skywhopper

I'm a French horn player and I don't want to hear French horn in a drum corps show. I don't understand. I'm finding I'm not excited about DCI at all this year, and this rule change is apparently part of it. The idea of trombones on the field depresses me. Oh well.

The only reason to pay for specific performers would be if they could impact the score. But it's highly unlikely that any single performer, no matter how great, will affect scores in any substantial way. The same money would be *much* better spent on hiring more or better staff instead.

Here's an interesting article examining gender ratios in traditional orchestras with lots of numbers. Seems like 25-40% women among top orchestras is common with some outliers cited down to two women in an entire orchestra for the Vienna Philharmonic, but youth orchestras generally evenly balanced: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/features/where-are-all-the-female-musicians-8343938.html And here's a recorded Twitter-fight between a journalist who wrote about gender ratios among soloists for the Vancouver Symphony and the VSO's conductor: http://www.musicaltoronto.org/2014/03/23/breaking-news-cbc-classical-music-gender-equality-article-sparks-outrage-from-vsos-bramwell-tovey/ Here's a fascinating master's thesis about gender in band directing. The raw data starts on the 11th page where we see that in 2001 MENC recorded over 26,000 female music teachers and over 22,000 male music teachers, but at the middle- and high-school band director level, the numbers are 14653 men to 7134 women, over 2 to 1: http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6558&context=etd There's a ton more fascinating detail in that paper. Choral director ratios, orchestra director ratios, gender-instrument cultural associations... So yes, there's a large majority of men in top level director roles (the high school band director numbers skew more masculine), but it comes nowhere close to DCI's ratio. If it's not clear, I find all of this endlessly fascinating. I had a similar ratio in my CS program in the mid-90s. Interestingly, though, data I've seen recently shows that CS ratios are even more skewed now than they were when you or I were in school. But then a lot of programmers come out of business schools, so maybe MIS/CIS/BIT programs are more balanced.

I tend to think the Board of Directors is more important. There are far more people to count, for one thing. And membership is often by invitation, has far shorter terms, is not as competitive, and doesn't have specific or strict requirements in terms of experience. So how are the World Class corps doing there? Arizona Academy 2 out of 12 http://arizonaacademy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72&Itemid=78 Blue Devils 4 out of 15 http://bluedevils.org/bod/ Blue Knights 2 out of 12 http://www.bknights.org/bknights.org/about/BoardOfDirectors.asp Blue Stars 0 out of 12 http://www.bluestars.org/about/board_of_directors.php Bluecoats 3 out of 15 http://www.bluecoats.com/about_board.asp Boston Crusaders 6 out of 28 http://www.bostoncrusaders.com/about-us/board The Cadets (Youth Education in the Arts) 3 out of 15 http://yea.org/home/about Carolina Crown 0 out of 12 http://www.carolinacrown.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119&Itemid=529 Cascades (Northwest Youth Music Association) 5 out of 13 http://www.cascadesdrumcorps.org/staff/ The Cavaliers 0 or 1 out of 15 http://www.cavaliers.org/about-us/board-directors Colts 3 out of 17 http://www.colts.org/boards.asp Crossmen ?? no info found Jersey Surf ?? no info found Madison Scouts 0 out of 16 http://madisonscouts.org/Madison_Scouts/About.html Mandarins ?? no info found Oregon Crusaders 3 out of 7 http://oregoncrusaders.org/staff/ Pacific Crest 3 out of 17 http://www.pacific-crest.org/about-pacific-crest-youth-arts-organization/pcyao-board-of-directors/ Phantom Regiment 3 out of 16 http://www.regiment.org/about/board.cfm Pioneer 3 out of 6 http://www.pioneer-corps.org/about/pioneer-board.html Santa Clara Vanguard 3 out of 25 http://www.scvanguard.org/about/?tab=board Spirit of Atlanta 2 out of 5 http://spiritdrumcorps.org/faculty-staff/ Troopers 4 out of 12 http://troopersdrumcorps.org/aboutus/board

