NR_Ohiobando

That's why it's so confusing that the last 4 seasons are pretty tame arrangements by Madison standards. I'm well aware of the Florida Suites and all he did with them in the 80s. He clearly has/had the knowhow to create an exciting music book, but almost everything he's done with Madison is just juxtaposed with their entire DCI history and unfortunately falls short. The rep this year is making him look better, but the edits are just killing the show. I actually loved the music for the most part in early season, but ugh... I miss that ending so much. And yeah as people say I'm sure the drill is affecting it as well. On another note I really do not like any of his concert band works, so I have a bit of a bias.

I've always likened it to a Michael Bay system. Michael Bay films keep making so much money despite being some of the worst films you'll ever see. They might be awful films, but they simply carry singular repetitive and cheaply manipulative moments that very often are unearned and forced in simply to have a known conditioned effect on the viewer. Bay knows his audience is mostly teens and tweens who are satisfied with that amount of entertainment. He doesn't make films to win oscars, or to make an emotional impact on anyone. He knows explosions, shoehorned love stories, immature humor, hypersexualization, and telling instead of showing is more manipulative for the average and below average viewers. Hence, he keeps making them and they keep making money. Likewise, DCI tends to reward "moments" and "more" instead of something that is more cohesive. If you back away from the biggest possible moment and utilize something less, you won't get points. * About to finish the end of a phrase? 8 Count major chord with a flag toss. Simply letting it settle or end with less duration isn't as cheaply manipulative/effective. * Doing a show about 1930 or is called "E=mc2"? Better stick a drill set that literally spells out 1930 or E=mc2 because that'll definitely get the point across. Anything less wouldn't be as obvious or effective. * Did we pass a rule allowing new instrumentation? You better use it, because we're going to reward you for utilizing new things regardless of the quality or synergy it presents to the show. Or how cheaply it adds to the bassline... * Do you have more money than 90% of DCI? Are you utilizing it to pay for gigantic props, stages, and mirrors that other corps cannot afford to tour with? We'll totally reward you for doing something new over the lower corps, essentially creating a subtle pay-to-score-better system. And it's not like Madison is innocent of these things either. They've been using body movement as much as anyone since 2010. They also are more guilty of thunderous goo over the past 4 years than most corps. It's also not the only reason they're stuck in 8-12th place; design wise Madison shows are always fairly inefficient. They aren't too cheap compared to other corps, but they are definitely inefficient. it's just sad to see that "More" really is a part of the scoresheet now. And explosions.

I feel like this is a large fault of having Robert W. Smith arrange for them. I love the music in their show, but it doesn't even hold a candle to what Suncoast got out of him(Smith) in the 80s. Plus, 4 years into listening to his arrangements, it clearly just doesn't fit with Madison's aura. Smith's music has always been more of a generic symphonic sound, not so much Madison. It also doesn't help that they haven't found a decent drill since 2005. Was that Rosander or Weber? I forget. The guard has been a problem for a long while, but they've had flashes that they've never capitalized on. 2010 was great! And then they never really built upon that. Edit: I'm also starting to think that Mason, while a decent designer and someone who really can take credit for getting Madison back into Finals, is past his prime and really is quite outdated.

I was wondering where the heck Madison went the last few shows in the midwest.

As an individual thing they're actually kinda cool. Unfortunately as a group ensemble it really doesn't work very well. Much like the 08=09 and 10-13 unis it just doesn't lend itself well to the visual aspect of drum corps. I think they were meant to elude back to the 83-84 uniforms.

Doh, I remember hearing about these! I think people jokingly called them hamster wheels? I actually don't recall much about the 86 show, and I don't have Fan Network, so I'll just take your word for it. Mason's connection certainly would explain a re-appearance.

Finally got a look at this show. I really do not like the backbeat in Danse Macabre. Really took me out of the experience. I also do not like some of the electronic sample choices. Thankfully the rest of the show more than makes up for it. The best show they've had for me since 08. It reminds me of the early 90s more "classical" oriented Cavalier shows. Not as in-your-face, but definitely thematically and musically similar. While I do not like the electronic samples, the moment towards the end of the show with the fast drill with sparse electronics and mallet melody was a great moment. Caught me off guard. Madison really should take note; speed does not equal success any more. This Cavaliers show is pretty slow in tempo compared to other corps, but it is incredibly refined.

