The tyranny and folly of abstraction - an open letter to the Cadets de

[Jeff Ream]

so, how does the OP really feel?

[jjeffeory]

1. He's clearly unhappy with the current state of drum corps so I just used the 80s as an example. Feel free to insert his favorite era into my post instead of the 80s.

2. I'm not sure how stating a fact about some current event has anything to do with falling behind the times in terms of evolving show design. False equivalence much? I think you misinterpreted my message on the "behind the times" comment.

3. I did not say anything about WGI other than the fact that he seems to be unfairly blaming WGI for the evolution of modern DCI which he happens to hate win a burning passion.

I respect your opinions on here and I hope you know that, but I do have a question.

Why do you feel that he is "unfairly blaming" WGI for the evolution of modern DCI?

I ask only because there are many who DO see the evolution of modern DCI stemming from WGI influences, so I wouldn't go so far as characterize it as "unfairly blaming". There has been conversation and debate here that leads to the possibility that that assertion has merit. We've all talked about it a little bit. I don't recall seeing your position on this topic.

I know that you enjoy certain shows and claim to enjoy certain corps, and I see that your enjoyment skews to very current shows, but it's ok to recognize something when it happens and talk about it in my book. I don't think we should just deny calling a spade a spade about this.

Mostly I'm trying to be in learning mode, but I was curious.

Edited November 19, 2014 by jjeffeory

[2000Cadet]

This show is gonna SUCK!

[corpsband]

This show is gonna SUCK!

Lol :-)

I think anytime the Cadets pick great music, chances are the show will be great. The caveat -- a bad visual idea shoved into the program (witness the cubes). The X/10 concept is vague enough that it probably won't stand in the way of the show.

[Spartans87]

It is his first post - trolling for just what he is getting: People debating his ridiculous nonsense here on DCP. And some are actually bordering on making his case for him.

Pay no attention folks. He is probably part of the Facebook group "DCI Sucks" or whatever those fools call it. Just my opinion of course...

[Tim K]

I respect your opinions on here and I hope you know that, but I do have a question.

Why do you feel that he is "unfairly blaming" WGI for the evolution of modern DCI?

I ask only because there are many who DO see the evolution of modern DCI stemming from WGI influences, so I wouldn't go so far as characterize it as "unfairly blaming". There has been conversation and debate here that leads to the possibility that that assertion has merit. We've all talked about it a little bit. I don't recall seeing your position on this topic.

I know that you enjoy certain shows and claim to enjoy certain corps, and I see that your enjoyment skews to very current shows, but it's ok to recognize something when it happens and talk about it in my book. I don't think we should just deny calling a spade a spade about this.

Mostly I'm trying to be in learning mode, but I was curious.

I've heard the pros and con debates regarding WGI influence on DCI. In the early years the complaint was the opposite, then WGI developed it's own identity, now it's viewed at least by some as more dominant.

I am going to use one designer as an example of my theory on the matter: Ed Devlin. I've seen what he has done with Crossmen, I've also seen his color guard work with Blessed Sacrament, and the amazing job he has done with King Philip High School's band, as much as I hate to admit it since KP was the Thanksgiving football rival of my hometown. His work is very distinct with each organization, but there are things that pop out that are clearly Ed Devlin trademarks.

So what's my theory? There are a limited number of top designers and they work with drum corps in the spring and summer, bands in late summer and fall, and color guards or percussion ensembles in winter. Some may do the same thing in all three areas, most do not, but we do see their trademarks. So I do not see a huge WGI influence or BOA influence for that matter, as much as many of the same people design for DCI, WGI, and BOA.

[SFZFAN]

"The tyranny and folly of abstraction - an open letter to the Cadets design team"

Bravo on a brilliant choice of music for next year in Shostakovich’s 10^th symphony! Truly inspiring choice. With the right choice of concept, this could be a championship caliber program. And bravo for (I think) trying to tell the story without spelling it out through clumsy narration.

I have serious reservations about the choice of concept, and the tyrannical reign of WGI "inspired" abstractions and design in recent years of DCI.

In sum - The concept should arise from the music if the show will work for judges and audiences.

As described on the YEA website, the initial concept for this music is the number 10, or X. So the Cadets are considering sections in multiples of 10, and other permutations of the number as the core of the show concept.

When I read the Cadets' choice of music, I cheered. But when I read the concept, I cringed.

The number of a symphony, or most any piece of classical music, is arbitrary, just like an opus number, and has no connection with the music at all. It follows that this "X" show concept itself is arbitrary.

I’ve not yet heard of a more abstract, more arbitrary, and less connected to the music show concept since I began following DCI in the early 80s.

Imagine making the theme of a show featuring Copland’s 3rd symphony the number three. Nine snares, three quads, (or maybe quads with one drum removed), 27 guard members, and drill written featuring blocks of three, with the field divided into thirds, and a double Z-pull, I mean, 3-pull, resolving into the numbers 1, 2, and 3 to correspond to the rising opening G - C - G phrase of the "Fanfare for the Common Man" theme in movement 4. etc. Or Appalachian Spring’s show concept being based on whatever the heck the opus number is.

I thought spelling it out with narration could be bad. But now we're counting it out for the audience?

“Ten” is a meaningless number: meaningless to Shostakovich, meaningless in terms of the music, and will be meaningless to the audience and the judges. Thinking of sections of the corps in multiples of ten, for example, is a gesture reaching for a concept, but not itself a concept. It’s confusing actually. “10” isn’t a story or a concept. It’s a Bo Derek movie and Pearl Jam album and a volume setting on a guitar amp that’s one notch too low for Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel.

Why such a desperate reach into meaningless abstraction?

The alternative: The music itself is so profoundly full of narrative, emotion, and meaning, why muddle it with abstraction and arbitrary "concepts"?