I'm was just laying out the facts. But presuming a sexism-free hiring process, then if there aren't any "special" women or minorities available to be hired, then we'll have to look deeper to find out why the ratio is so skewed. I'm okay with accepting historical biases as part of the deal when looking at senior leadership positions like this. But I also like to think that at some point we have to stop making excuses for a 46-to-1 sex ratio among corps directors. Here's a question I don't know the answer to: Where do new corps directors come from? eg, What experience does a typical first-time corps director hold? My guess is teaching, design, and leadership positions in that corps or other corps. What are the sex ratios in those positions? Where do those people come from? I'm also curious if my memory is correct about the number of corps that have turned over directors since this topic was posted. If I'm right about five directorship changes since 2010, then we have an 80/20 ratio. So that's an improvement. Notably, however, Vicki MacFarlane was the Colt Cadets director prior to moving up to the Colts, and she was replaced by a man, so the overall DCI ratio has not changed.

Out of 22 World Class corps, there is now one female director -- Vicki MacFarlane of the Colts. Of the 25 Open Class corps, there are now zero female directors. So, yeah, it's basically the same. As for turnover, I'm not sure. Glancing through the names for World Class there've been maybe five director changes since 2010? I could be wrong about that. Spirit, Phantom, Madison, Colts, Boston?

[sorry if this doesn't belong in the World Class category, but best I can tell there's no other place for it. I do think it's relevant to DCI's general health and growth prospects, which is a common topic on this forum.] DCI has finally put together a SoundSport website which is surprisingly informative: Team Listing Event Schedule FAQ Official Rulebook The rulebook is the most surprising, given that DCI doesn't post current drum corps rules online anywhere. (Although many of the rules in the SoundSport rulebook are straight copy-and-paste from the 2009 DCI rulebook (the latest I've been able to find).) Only a handful of official competitions this year, but I'm hoping given the 83 teams that are registered so far that we'll see at least a dozen at each event. All in all I'm excited about the prospects for this new type of competition and I sincerely hope it will ultimately lead to growth for the drum corps activity and the marching arts as a whole. Most curious to me is that I don't see any SoundSport teams that are directly associated with a current World Class corps (other than Glassmen Alums which I'm assuming is a separate organization). Seems like that'd be a relatively easy extension to make, particularly for corps who wish to dabble in stretching the rules.

As a horn player, I don't want to see horns on the field. And any horn player who's so concerned about their embouchure that they are afraid to play mello shouldn't be doing marching band at all. There are far worse dangers on the field to your lip muscles than a mello mouthpiece.

I'm ambivalent on the any-brass proposal. I don't really see any benefit to the rule change. Trombone players would have less of an adjustment to make to join a corps? Sousaphones are easier to carry? Obviously there are a couple of sounds trombones can make that are out of reach for other instruments. And in a world of amped brass, French horns could be used for their very unique tone color for solos or small groups. But... I don't like amped brass, so that one isn't a point in favor for me. It would make corps look more like bands, which ... I also don't see as a benefit. I think DCI's distinctiveness in the world of the marching arts is one of the things that makes it interesting and I'd expect that difference also makes it more attractive to the kids who participate. As for the EE caption, I liked that proposal back when it was first made, and I think it's worth trying. The much heralded scoring system revamp really only amounted to some name changes (and not in ways that made sense). I think the Effect captions could use some stirring up.

I think SoundSport is already a pretty balls-out plan for expanding and building the brand. Certainly it addresses the top two problems in DCI today: it's expensive to start a corps, and there aren't enough corps out there, but there's been no way to start small and be successful until now. SoundSport teams can start cheap and participate at any scale, and successful ones could potentially grow into new OC and WC corps. But, I don't think "the 7" are behind the SoundSport plan, and from what I've seen, SoundSport hasn't thus far gotten the attention and resources from DCI that it needs in order to be effective. It could be that this is just something that needs more time to percolate. Will we see some competitive SoundSport events (standalone or drum-corps-show-integrated) in 2014? I hope so.