Part of me really wants to hate this, but honestly I can't recall ever seeing a giant wheel in any marching environment. It certainly adds a new dynamic both for depth/height and choreography. Points for new ideas until I see it in action I guess. At least it's something they use and interact with, and not just some backdrop that sits there and does nothing. (at least that's what I'm assuming) I assume this was a planned reveal, but I'm still not sold on why they decided to wait this long.

I wouldn't mind the body movement as much if it actually matched the music. Most of the time it seems like the designers are like "Oh look, an 8 count hold in the brass, we can put something here for GE points". The choreography is just tacked on for something to do, rather than something that fits the music. I get a visual cue, but no musical synergy to go along with it, and my brain is confused. And it's not like body movement is some newfangled innovative thing either. I mean, heck, Bridgemen did the shuffle in the late 70s and Madison had a decent amount of body movement in their 83 & 84 shows (and beyond). And those were waay before anything Star did in 93. It always confuses me how much credit people give to that Star 93 show in terms of "body movement!" when drum corps were already doing stuff like that literally a decade prior. Star had like 2 sections of the entire show that lasted less than a minute, yet they get all the credit?

I felt like that was a given. I don't think anyone is going to disagree with you here. My points are mostly that DCI as a whole is rewarding cheap show design rather than a cohesive magnum opus. Pretty much every corps misuses talent in the name of cheap effects, but BD and CCrown seem to do it more than anyone else and get rewarded for it. Hence I mention them by name. I have this image in my mind of a DCI judge listening to a live orchestral performance of Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique and complaining that narration would be a more "effective" way of programming the work.

Scouts are very catchable for Blue Stars, BK & Boston. Honestly Boston is probably ahead of them right now. The GE and Visual scores are absolutely killing Madison, even with the apparent changes. Unfortunately not a new situation for this corps. Hopefully they just need time to get used to the changes before they can widen the gap and go after Boston. I'm curious what the music scores will be once R. Isoda stops appearing on the panel. He seems to value Blue Stars over Scouts in the music department more than any other judge.

As much as I appreciate the chart (and this ongoing novelty account) unfortuantely it's not very relevant in today's drum corps world. * Kids with talent are willing to travel, and are probably from areas of the country where they (or their parents) can afford to drop 2-3k on a summer of drum corps. * Corps have large normalized out-of-state camps (Bluecoats taking over Texas, Madison in Indiana) * The metro-area of the hometown is a bit misleading. Cadets have a tiny area, but recruit pretty much everywhere (even back in the 80s)

Scouts took out the closing music of their show. Probably in an effort to create contrast from how loud most of the show is, or build the concept more... I am sad and disappointed. They edited the ending last year for the worse as well :( Plus the concept is still not getting through well with the single character. They're trying more experimental approach with less gimmicks, and I applaud them for going that route, but unfortunately their choices are not efficient enough. It's very much about the music in this show, but visually the audience doesn't get many efficient cues as to "hey it's a time trip through several decades". While they enjoy the music (or at least I do), the concept gets a bit muffled. It could be worse. If this show were done by Crown/BD unfortunately we would see them resort to cheap ploys, unneccessary gimmicks only achievable by having a greater budget $$$$$$$ (buying success, or the drum corps equivalent of bad DLC), & stereotypes/caricatures including but not limited to: 1) backdrops changing throughout the show starting with drab Mad Men-esque illustartions eventually changing to generic 70s font and color marketing. 2) fedoras and briefcases in the 50s section, affros and pantomimed drug usage in the 70s section 2) disco ball light effects (using stadium lighting as the source) 3) a "peace sign" as a single drill set during the trumpet trio end section because the audience is stupid and won't "get it", or perhaps actually writing the years in the drill sets for lack of creative inspiration. 4) sound-bytes from each decade somehow-but-not-really relating to the show, 5) a slight costume change; adding color to the uniforms towards the end section via some sort of flag or garb revealed at that time a'la 1989 PR drum break Ugh. And the sad part is that would actually add GE points...

Danse Macabre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre

Same here. I actually really like the white pants and jacket in action. The problem is that visually almost everything they do is muted/inefficient and relies on body movement rather than drill phrases. People have said it's easy, but in reality it's just not getting the best out of the music in some spots. The "color explosion" is a good example of something that just "kinda works". Unfortunately this has been a problem for years; the last great visual Madison show was probably 05, and even that wasn't the greatest thing in the world. The good news is that it's still early season. They have a heck of a beast to tame, and it's certainly fix-able. I just don't know if they have the resources to do so.

