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FLBuzcut

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    Blue Devils in the Details 2023

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    On 7/20/2023 at 6:50 PM, resipsaloquitur said:

    Thanks @Chief Guns. You've come to the right spot. Hit me up @FLBuzcut!

    The connection between the music and the show theme are seamless if you know where to look. “The Cut-Outs” is a master class on one of if not the greatest modern artist's use of cut-outs and the use of colors during the latter part of his life when he was physically debilitated.

    Dig deeper [long read]=

    The first moment we see “The Cut-Outs” we are introduced to striking props on the field arranged in scattered formation. Inspired by Henri Matisse’s gouache cut-out masterpiece “The Sheaf” and parts of "Les Mille et Une Nuits" with its bold motifs of hearts, jasmine flowers and leaves in vibrant colors, jasmine was selected as the natural focus. The show testifies to the prolific artist's ability to create a new form of art that "paints with scissors."

    This medium allowed him to work with brilliant colors even when he was bed-bound in his last years, in spite of his deteriorating physical condition. As Matisse himself pondered, “It’s not enough to place the colours, however beautiful, one beside the other; the colours must also react on one another, otherwise you have cacophony.” Visually, the show demonstrates to the audience exactly that type of interplay between colors, and between the props and the uniforms.

    To me, the theme of the show appears to be artistic, physical, and mental rejuvenation, which are themes played out, much like Matisse' artwork, by the use of bold color palettes and exaggerated contrasts in the props and in the uniforms.

    Like 2010's Through A Glass, Darkly, along with 2012 and 2014, to me they are  spiritual predecessors to the 2023 production. the unfamiliarity of the cacophony designed, purposefully, to make the audience uncomfortable. To feel what's it's like for Matisse to suffer physical debilitation in his later artistic years.

    The opening voice over summed up for me the art-imitates-life theme of Cut Outs. I blew in tears hearing its beauty..."How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life!". This is exact, precise, concise and accurate. It comes from a musical composition called Proverb by Steve Reich. The poem itself comes from a collection of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s writing entitled Culture and Value.

    To better understand both context, it helps to refer to Wittgenstein's original German: "Schon der kleinste Gedanke genügt, um ein Leben zu erfüllen", which means word-for-word: "Even the smallest thought suffices to fill a life". Much of Wittgenstein’s work is ‘proverbial’ in tone and in its brevity. This particular text was written in 1946.

    In the same paragraph from which it was taken Wittgenstein continues, “If you want to go down deep you do not need to travel far”. The poem can be seen as explanation, or reflection, of the theme of the show itself, as well as perhaps a parallel to Matisse's (and Reich's) latter career, much of it spent exploring minimalist cut-outs.

    I think Wittgenstein and Reich are trying to get at the possible complexity of seemingly simple things, given Reich's supposed love of "simpler" musical textures, ideas, forms, etc. that blossom into more complex ideas. Though I am no philosopher and cannot say I am fully versed in Wittgenstein's philosophy, I do know that Wittgenstein, like a mathematician, constructs his philosophy on simple axioms and builds a relatively complex theory from them, just as The Blue Devils are known to do by relying on themes based on an artistic movement (Dadaism), an artist (Fellini), a work of art (Nighthawks), or a color (Tempus Blue), and from them build out an artistically and musically nuanced show.

    And Steve Reich’s Proverb is an amuse-bouche for what’s coming up with The Cut-Outs. Musically, it's an immersive and often thunderous repertoire that highlights the member's musical ability to nimbly alternate between polyrhythmic metal (TesseracT); 60s folk (Joni Mitchell); old school jazz; and, refreshingly, anime, which as someone on this forum mentioned is really old brassy, jazzy-sounding stuff that you'd likely listen to anyway. Take a listen of the entire play list here. It’s thrilling to listen to.

    1. The full transition into the Cody Fry opener, Caves, gave me goosebumps. You could hear it creeping in through percussion and then the trumpets start and then they all come in. I realize that it's a 1-minute vignette, but I didn't expect that it could make me love Cody Fry’s music that much more.

    Incidentally, the name of the song Caves is also apropos to the show because Joni Mitchell, who wrote and sang the ballad ‘Both Sides Now,’ once spent two months living in the Matala caves on the island of Crete writing songs. With details like that, while the judges won’t know, the discerning audience have come to expect.

    2. JoJo commences the upbeat movement that conveys Matisse's "rise" from his former medium to the almost exclusive use of cut-outs to "cut into colors" despite him being physically impaired. That is precisely what the JoJo anime is all about - the triumph of leveraging one's own special abilities -- or "stands" as they call it in the anime -- to overcome obstacles. Don't blink during this movement or you will miss the group of 8 guards near the right side of the field, using hand gestures alone to form the shape of the Japanese katakana letters for "Go! Go! Go!" which is the famed, titular utterance of the main character Jotaro.

