A Simple Poll

[MN DCI Fan]

I've seen the term "art" bandied about as a descriptor for drum corps fairly frequently on these boards. This is always interesting to me in the context of a competitive, yet subjectively evaluated activity.

Do you agree? Is drum corps "art"?

[bawker]

Main Entry: art

Pronunciation: \ärt\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin art-, ars — more at arm

Date: 13th century

1: skill acquired by experience, study, or observation <the art of making friends>

2 a: a branch of learning: (1): one of the humanities (2)plural : liberal arts barchaic : learning, scholarship

3: an occupation requiring knowledge or skill <the art of organ building>

4 a: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; also : works so produced b (1): fine arts (2): one of the fine arts (3): a graphic art

5 aarchaic : a skillful plan b: the quality or state of being artful

6: decorative or illustrative elements in printed matter.

In the definition above, it qualifies under #4 .

In an original sense . . .as in not taking pieces of other popular culture to make a show . . .you could concieveably say that only all-original written brass/drill (SCV 2006, Cavaliers 2002, etc) qualifies as a true piece of original art unique to the medium, and that every other show that borrows from other pieces of music / show ideas falls into the realm of pastiche.

[ouooga]

It absolutely is an art.

But to be clear, art is one of many things that drum corps is.

[MagicBobert]

Drum corps is drum corps. No need to call it something else.

[bawker]

Drum corps is drum corps. No need to call it something else.

. . .that works too.

[mixolydian]

I would say its an art.

[Tez]

I once had a great music history professor that said, if someone creates something and calls it art... it's art. If I crumpled up a piece of paper in a certain way and called it art... it would be art. If the drum corps show designers and performers call what they do art... it is art.

Have you seen some of the stuff in modern art galleries?

[MN DCI Fan]

Okay, for another twist, perhaps our "legacy fans" can weigh in on this. And for the record, and in the interest of full disclosure, I do consider drum corps to be a type of athletic, musical performance art. When I look at a show like Cavies 2002 or Star 1993, that doesn't seem like much of a stretch. But what about the shows of the 70s and prior? Were they, at the time, considered art? Are they now? Or were they just "marching around a football field playing Stars and Stripes Forever?"

[kusankusho]

And further, to exptrapolate from various posts in various threads, if drum corps is art, and band is drum corps, is the band of Her Majesty's Grenadier Guards "art"?

I like Magic Bobert's answer myself.

[PWNED]

Sport.

PWNED