The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2013

I thought it was a DVD

I bought this for my friends, who is a fan of classic music, and she was fond of it.She told me she would like to buy more DVD.

Each year I always try and look forward to the Edinburgh Tattoo CD. Since I can't get there every year its a way for me to recall the times I have in the past. Each passing year however the Tattoo seems to be losing its character. New producers and titles (its now the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo in recent years) can't erase the fact that the show is becoming more spectacle and less martial each year.The Pipes & drums display was excellent, and the sound quality of theese recordings get's better all the time. A far cry from the older LPs of the past in that regard. Still, the show is suffering from too many repeat overseas bands. The Traditional Korean Army Band while perhaps fun to look at does not produce a very pleasing sound! They seem to be popular in the Tattoo circuit these days and so their noise is getting spread about a lot now.The music for the Tattoo Highland Dancers was more synthesizers than actual musicians. At least have the lasses dance to something like the Royal Regiment of Scotland band and pipers. To have modern chords and harmonies amplified across the Esplanade says more than anything about how the quality of the Tattoo music is going downward each year.This is further shown with having the Erskine Melville School Choir. The flat, discordant voices of a children's choir may be charming to some, and its fine in its own setting, but for a military Tattoo seems hopelessly out of place. This is an unfortunate influence from the Royal Nova Scotia Tattoo in Canada which has long diluted its show with this kind of accompaniment.Other Tattoo repeats are the New Zealand Army band with its exaggerated pop display of marching and brassy sounds which seem to occur every other year or so now. The Honda Imps also are too often seen these days. While The Lochiel Marching Display Team have also become very pop in their show, at least theyhave not worn out their welcome quite as much!The Mexico band was a bit of Latin Schmaltz. Why not have a real military band come from there and highlight Mexico's first display at the Tattoo in style.The Mongolian Armed Forces Orchestra deserved more time for such an exotic display.Even the massed military bands drawn from several bands that are likely doomed with oncomming cuts was uninspiring. The tendency now is to play clipped versions of marches or silly arrangements of classics with odds and ends thrown in. There was a time when bands played full length or near full length marches in the Tattoo. Couldn't we have that again?I understand that continued cuts in British military music will likely limit what bands, pipes & drums will be left to play in future shows. The need to bring more civilian bands and foreign acts over seems likely to increase. Still, it seems the producers could opt for less MTV influences if that wanted too. The bands could be used for longer segments which would allow fuller music to be performed. Have only 2 or 3 overseas acts in order to give the rest a more time. Cut out the Higland Dancers and choirs for some years. They don't have to be a regular fixture do they?If the trend continues as I see it will the time will come when we see this show billed as "The Royal Edinburgh International Tattoo". The Military seems less concerned each year. With the CD sounding as it does I don't see myself picking up the DVD again this year. You the listener can of course make your own decision about the matter. I give this CD the lowest rating I have ever given a Tattoo CD in recent year because of the stylistic elements mentioned above. True, British military music is reducing each year, but the Tattoo producers could make production decisions that could honor that tradition more instead of reducing the Tattoo to a variety act more along the lines of the NS Tattoo. Too bad.