    3. Joni Mitchell's ballad movement is apropo because in his frail state, Matisse was suffering through both, or two sides, of his mental state -- the optimism emerging from his new-found medium, and the desolation of him not being able to use all of his physical extremities as before. The ballad is thus an ode to the mixed emotions that he, as well as the performers and the audience, experiences as he progressively transforms his self, which stands in contrast with his art. A member of the audience sitting next to us exclaimed: "I can hear color!" And, as my grandmother used to say, "Una delle piÚ belle canzoni di te!"

    4. The choice to use poly-rhythmic metal in the form of Of Energy (Singularity) by TesseracT is unwonted, but fitting and fully intentional. "Singularity looks at the creation of something new, as the dust settles after a tumultuous event." - Amos Williams (TesseracT). The song itself questions whether (if thought of strongly enough) figments of your imagination can become real, and if thoughts are just foreshadowing what is to come, whether it be imagery or realism. Just as Matisse suffered debilitating health. He turned to new ideas. To scissors. To paper. To a new form of art. It’s really powerful.

    To me the visual portrayal of the all-rifle line guards is  an intentional, imaginative portrayal of a chaotic period in Matisse's life. Remember, the end of the second movement is simulating the French resistance to the Nazi regime during WWII, a time of chaos in which Matisse created the piece, aptly titled "Jazz", which recreates the despondency caused by several of his resistance family members captured, imprisoned, and tortured.

    Matisse, who had stayed in France, became gravely ill in 1941 and nearly died. Surgery saved his life but left him weak and with restricted mobility. It was during this period that he began to focus on a technique he called "drawing with scissors." This explains why the percussion feature is met with the backdrop of the war time speech of Charles de Gaulle who was France's head of state. The center snare is Matisse himself, doing a drill that has him spinning in and out in circular formation representing Matisse and his mind set during that period.

    5. For me, the ears started to be challenged somewhat uncomfortably at the end of the ballad, when the highly unusual combination of the TesseracT and Graettinger's "Incident in Jazz" took over with its abstractly formatted fugal melodic lines, as if we were asked to listen while shifting our brain into overdrive. Is this the intended Matisse effect? In his later years, he resorted to making cut-outs because of his debilitating physical illness that surely made him highly uncomfortable in his physical, as well as artistic, state of being. At Jazz, I was expecting them to break out into full dance hall / big band the way the the 2010 Kenton version played out to fan excitement. We shall see if that part gets reprised as the show progresses. 

    6. The closer "Grand Canyon Fanfare" by James Newton Howard, represents the full circle of Matisse's transition from his former artist self to a fully functioning form of cut-out in the form of The Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence he ultimately designed from top to bottom for the  Dominican order. It is still in use today by the nuns who have been tasked with its care. With this chapel, Matisse has completed his life's work. A most fitting denouement to the life of the larger than life artist who was Picasso's friend.

    To connect all the dots...visually, the entire field is BD's, and Matisse's canvas. The props and the performers visually recreate forms and shapes of cut-outs ranging from The Sheaf to The Snail to The Icarus. The latter cut-out is a human figure, the shape of which you can see at one point during the show in the human shape of the two guards who 'attach' themselves to the green colored prop in the front of the field to form a literal cut-out. And much more that I may have missed on my first few viewings of the show. You are absolutely right that you are bearing witness to a visually and musically nuanced, high energy performance that everyone from my parents to my nieces have giggled out loud enjoyed watching live.

    Speaking of the uniforms, typical of the corps' design motif, there is what’s on the surface, and a backstory. It is never what you see is what you get. The Cut-Outs is no exception. What’s evident is that the uniform is literally cut out of patches of those of past year’s championship shows, like sleeves (Ghostlight), gloves (Tempus Blue), top (Cabaret Voltaire). 

    The resulting collage is both visceral and striking, beautiful and intense. Poetry in motion.

    If you have the chance this Summer, it's a show that must be seen live to be appreciated.

    Very impressive, well-thought-out and expressed analysis! Thank you.

    • Like 3

    Blue Devils in the Details 2023

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    I'm not a big Blue Devils fan. I respect them as a fine organization and I appreciate how consistently good they are; I just don't usually respond to what they're doing on the field. Generally, their style is not my cup of tea. However, there have been occasions when I have REALLY liked what they're doing. I thought The Tempest show was the best thing out there that year, and while it did not get the same attention as other BD shows, I thought the Rewrite of Spring was absolutely brilliant. As usual, I was expecting to be very ho-hum about them this year and was prepared to strongly dislike the show. I've only seen them on Flo (Stanford) so i know i haven't gotten the full effect, but, God help me, I really like it...a lot. Not just technically outstanding, but a very engaging, entertaining show. I look forward to seeing them in person next week in Murfreesboro. That being said, can someone explain the connection between the music and Matisse? Is the visual theme good? Yes. Is the music good? Yes. I just don't see what they have to do with each other. 

    • Like 4

    Stanford & Son (DCI West, July 9, 2023)

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    1 minute ago, KVG_DC said:

    Academy sounds way better than at this point in what seems like a long time. Not entirely sold on the visual program. But that’s likely a product of finding sun/moon things overdone. 
     

    But this is the program that sold me a Mary Poppins show I came to love when seeing the first run and saying “a Mary Poppins show? Ugh”. Heh

    We loved that Mary Poppins show!

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