest Rules, e-mailed pdf files.41. Pagnozzi42. Ken Mazur, phone interview43. Ken Mazur, “Who Took the Drums Out of Drum Corps?

Part 2”44. John Neurohr, First DCA Snare Champion 1988, e-mail

to author45. Frank Nash, three-time DCA Snare Champion, e-mail

to author46. The 38th Annual DCA World Championships 2002

program book

rudiments.Eventually difficultywas included injudgingconsiderations,followed later bygeneral effect.

Not only did therudimentalarrangements setthe activity apartfrom the otheridioms ofpercussion,orchestral and trapset drumming, butrudimentaldrumming played atremendous role inincreasing the skills

of all percussionists. Consider this quote, taken from the 2002

DCA yearbook: “Drum and bugle corpspercussion has had a profound impact on theentire percussion field, from rock drummersto symphony orchestras to high schoolbands.” 46 The rudimental element is whatmade that quote possible.

“Without rudiments, we’re justrhythmists,” observes Pagnozzi.

The collapse of NARD, the shift ofparadigm from unit judging to percussionensemble and later to music effect, and theincrease in drill demand have all played a partin diminishing rudiments, that which madethe percussion element of the activity unique,producing a brand sound and image distinctlydrum corps!

The author wishes to extend a thank youto all those he interviewed and that sent hime-mails (see references). He is especiallyindebted to Ken Mazur for sharingconversations and research about the historyand evolution of rudimental drumming.

References

1. Jodeen Popp, “Competitive Drum Corps: There and Thento Here and Now,” 1979, p. 23

2. Susan Cifaldi, historian for the Company of Fifers andDrummers Museum, Ivoryton, CT, e-mail to author

3. Cifaldi4. Cifaldi5. Ken Mazur, “Who Took the Drums Out of Drum Corps?,”

Part 2, 1998, p. 26. Dan Spalding, “The

Evolution of Drum CorpsDrumming,” ThePercussionist, Vol XVII, No. 3,p. 122

7. William F. Ludwig,“My Life at the Drums,” 1972,p. 22

8. Charlie Poole, phoneinterview

9. Gary Pagnozzi, phoneinterview

10. Ludwig, p. 2211. William F. Ludwig,

“The Development of DrumRudiments,” two-page flyerpublished by LudwigIndustries, 1960s.

12. William F. Ludwig,“National Association ofRudimental Drummers,”four-page flyer published byLudwig Industries, dateunknown.

13. William F. Ludwig,“My Life at the Drums,” 1972,

St. Mary’s Cardinals, August 27, 1967, at American Legion Nationals in Boston, MA (photo by MoeKnox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

Bridgeport P.A.L. Cadets, 1966 (photo by Moe Knox from the collection of Drum Corps World).

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