BD has more uncommitted revenue than DCI, and thus can afford more of this kind of thing. DCI sends the vast majority of its revenue to the corps already, and certain of the corps would like DCI to send even more. So to answer your question, I guess you either need to convince BD to expand their app and media infrastructure to encompass all of DCI, or you need to convince the member corps to allow DCI to retain more of its revenue to invest in this kind of initiative.

*makes monthly visit to DCP* Wow. Hop really hates DrumLine Battle, eh?

Well, I mean, it was public domain when they arranged it too, so they almost certainly didn't pay anyone for the rights, at least in the US. I guess my question is: is an arrangement of a public domain work also public domain?

Except that Rite of Spring is public domain in the US, thus no need to get permission from Sebesky or Brenzel either then?

That's some impressive rent being earned for doing absolutely nothing. Geez.

Looks like Blu-Ray and CD will not be an option at all for international customers?

Maybe Stravinsky's heirs did not like BD's visual program this year and wouldn't approve the sync rights? Found this interesting anecdote about RoS's legal history from when Stravinsky was still around:

Not directly related to the discussion, but in re the counting, personally I found the percussion feature/counting section one of my favorite sequences of the year. Such a perfect build of rhythmic tension up to the amazing, but still tension-cranking brass run (and the awesome orbital drum drill--or hey, maybe it was a crank, too) and then the release of all that beautiful energy into the wild brass+counting+guard-blitz payoff. That's also the most cathartic part of the opera for me (the last 2-3 minutes of "Spaceship", right before Knee 5). I find it incredible how well Crown captures the essence of the music they use year in and year out.

I guess I'm confused about what you were expecting from the show, and what you mean by celebrating "everything [science] can't do". There are lots of visual touches that portray and celebrate science, from gravity to a depiction of a hydrogen atom, to various other "orbital" drill. There's the e=mc^2 set (I quibble with the lowercase 'e' myself...), the infinity sign, and the wormhole--another Einsteinian concept--at the very end. The slow-motion running movement by the guard at the end as well as in other places in the show is similar to movements from the EotB opera choreography, which depicts the time dilation effect of relativity when traveling at speeds near that of light. There's also a lot of depictions of writing on chalkboards in the visuals, also from EotB, which is of course a depiction of the process of working out the theory of relativity, and it is how a lot of math and science was done 100 years ago. And then there's the depiction of light refracting through a prism by the guard at the end of the pyramid drill. As for the music and narration, the counting is a representation of math and the exacting nature of physics. Glass's music for EotB can be seen that way as well, with its tightly defined structure and fixed pattern of development. Also Sprach Zarathustra, in addition to being the theme to 2001 A Space Odyssey, is a piece of music based on a book about how science can lead to the perfection of mankind. Thematically, I think the show celebrates science's achievements and its limits, which Einstein recognized as well. There are forces just as important and powerful as science, and the greatest of them would have to be love. The poem central to the ballad expresses love in about as pure a form as I think is possible.

I'll guess: stock music you can pay a fee for and use however you want, like stock photos.

Here's one idea.

Yep, sorry about the confusion. I should have made it clear that I was replying to your post because I agreed with your ultimate point.

Orchestras are a fine comparison but my point is that we should not look to them as a model of how to grow and thrive, because they are in worse shape in many ways than drum corps. Certainly the trend line is worse for orchestras.

Well, the fact that they've already gotten 8 or 10 groups committed to SoundSport certainly isn't a bad thing. Some of those groups will blow up before they can ever compete. Some will do a contest or two a year and never really go anywhere. Some will grow but stay in SoundSport. Others will grow and move into Open Class or DCA. I'd expect no more than one new self-sufficient DCI or DCA corps for every 10-20 SoundSport teams after five years or so, but that's not an unreasonable ratio I don't think. The challenge is getting a couple hundred SoundSport teams up and running, enough to provide good competition and DCI events and SoundSport-only shows around the country. This is a great start. The only way to replace folding corps is to start new ones. Jumping straight into Open Class is a huge undertaking. If SoundSport smooths the way, I'm all for it.

Personally I prefer the audience noise along with the music. I would love to have concert recordings of the shows pre-season, but at this point I prefer to listen to the show with the crowd.