I'd be confused as heck if I were Madison's music techs. For pete's sake, they have an accellerando in a complex (what sounds like 16/36) time signature going from 130 to 200bpm. I was hoping at least their content scores would reflect how nuts their music program is. The visual/GE and achv scores I can understand. If Madison's guard is still missing work in the closer it's not surprising. (plus the guard is arguably Madison's weakest link) Still, nice for Troopers.

It's not even that more minimalistic (I hate using that word) music is bad, per say. That sort of arranging/style works a lot in terms of creating memorable ideas your brain enjoys expecting and figuring out. And let's face it, nobody can claim "Another One Bites the Dust" is a bad piece of music because of how repetitive it is. Madison's show, like any show, has a bit of design issues. But it's also giving me an extremely well put together show full of longer ideas in a jazz idiom that I enjoy listening to and trying to grasp.

Now you know how dinosaurs (and 20 somethings with older taste like me) feel about the way show design has gone. Yaaaay empathy! Let's truly identify why Blue Devil's opener probably gets stuck in your head. The main theme is slow in tempo, legato, and only about 5 pitches long. The initial brass hit has a very slow *harmonic rhythm (with the exception of a few triplets). Shortly there after, very simple ostinatos with very little variation over a single measure. Your brain only has to worry about 2 or 3 actual pitches and maybe 2 rhythmic variations over the course of a few measures because all they do is repeat it for a measure before providing variation. Your brain latches on to the sequence, you figure it out, provide expectation for yourself, and are satisfied when it repeats itself. Then when it modulates a little in pitch while still retaining the same rhythm, you have the expectation of rhythm with difference of pitch. It's satisfying to hear because the change is something you subconsciously expected. Now let's focus on why Madison's show is initially difficult to grasp musically for a lot of people. It's incredibly musically complex in comparison to most shows, both in rhythmic and tonal variation. Though Jazz music is usually tuneful and the basis for tons of pop music, it's also incredibly common for jazz to have incredibly long tonal ideas to grasp as it is mostly built on chords and the variations that can come by exlploring them fully. Right off the bat, Madison's opener provides trumpet fanfare, but the ideas are a bit longer and have more notes for a brain to grasp. The ideas presented by the pitches are not initially easy to identify in terms of expectation. While it does outline a basic chord/diatonic-environment, it doesn't provide any obvious leading tones as to what it wants to do. Not much room for expectation in one's brain. It's also quite a few measures before it ends up repeating the same idea and developing it further. We get a nice little typical drum corps 16 count major chord, yada yada, and the next section provides a lot of the same ideas the Blue Devils used. The important difference being that the phrases/ideas are a bit longer to grasp, the harmonic rhythm is a bit longer, and there is a bit more variation both rhythmically and tonally. The next tune they play (I believe it's Passacaglia and Fugue) has a very straight forward chord progression, but the actual melody over top is 32 counts long and is not initially tuneful due to rhythm experimentation. Plus... it's a jazz arrangement of a J.S. Bach composition. Baroque stuff aint tuneful, but holy cow is it rhythmically and harmonically amazing. So the problems I am guessing for most people are simply that the phrases, harmonic rhythm, and rhythmic exoticism are initially hard to grasp in comparison to what they've been given the past decade or so. I also suspect once people start grasping each "tune" in Madison's show, they will begin to warm up to it. *When I say "Harmonic Rhythm" I'm talking about the rate/tempo at which specifically harmony changes.

I'm interested in what your friend finds "exciting" if he considers this music boring. This might be the most straight-forward jazz music show in the last decade DCI has had. You just don't hear these harmonies very often at the quality they're being played at nowadays; I'm fairly starved for this sort of music so I can't help but be excited about it. Time Trip is in reference to the "Pleasantville" 50s transitioning to the more experimental 70s. "Trip" is likely in reference to the psychedelic nature of the experimentation during that time. The show starts out rhythmically simple with 4s and slower tempos, builds into a faster swing section, begins introducing experimental rhythm (16/32, 16/36, 9/4, 9/2 time signatures) and finally explodes with color and difficult rhythm/time signatures to signify both musical and social experimentation during the time period. Most fans are in agreement that the guy walking around isn't working thus far, but the good news is that it's probably going to change. Personally I give them credit for truly doing something different, though I'm willing to admit it doesn't work very well. It's truly amazing how someone doing so little, juxtaposed from the rest of the corps-proper, can carry so much attention. My guess is that the single colorguard member is the one on a "trip".

