MarchMello10

Prediction no one asked for but it’ll be cool to have down in writing if they’re somehow correct 1. Blue Devils 99.025 2. Boston Crusaders 97.975 3. Bluecoats 97.633 4. Carolina Crown 97.500 5. Cadets 95.000 6. Mandarins 94.765 7. Phantom Regiment 94.100 8. Cavaliers 92.350 9. Colts 90.050 10. Troopers/Blue Stars Tie 88.950 12. Blue Knights 87.250 GE: Bluecoats Brass: Crown Percussion: Cavaliers Visual: Blue Devils Guard: Boston Crusaders

Sorry for potentially derailing into BD talk here, but it’s been a good discussion

A great analysis, it’s interesting the back and forth relationship this community has with tradition in some contexts, tradition is shunned in favor of being new and unique, but in other adjacent contexts, that tradition is latched into and revered As for BD, I feel like I usually learn something deeper about the source material from the nuances of the show, granted the designer conversations that they post are essentially must watches unles you’re very intimately familiar with said material Last year I was singing a different tune, I rolled my eyes at the “color blue” show, because for me, that pulled away too far into being so general that just about anything could be conceived to be within it. I much prefer this year’s design

With all due respect 23- The Life of Visual Artist Matisse 22- History of the Color Blue 19- The Ghostlight, Theatre 18- The Dreams and Nighthawks Painting 17- The Conceot of Change 16- The Tempest 15- Story Books and Fairy Tales 14- Director Fellini 13- The Rite of Spring 12- The Dada Movement The major similarity in what BD does each season comes down mainly to doing shows generally about a specific artistic figure, a specific work of art, or a specific genre of art, which I think is a very winning formula, and every year feels unique in its approach with a lot of nuance and subtlety in the way its approached, this season in particular being a particularly high showing. we can discuss musical and structural tropes that BD uses that contributes to that “sameness” however, because those are certainly there

Lawn mower sounds

I think they’re one of 4 in the running, but there seems to have been a considerable uptick by BK and Crossmen as of late. Even PC seems to have really been ousted from contention as it seems SOA might be likely to take 15th.

I’m a spirit alum and that ain’t happenin

TALK SLOWER

The characters running around eachother in circles 15 times really doesn’t add much clarity as to what they’re trying to convey in that moment

Late to the party but as a spirit alum I’m very proud of this corps and this design team. Closer was incredible

Very valid and fair, it’s just that the conversation took on a different light. I initially responded to you because you mentioned that you shouldn’t have to do research to understand the deep theme of a show, but I struggle to understand what type of depth you hope to achieve without some type of prior context? in a vacuum, without any research nessesary, drum corps can only convey simple or abstract concepts, the research element is practically required to gain a deeper meaning, in most cases that don’t involve a subject that is shared human experience such as loss, grief, love, etc

But does it require it? Last i checked you could just as easily enjoy the music and movement without context, no?

I disagree, on the surface level, “the cut-outs” can be understood as a show about cut out shapes. It doesn’t require the audience to understand the deeper context behind it unless they choose to seek it. The only concession I’ll make to this is the voiceover in the percussion feature, because yes that does lack context if you’re going in blind.

I like this explaination. You notice a lot of ensemble moves in giant long curves and those long curves just sort of keep moving until eventually the musical phrase reaches its crescendo and form just sortof stops in a big long curve or big long jagged line. The exception to this being the moment with the sword form which is only really a counter example because the sword form is recognizable and impactful

Don’t be so dismissive, if you don’t care to do research then clearly the theme bears no meaning to you anyway, so just enjoy the horns and drums and flags

So it IS Sacktig? That’s a big surprise considering the result

Respectfully, I disagree that the show feels cohesive, I think it’s the opposite actually. The 6 movements of the show feel so segmented that they could almost have been from different shows. There are also a lot of very extended drum moments that I personally feel takes away from any sense of pacing, and moments like the part 2 brass feature drone on without much musical momentum. I think the most cadets feeling parts of this show is the opening brass hit and the random “cadets mode” 200bpm section (which is awesome!) either way, this isn’t to detract from your opinion, just interesting that we see it in two very different ways

One hypothesis is slotting a corps’ caption scores to the general area the corps as a whole is placing. one counterexample is the Cavaliers’ percussion making a run for the Sanford as the corps fights for 8th. but for the most part, I don’t believe judges are comfortable giving a GE score much higher than the corps is placing example: Academy 2016, a massively fan-adored show scored 10th in GE while the corps placed 11th. This GE score is beneath Phantom’s “Voice of Promise” production.

GE1- BD GE2- Crown [GE]- BD VisP- BD VisP- BD Guard- Boston [Vis]- BD Brass- Crown MusA- Crown Perc- BD [Music]- BD

I mostly want to know what they could conceivably do to improve the GE atleast to where it’s within reach of the top 4 groups, this show is electric. The only things I can think of are either a night’s panel not receiving the design well or, what I fear may be the more likely outcome, hesitation to give a top tier GE score to a corps with a 5th place ceiling

Brass scores are another example of how different a panel can interpret corps boston brass went from beating crown recently, to they’re now .6 behind them, and trailing in content a strange and sudden dip in continuity considering the tuning issues have been present all season, and their timing has only gotten better

Phantom getting robbed in GE, it’s not the placements for me it’s the gaps between them and crown/BD/Boston. The content scores are too low imo

Thanks! That’s good to know. I wish it were a bit more accessible to find that sort of stuff to educate on these programs without doing a lot of digging

They’re really committing to this repeated rhythmic vocal sample thing pretty hard. It’s no doubt bold and self-aware at this point, and without complimenting or criticizing it, I’d ask what exactly is the relevance/goal of these repeated reminders of the verses of the poem?

Did they take out some of those mello licks right before the hit?