Jump to content

Drum Corps Shows - Aesthetic Requirements as per Aristotle


Recommended Posts

Garfield, it pains me to point out that Aristotle was a Greek, and marched in the fourth century BC. The Greeks were basically G7 until about the first or second century AD, long after Aristotle aged out. They then dropped to open class for the next couple millennia. Now, the Romans were medaling until about 400AD, before going inactive due to poor management and Huns.

#### Greeks. Can't trust them. I'm paisan, and I hate the Greeks. Only the Sicilians are worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Garfield, it pains me to point out that Aristotle was a Greek, and marched in the fourth century BC. The Greeks were basically G7 until about the first or second century AD, long after Aristotle aged out. They then dropped to open class for the next couple millennia. Now, the Romans were medaling until about 400AD, before going inactive due to poor management and Huns.

This is a uniquely funny depiction of the G7.

Funny.

"...and the Huns."

Funny

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drum corps shows have have evolved to the point where the productions have themes, thematic arguments, story elements, and underlying meaning beyond simply movement and music. Gone are the days of drum corps' random jukebox spectacles which included "Yellow Rose of Texas" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the dreaded, puerile "Camptown Races" randomly stuffed into the same show. Today's drum corps shows are no longer spectacles without meaning.

In Poetics, Aristotle warns against such spectacles without meaning. Aristotle calls spectacle the "least artistic" element of tragedy, and the "least connected with the work of the poet (playwright/musician). For example: if the play has "beautiful" costumes and "bad" acting and "bad" story, there is "something wrong" with it. Even though that "beauty" may save the play it is not an essential thing.

The Bluecoats' To Search for America is an example of the height of the drum corps activity's evolution in the vein of Aristotilian completeness. The production told a coming of age story based the theme of the loss of innocence. However, Bluecoat's Tilt was an example of a spectacle without Aristotle's required plot, thought, character and diction. The visual spectacle was merely an interpretation of four pieces of modern symphonic music without underlying thematic argument. It contained only two of Aristotle's required components for aesthetic works, spectacle and melody, and as a result contained no dramatic action, and no cohesive progression of emotion. Sure, other successful drum corps shows have simply interpreted music without using character, dialogue or plot, [sCV '99] but they were successful because they used repetition of drill sets, and used the music's understructure to create an identifiable visual story. The music in Tilt, however, had no identifiable understructure, no character, no solid emotional progression, no game, and as a result failed in its dramatic action. It failed to bring viewers on a pathway of logic from beginning to end. Audiences were so thrilled with the special effect device of the pitch bend at the end of the show, that they completely forgave the show's egregious flaw-- the show had no thematic argument, no pattern, and let's face it, no meaning.

Clearly, the ancient greeks implore us to avoid frivolous spectacle and loose themes in our drum corps shows for 2015.

From what I recall, Wednesday Addams said pretty much the same about Gary's Thanksgiving pageant.
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wednesday: "Your work is puerile and under-dramatized. You lack any sense of structure, character and the Aristotelian unities."

Gary: "Young lady, I am getting just a tad tired of your attitude problem."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, the good ol' Poetics, bane of so many in various Humanities subject classes...

Interesting connection. It seems to boil down to:

Theme vs.

Story (probably including a theme as well,) vs.

Drill matched to particular music in a way pleasing to eye and ear, but with no particular theme or story (i.e., the OP's example of SCV '99.)

To me, this issue seems like one of the biggest tensions in show design today. The last option is all but dead. This is different then designers picking a theme and/or story, but not successfully communicating to the audience what they intended. And with the first two, sometimes we see great stuff, but too often it seems like the designers swallowed more then the medium of drum corps is capable of chewing. I really wish designers would keep it simple, and that's one thing I'll certainly give the Bluecoats 2014 show - Simplicity of the theme, or to put in in much more Aristotleian terms, Unity of Production. My favorite shows are the ones where it's apparent that the designers have asked Does this choice show our theme (or tell our story?) for every single musical and visual moment. If the answer is no, then why put it into your show??

It's like the saying about the genius sculptor who was asked how he created such a wonderful sculpture of an elephant...

"Simple," he replied. "I just cut away all the parts of the block of marble that aren't an elephant."

Edited by troon8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find this point very interesting! One thing I'd like to ask is, What's wrong with being a spectacle as long as your organization brings joy to audiences and amazing life experiences for your members? After their America show, which I'm sure was emotionally and creatively taxing for the staff, then what's wrong with sacrificing some of their aesthetic sensibilities for a year?

After all, the debate over whether drum corps is a sport or an art keeps coming up. Regardless of the answer, there's a blurred line there.... and sports have no concern with aesthetics.

So I'd say drum corps have a choice between spectacle and aesthetics each year, and based on our opinions and our own aesthetic values, we can decide whether we enjoy the show or not.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Didn't the Greeks invent waffles?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.' (Walt Disney)

'I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.' (John Cage - Composer)

'When I grew up, what was interesting for me was that music was color and life was gray. So music for me has always been more than entertainment' (Pete Townshend - Musician)

'I believe entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot.' (Steve Martin - Comedian)

'I work hard for the audience. It's entertainment. I don't need validation.' (Denzel Washington - Actor)

'At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.' (John Carmack - Scientist)

'The entertainment is in the presentation.' (John McTiernan - Director)

'Art is difficult. It's not entertainment.' (Anselm Keifer - Artist)

'I'm kind of big on performance in general. I like the sort of entertainment where you can go in and be fully immersed in it'. (Erin Morgenstern _ Writer)

'Maybe entertainment is not supposed to be reality.' (Victoria Jackson - Comedienne)

No point to make here, just some alternative views lest we become too intellectual! :tounge2:

Edited by freakyswotboy
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Garfield, it pains me to point out that Aristotle was a Greek, and marched in the fourth century BC. The Greeks were basically G7 until about the first or second century AD, long after Aristotle aged out. They then dropped to open class for the next couple millennia. Now, the Romans were medaling until about 400AD, before going inactive due to poor management and Huns.

This is a great post: bravo

It also features character development and a strong story (with maybe a touch of spectacle): Aristotle would've been proud

Edited by perc2100
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...