percussion judges in drill

[DAvery]

At it's roots, drum corps is a timing exercise where aleatoric writing is hard to justify.

And this is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Is drum corps a "timing exercise" or an art form? "Harder, faster, louder" does not automatically mean it's music.

[mingusmonk]

which is why i said front sideline /perimeter

I teach percussion that competes in Lucas Oil. Reading clarity of battery from the front sideline when they are anywhere behind the front hash is an exercise in futility. How much time does the battery spend in front of that hash? Not much.

Brass drill moves them around quite a bit during the course of a show. So brass judge can float around the 30 to 40 yard line and they will get a lot of close reads from all of the sections. Not the case with percussion.

Edited July 25, 2016 by mingusmonk

[garfield]

Reading the FB posts about this particular judge makes it clear that he's both an anomaly among the judging ranks and he's completely aware of what he's doing. It sounds like he "...gets right in the middle..." of the line and is not afraid of being hurt.

Now, that doesn't address the damage he might do to an embouchure if he collides with a horn player, and maybe DCI's judging leadership needs to tell him to stay more out of the way. But it's obvious that we don't have to worry about him being careless and that his "near misses" were mostly nothing more than that.

[garfield]

And this is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Is drum corps a "timing exercise" or an art form? "Harder, faster, louder" does not automatically mean it's music.

Well of course it's music. Maybe it's not concert, symphonia, classical, conservatory-class music but it's definitely music. Would one use DC-10 sticks (or similar trees) on a concert snare; in this idiom some of the more arcane music theories are just so much navel-gazing. This is marching band and there are professional concert/wind ensembles to teach those techniques.

[garfield]

I teach percussion that competes in Lucas Oil. Reading clarity of battery from the front sideline when they are anywhere behind the front hash is an exercise in futility. How much time does the battery spend in front of that hash? Not much.

Brass drill moves them around quite a bit during the course of a show. So brass judge can float around the 30 to 40 yard line and they will get a lot of close reads from all of the sections. Not the case with percussion.

And I would say the same is mostly true of open-air stadiums as well, so long as pits are amplified. Only in the cases where the judge is on the field-side of the speakers, the horns are scattered and/or playing mf or below, and the battery is playing at mf or above can one discern the battery music from the sidelines, let alone the box.

Edited July 25, 2016 by garfield

[DAvery]

Is there a "true" rubato? Regardless, I contend that rubato writing definitely is used in arranging. Delayed 5's and 7's have become somewhat commonplace and, while I grant that most battery techs may not instruct the definition of rubato, they certainly teach the idea of untying from the met and letting it flow. The real mastery comes from when you can get a whole line to be so in-tune with each other that they can play rubato together.

Rubato (a relaxation of strict time) almost never occurs purposely in drum corps. And to be sure, it would be difficult because of the continued technical rhythmic demand of what happens on the field. We have become a slave to Dr Beat. And simply writing across the metric unit is not rubato. I contend the required rhythmic complexity in drum corps does not allow for a true relaxation of time. And as such, while we have superior "chops", sometimes it comes at the expense of musicianship.

Edited July 25, 2016 by DAvery

[c mor]

Look up videos for the Texas band competition called "The Lone Star Classic"

All the drum lines perform a preliminary run of the show in stand still , or some do somewhat of an indoor format. The judge can easily access all the sections. They award best snare, tenor, bass, and front ensemble sections.

This would be more like a judged "Lot" performance in dci, however, currently the lot action is more informal. It is a "show" for an audience, but not for a judged number.

It certainly would allow a judge to understand fully the lines' books, differences in technique, all the musicianship nuances etc. without trying to find the battery in the drill. I realize it takes the physical marching demand out of the equation, but some form of this format just might be a tolerable compromise.

Visual, GE, Ensemble, adjudication is done during the field show, field/execution during the preliminary.

Just a possibility for consideration.

Of course I have technical challenges and can't seem to post a link for an example....

Edited July 25, 2016 by c mor

[brichtimp]

Rubato (a relaxation of strict time) almost never occurs purposely in drum corps. And to be sure, it would be difficult because of the continued technical rhythmic demand of what happens on the field. We have become a slave to Dr Beat. And simply writing across the metric unit is not rubato. I contend the required rhythmic complexity in drum corps does not allow for a true relaxation of time. And as such, while we have superior "chops", sometimes it comes at the expense of musicianship.

Usually, Rubato shows up in ballads where the battery is silent and front ensemble mallets are performing more akin to a concert section. Seems to me that the challenge for DCI percussion writing is to construct a balanced book that can check the technical achievement boxes while fitting with the brass arrangements. When Colin McNutt teaches his guys to perform as world class athletes below the waist and as world class musicians above the waist, I don't read that as max chops 'because we can.' Of course, acoustically poor arenas defeat (to an extent) the ability of anyone to discern and enjoy the technically subtle super chops on display at the sharp end of the DCI percussion spear.

Edited July 25, 2016 by brichtimp

[mingusmonk]

Rubato (a relaxation of strict time) almost never occurs purposely in drum corps. And to be sure, it would be difficult because of the continued technical rhythmic demand of what happens on the field. We have become a slave to Dr Beat. And simply writing across the metric unit is not rubato. I contend the required rhythmic complexity in drum corps does not allow for a true relaxation of time. And as such, while we have superior "chops", sometimes it comes at the expense of musicianship.

I don't necessarily disagree with this. (Even though it is not really relevant to the OP). As you mentioned before, nobody plays real jazz swing anymore as a byproduct of this issue. As Doug Thrower frequently says ... " 'drum corps jazz' is an oxymoron."

Edited July 25, 2016 by mingusmonk

[garfield]

Rubato (a relaxation of strict time) almost never occurs purposely in drum corps. And to be sure, it would be difficult because of the continued technical rhythmic demand of what happens on the field. We have become a slave to Dr Beat. And simply writing across the metric unit is not rubato. I contend the required rhythmic complexity in drum corps does not allow for a true relaxation of time. And as such, while we have superior "chops", sometimes it comes at the expense of musicianship.

Only if you define musicianship as being able to play rubato, which I don't. Drummers can play all the rubato style they care but, if the horns and guard get lost in the lack of tempo, the drumline will get killed in execution score.

The rest of your comment, including being a slave to Dr. Beat, is true, IMO. But I think it has more to do with meter and tempo than it does to "slaving" to the met.

I think I could make a good case that time-slicing from the front of the field to the back in order to play well to the box is a form of rubato, but I won't bore.