Some thoughts on 2017

[Bobby L. Collins]

23 hours ago, Rocketman said:

Umm, that's not really what I was referring to. My issue is, the percussion writing, a lot of the time, does a disservice to the brass arranging. It is almost as if someone told the percussion (battery) arranger, 'you have this many counts of music to write, GO!' and just stuck it with the brass charts. (slight exaggeration) 

An example of this that immediately comes to mind is, early in the season the percussion parts for Regiment during the beginning of the opener. The brass line was playing a rather soft melodic section while the drummers were jamming away, a total distraction.

Exactly.  It's one thing to play Ditty and F Tuning for a warm-up.  But it's quite another for every corps to play stuff that sounds very much like that for 12 minutes.

I'm all for cool riffs, but not when those "cool riffs" sound like Jiffy Pop in the middle of a ballad.

[Schnitzel]

As an aside, one of the primary reasons for seeking to remove the Field Percussion from the performance area was to lessen the tendencies to overwrite the ensemble.  So many things are written for the judge on the field that don't serve the total musical score very well.  Tradition says it's a negative when a judge has access to the battery and they're not playing something - maybe because it's so difficult to actually physically sample a battery with anything approaching a position of focus.  Research (which has been posted on DCP) shows that, at best, about 24% of a percussion book is actually sampled at a DCI show.  Obviously, that's not an acceptable standard of assessment, not to mention a ranking.

DCA made the change two seasons ago, and the results have been excellent.

[Rocketman]

21 hours ago, Bobby L. Collins said:

Exactly.  It's one thing to play Ditty and F Tuning for a warm-up.  But it's quite another for every corps to play stuff that sounds very much like that for 12 minutes.

I'm all for cool riffs, but not when those "cool riffs" sound like Jiffy Pop in the middle of a ballad.

I'm not sure, but, I think we agree?

[jwillis35]

On 8/16/2017 at 3:28 PM, Hrothgar15 said:

I don't really know what changed, and I've always found post-2000 drum corps mostly incredible (even if there's stuff I've hated), but four days after finals I can safely say 2017 has been my favorite year in a while from an entertainment standpoint. Some observations:

• Designs and concepts have been largely mature, and pieced together maturely, rather than insipidly as has happened in the past. Gone are the preachy, one-dimensional, kindergartener-esque themes I remember from some shows not too long ago. Enigma, Wicked Games, It Is and Ouroborous were all refined themes with integrity of meaning that could stand up to artistic scrutiny. There is even flexibility for essentially "themeless" drum corps shows like Jagged Line, diversity that should be more than welcome again. The closest to missing the mark were Phantom Regiment (and only because of the repeated voiceover and its implementation) and perhaps Blue Stars, in its cliche and limited depth.
• Musical design is more mature as well, flows much better and seems much more listenable. Source music across the board was the most substantial as I can remember it being recently, and same goes with the integrity of the arrangements. Corps are doing a much better job presenting music, rather than "using" it to support a theme, and there is more seamlessness and less chop-and-bop as a result. One corps even played a good minute or two of music with almost identical arrangements as their 1983 and 1990 shows, which is the true test. I'm not really sure what changed, since arrangers remain mostly the same, but I do feel the pendulum has swung back in the right direction.

Read this a while back but have been busy with camp and beginning school year stuff. But I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your post. I agree with most of your points.  

As for the first point above, I agree that we are seeing some strong designs and concepts. I have never been one to suggest what corps should do. We need all kinds of designs in this activity to make it unique and diverse. We just need them to work, make sense, and to allow the audience to enjoy the show even if they do not get all the fine details.  A concept show, or theme-less show, such as Bluecoats "Jagged Line" is a wonderful way to involve the audience without getting too deep. Bloo just made the show fun. The Metamorph show by BD was such a thrill, and the Ouroborous show by SCV is classic yet modern, complex yet entertaining. But to me, even a more literal interpretation of a stage production, like Cadets' version of MASS, was really entertaining and filled with color and great staging. They may have went a little too far with the literal interpretation, but most of that show worked very well. The Cavaliers interesting, and even comical at times, play on men was a fun ride into a very futuristic show with one of the most odd mashups you will ever hear musically in the closer. 

As for point 2, I also agree. Music construction has come around to being a little more like it was in the 80s. BD's brass book was not even close to some of the "chop 'n' bop" books many accused them of having in the 90s and early 2000s. Bluecoats have been groovin' and swingin' like they were the Madison Scouts of the 80s and 90s. In fact the only music books that somewhat disappointed me were Cavaliers and Blue Knights. I liked Cavaliers show, but most of the brass book felt like small snippets of effects and choppy hits.  Blue Knights just needed to drive home a few more themes.  The Crossmen had one of my favorite horn books of the summer. Great writing. 

Edited August 26, 2017 by jwillis35