This year is my first time posting on DCP during a season in a very long time. Madison's 2014 show is one of the few shows in the past 5-6 years I legitimately enjoy at this point, so I feel like following them at least a little bit would be fun this year. Regardless of how much I disagree with show design and tour design, DCI has the absolute best marching ensembles on the planet (in terms of talent). It's an absolute shame they are constantly wasted through poor design and reward, but it's a small market. There's unfortunately nowhere else to get this kind of show except DCA and Open Class. For someone who fell in love with DCI and marching shows, I'm still willing to at least check in on the shows each year so I can keep up with current trends. Plus I'm a music teacher, it's kinda part of my job now.

For what it's worth, this is one of the few shows since 2008 that I've actually enjoyed musically. A bit miffed they didn't go with Bulgarian Bulge's original 16/39, 16/36 time signatures, but 16/32 and 16/36 still kept it pretty close. It's still remarkably close to the original and that's still quite an accomplishment. Plus, holy smokes brassline. Where was this the past few seasons? And why aren't they getting rewarded for it? (Especially in content?!) It's also incredibly frustrating that no one seems to be giving them the praise they deserve for the exotic rhythmic things they're doing this year. I suppose when you're not Blue Devils, Cadets, or Crown, people just won't give you instant credit for being "innovative" (in quotation marks). I honestly can't think of a show with this much time variation in recent history. Cadets 83 comes to mind, but nothing much in the last few decades. I'm also kinda confused at the backlash about the arrangements. We hear worse from the top corps each year and they do just fine. Maybe Madison is being treated differently by expectation? I don't know. People don't seem to realize how dependent they are on a cheap 8 count fff Major Chord to the box at the end of a phrase despite it not fitting the music, or a N6 resolving downward to tonic despite it being cheap Michael Bay-esque solution to a problem that needs more finesse and creativity. For the most part, musically, this show delivers what DCI has needed for quite a while. I also tend to agree with the criticism of the single colorguard member slow-walking. But even though the slow-walking towards the later half of the show just doesn't work, I applaud them for truly doing something completely different and committing to it. It worked for SCV 06 because it wasn't invasive to the show (it occurred on the outer perimiter), and it's not quite working right now because of the duration of time. I suspect they'll figure it out and change it for the better sometime this season. From the videos I've seen, there's still a ton of guard stuff to be added. As for the whole "explosion of color" thing: It's... kinda working... but it's (let's say) muted due to inefficiency. Crossmen 2003 is a great example of a color explosion, Right now the color choices seem faded rather than dynamic and explosive. Part of the problem is the actual design of the flags and outfits. While Crossmen 03 uses larger squarish sections for their climax, Madison 14's uses shapes with far less area. Unfortunately the end result ends up being washed together in a sort of "mixing paint" effect that makes the color look grayish to me from farther away. There's not enough surface area to let the color develop, so the effect becomes muted. But again, this is one of my favorite shows anyone has done since 2008. I've generally avoided following DCI for a few years now because the rule changes aren't for me, but I guess I get to follow at least one corps this year.

I've been incredibly disinterested in drum corps for the past 5 years or so, and I've avoided this site for a very long time, but this WGI winds thing is incredibly intriguing. Has this been catching on? I love the idea of providing marching ensembles for wind players that doesn't interfere with DCI's brass-percussion exclusive groups. Was it difficult to set up your own group? How exactly did you go about forming the debut ensemble?

Madison Scouts kinda did something similar in 1997. Nothing like Cavaliers' sequential drill style which has since become the norm. http://youtu.be/z2skQbj6IHM?t=4m47s Also can we stop using DCP to post #### from other websites?

Madison drill writers really should take lessons from SCV regarding how to correctly make an well done Fleur set. The spacing in Madison Fleurs has been pretty inconsistent for a while. (Nice job including Troopers as well!)

I looked through my profile for about 10 minutes before I realized you don't know the difference between an Avatar and a Profile Picture. And for the record I have TONS of criticisms about every single corps. Cadets' aren't special. ______Back on topic...._________ Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz could use an updated look. The piece is one of the more "programmable" works in the repertoire, but no one seems to want to give it a try.