In fact, choosing "X" to be the initial idea of what this show is "about" might be unwittingly revelatory of why the concept as such cannot succeed and become art, like all of the most successful Cadets shows actually did become by season's end. "X" is not a Roman numeral. It's an empty variable, and it will make Shostakovich's heart-wrenchingly, furious music become all sound and fury, but ultimately signifying nothing.

Instead of "X", tell a story.

Tell a story, like Shostakovich was doing with his symphony. Do it with the emotion of Dudamel and the SBYO, since they are mentioned on your website. They’re not playing “ten”, but they’re channeling the oppression, fury, fear, tragedy, and courage of Shostakovich, who was telling the story of the Soviet people living (and millions dying, and many millions more, freezing and starving in the Gulag) under Stalin’s totalitarian rule.

Ultimately, Shostakovich is a human being and artist trying to tell the truth in a regime full of lies, terror, fear, and brutal oppression.

Want inspiration for this show? Read “The Gulag Archipelago”. Read Shostakovich’s biographies. Read Vaclav Havel. There’s SO much emotional and historical content to work into a stunningly true and innovative show concept. Sure, abstraction is possible to tell this story - visual forms are most always abstractions - but like George Zingali was able to accomplish, that abstraction reveals narrative.

What’s the true show concept that this music is begging to have explored by The Cadets?

I think of drab grey oppressive Soviet ‘colors’ vs. bright individualistic colors of expressive freedom. I think of harsh shapes and angles vs. freeform curvilinear shapes. I think of the battery as a military force (like in his Leningrad symphony, with the incessant snare representing the Nazi army besieging the city), and the many solo voices in the symphonies versus the merciless and faceless collective state.

I think of ONE versus the faceless COLLECTIVE. Solo versus oppressive tutti. That one versus many motif is found throughout Shostakovich’s music, and is all over the 10^th symphony. It is, in fact, the story of the man’s life, the life of an artistic genius, versus the arbitrary whims of Stalin and his totalitarian state.

In the symphony, I hear and imagine:

1. individual versus the collective

2. freedom versus totalitarianism

3. truth versus distortion

4. emotion versus oppression

5. expression versus abstraction

These are all abstract concepts that make little sense if ungrounded in the emotion of the music, but when a drill, or choreography, is written to narrate these oppositions, as in a ballet, great art is created.

The narrative in this symphony is also absolutely relevant today, and would resonate with the judges, and any audience – without having to spell it out for everyone through narration. If Shostakovich did what he did without narration, the Cadets can too.

Right now, people in Ukraine, the Baltic States, and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, are protesting against and fighting the very real forces that threaten their precarious and extremely hard-won freedom. The Russian military continues to invade Ukraine. Russians themselves are protesting the autocratic state, and journalists are facing prison, and even assassination, for criticizing the regime. Thousands have died this year in Ukraine defending themselves against the same brutal oppression that people in the Soviet Bloc suffered from during Shostakovich’s lifetime.

The summer of 2014, the Cadets tried to communicate with freedom means through the voice of Lincoln and other leaders. It was "American Politics" on parade.

If you do it right, next year’s show can much more powerfully, and artistically, communicate what freedom is, and what threatens freedom, than any propaganda-tainted wartime composition Copland wrote.

Shostakovich was the opposite of propaganda. Shostakovich communicated “The Power of the Powerless” (to quote Vaclav Havel’s famous essay) so much more powerfully than anyone I can think of.

What did Havel advocate as an antidote to oppression? "Living in Truth"

How amazing this show concept and show can be if you stay true to Shostakovich’s music.

Why slather meaningless WGI abstraction onto Shostakovich’s genius? Why not tell the story Shostakovich was telling with his music in a way no one has done before?

When concept trumps narrative, when abstraction trumps emotion, you lose an audience, you eviscerate a masterpiece in the process, and you doom a show to suffer from an inarticulate concept that ultimately makes no sense, and ultimately, will suffer on the scoring sheets no matter how well executed.

Trust the music. Trust the story Shostakovich tells.

Drum corps is about music. Visuals must draw inspiration and communicate the meaning of the music at all times, rather than an abstraction like "X" grafted onto the music.

Tell a story and give visual voice to the music, and this could be a show for the ages.

HNSAB.

Holy Carpal Tunnel Batman. Didn't read it....

[xandandl]

i am re-wording what I wrote and will resubmit later.

Edited November 19, 2014 by xandandl

[CCorps]

I'm having trouble seeing where the OP said anything about 1980s drum corps. As for his being at risk of falling behind the times, how can one get more current than this that he wrote: "Right now, people in Ukraine, the Baltic States, and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, are protesting against and fighting the very real forces that threaten their precarious and extremely hard-won freedom." Is WGI design somehow more timely than current world events?

(This is not to say that his concept would work, just that being stuck in the past doesn't seem to be one of its flaws.)

No he doesn't. He says he's been a fan of DCI since the early 1980s, and that Cadets' show description (so far as it exists now, anyway) is the most abstract he's seen in all that time.

He may be right, he may be wrong, but he's not making a comparison of Cadets 2015 theme to anything in the 1980s. He doesn't describe 1980s shows at all.

And we are both smart enough to read between the lines; he didn't mention it just because.

[brichtimp]

Unlike the OP, I would avoid over-analyzing the 2015 Cadets until the show actually gets fro concept to the field. I dig the skills of Bocook and Sacktig for sure. I also think the dismissive political propaganda analysis of the 2014 show is kinda strange.....it was actually apolitical and designed to remind us of specific situations where we'll chosen words from a strong leader inspired our citizenry. That's not to say that the stage wasn't a flawed decision, but the arrangements and integration with the drill were kick-butt.....looking forward to some "Shosty" for 2015.