3PoC

Some of the critiques of the Bluecoats show have gotten pretty lazy imo and so I'll come out of lurk mode to give a response. It's fine to not care for a show for any number of reasons - I have my own issues with certain bits found in many shows but I still find enjoyment from those shows because there is still good performing of drum corps taking place even in the most cheesy, choppily arranged, retreaded concept shows. "Bluecoats have done too many years of 60's shows" - Unless the idea of flowers and love is enough to make something "60s", I would guess that this show probably has the most modern music on the field this summer (apart from the original poem): "The Garden of Love" the poem by the Romantic poet William Blake - 1794 The Woods - Chick Corea - 1977 Garden of Love - JacobTV - 2007 Bump - Anna Meredith - 2019 Finding and Believing - Pat Metheny - 2009 ____45____ - Bon Iver - 2006 So Many Layers of Color Become A Deep Purple Heart [To Steve Reich] - Edda Magnason - 2022 "Too much narration" - The Bluecoats music team have been influenced over the past decade by the musical ideas of the pioneering and influential minimalist composer Steve Reich who is known for his shifting and "phasing" layers of rhythm and sound. He also pioneered the idea of what he called "speech-melody" which integrates into the composition as an element of the musical design, not as a separate layer of narration where the music is an underscore. Here is an excerpt from Musical Persona: The Use of Human Speech in the Music of Steve Reich by Rachel E. Weiss, West Virginia University: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/3679/ "From his earliest works to his most recent ones, Steve Reich has found ways to incorporate human speech into his music. The natural melodic qualities of the human voice, which he called "speech-melody," interested him from the beginning of his musical career. In his early tape pieces, Reich manipulated recordings of human voices in order to create varied melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic patterns. Later, he used such recordings for both their melodic content and subject matter in Different Trains (1988), The Cave (1993), City Life (1995), Three Tales (2002), and WTC 9/11 (2011).;Using human speech as a foundation, Reich composed works that are both musically complex and rich in meaning. Most of his speech-melody pieces focus on events of sociopolitical and historical relevance, such as the Holocaust, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, or the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001." I'm not usually a fan of narration and voice-overs myself as it often is too cheesy or literal for my tastes, but I hear the Garden of Love voice integration into the sound design as part of the music (I also think Bloo's 2015's Mr Maps was brilliant voice/music integration - which BD echoes this year with the French voice-over/battery segment which I also enjoy). Doesn't mean you have to like it, but maybe if you try listening to it as it was intended to be used, it might make it more enjoyable. After all, it's still some great drum corps being performed.

It will bloom!

Not so delusional after all!!!

I was one of them! I've thought all along they could take it.

Blooooooo!

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson “Its the not the Destination, It's the journey.” BD, Bloo, BAC, SCV, Cadets, etc... all have shows about a journey - an arc that draws you into and through an experience that leads to new places or understandings. Not that all shows need an explicit narrative journey to be engaging, but RHRN seems all destination and we don't get the satisfaction of getting drawn into any particularly special RHRN moment (ala BK 2014 That One Second) over the course of the show. I think this has made it hard for Crown to layer and deepen the show as the season progressed. They do perform the heck out of it though!

Bluecoats take silver and the Sanford!

Looking at the combined recap, it's interesting that Bluecoats percussion took an overall 1 in content.

Mainly, front ensemble integration - tympani book is amazing, mallet line has some super-exposed features requiring impeccable technique, keytar I would guess is part of the front ensemble (I think?). I also think the battery book, while not as dense as BAC, has more nuanced dynamics in their phrases and polyrhythmic layers between different voices, as well as some difficult environmental timing demand. I would also guess (not certain) that they have more body movement vocabulary while playing. BAC content is crazy difficult as well though, especially with the density and intensity of the battery, and some judges have a preference for that kind of content.

3 years HS (tri-toms/snare/snare) 3 years DCI (Front Ensemble/Snare/Snare) 4 years college (Snare) National drumline champs 1 year At least 40 percussion books written for HS bands and 10 or so full band arrangements (including a completely original wind/perc book) 5 years judging perc for HS contests (+ some occasional extra shows) At least 15 years directing various HS marching percussion programs

Yeah, the "Sending out an SOS" line.

SCV 15 keyboardist might disagree.

Hmm... Great draw for BAC, but are Cadets, BK, Crossmen, Colts, Troopers not playing this show?

I marched Pride of Cincinnati 81-83 (hence my handle 3PoC) and remember the Crusaders as one of the groups we'd aim for but never quite beat. Great to see how far they've come! Amazingly, 4 corps from our humble tier in those days are currently in the 2022 top 12! DCI Prelims 1982 - Montreal 24 Colts 67.20 25 Seattle Imperials 66.05 26 Boston Crusaders 65.30 27 Avant Guard 65.15 28 Kingsmen 64.15 29 Pride of Cincinnati 63.70 30 Saginaires 63.25 31 Rivermen 62.10 32 Guardsmen 57.75 33 Bluecoats 56.25 34 Glassmen 55.50 35 Imperial Guard 54.35 36 Southwind 53.80 37 Blue Stars 53.10

Congratulations Boston! What a great milestone for the organization!