The "Next Big Thing" Artistically...

[Cardman]

Huh?

[drumcat]

Go past what's legal on the field and go into the artistic process....who could do such a thing? How?

Well, part of the problem is that this world lives within the confine of rules. For example, you don't have an Art Contest, but you do have a Photography Contest. The reason this works is that there is enough commonality within an art to be subjective and relative in competition.

Thus if you're talking about "what's legal", I might suggest that what makes this art form great is that the creativity is within the bounds of the medium itself.

The answer for the rest of your question is, IMO, dependent upon a group existing that doesn't have competitive outcome as a goal. As it stands now, I don't think there is such a group. If anything, The Cadets represent this now, but they aren't doing anything that hasn't been done in a BOA/WGI setting with all of the speech.

Maybe it's time for a concept corps. D1 Velvet Knights did comedy, and did it well. But they weren't changing the game. Star changed the game, and it wasn't all for the better. Suncoast were original, but I wouldn't suggest that suddenly everyone was following their lead.

[bawker]

Maybe it's time for a concept corps. D1 Velvet Knights did comedy, and did it well. But they weren't changing the game. Star changed the game, and it wasn't all for the better. Suncoast were original, but I wouldn't suggest that suddenly everyone was following their lead.

Only quoting this bit, a we've been back and forth enough here over the years to know we are of about the same mind on most of the other points...but I'm just playing hypotheticals here to pass the time, of course.

"Go past what's legal" doesn't mean think about woodwinds and electronics, really...that was a more of a plea to not paint this as an issue of instrumentation or whatever (which we always get bogged down in) but one of purely art (which we don't touch on a lot here.)

Re: the "concept corps": Does drum corps, with it's myriad numbers of staff and techs and creative mish-mash that goes on during the formation of a show design...does that preclude a unit from reaching singularly defined artistic vision?

Does anyone feel like they marched that kind of show? Is it even possible?

How many more "evolutions" in our little world can take place?

[alto92]

As my mind isn't as daft as those running the greatest marching ensembles in the world, I'm gonna have to leave the speculation to them, at least for tonight. It may be more useful to think of the possibilities that specific corps have the potential to put out there.

Honestly, I think the Cadets have been at the forefront of innovation for drum corps. Make no judgment of its quality or its value, except to say that their products recently have been different than everyone else out there.

I don't see BD innovating - I really am not all that convinced that they ever really did innovate in terms of show design, though I'm open to being convinced otherwise. All BD does is do what they do AMAZINGLY well.

Cavies tickle my eyes like no other corps, but I don't know if it's innovation of show design. Visual design, absolutely! I watch a Cavies show and I see math, for some reason. Maybe its just me wishing I could write for 64 horns, as opposed to some other weird number that you can't make blocks with.

While SCV, I think, has struggled slightly to regain its competitive footing since after the 2004 season, I still think the potential is there for them to be innovative. I don't see it happening too soon, though, for fear of completely alienating its fan base. I do think that this years show is conservatively innovative, if there is such a thing. I don't know that I've seen a show with the pacing that SCV's has. Even within movements, there are areas in the music that take longer than your average drum corps to develop towards some kind of resolution. That may be one of the reasons their scores have lagged. For me, I dig it, because that's how the original music is.

Phantom will continue to play beautiful music and bring the audience to tears, and that's all. Bluecoats, I think could eventually, but if I was on the board, I would continue to make the kinds of decisions that have hoisted them up over the last few years. Crown has done some interesting things with props and stuff in the past.

An interesting possibility is Academy. I don't know that they've yet established a solid identity, and I think that can work in their favor if their goal is to innovate. They have a very capable staff and kids who have the chops to pull some things off. I don't think Academy is interested in being a Colts, or a Spirit, or a Glassmen - a corps that teeters on the verge of finals year after year. I think they EXPECT to make an impact on the activity.

In short...I think Cadets is capable of doing whatever they want to right now, SCV in a year or two, and Academy in a year or three.

As far as what it is? You pose a wonderful question, bawker....

[bawker]

I think I'll stay with our current "big thing," thank you very much. :)

Okay...but, as a creative mind...can you think of something (in those instrumental/visual confines that you've created for yourself with that statement) that hasn't been done yet?

Can a drum corps take whatever point of comfortability you have with the idiom (G bugles, Bb, P/R, marching tympani, whatever reference point you think of "drum corps" as) and move creatively into a undiscovered/untapped design realm?

I don't want to really put this in terms of "adding toys", because that's leading the thought process...but what musical/visual cues from art, popular culture, etc is drum corps not using? Can those elements be used realistically/successfully?

[alto92]

Man, I'm banging my head against the wall trying to answer your questions, dude. #### you for appealing to the artists here.

Corps COULD move in a WGIlike direction, presenting abstract concepts and exploring them through tons of narration.

Relationships between numbers and philosophies could be explored.

We could politically interpret, though it would be unethical, I think.

We could have a completely serialist drum corps show. THAT could get interesting.

We could take a completely different approach to uniforms and costuming, altering the roles of the 3 sections slightly...

I don't know....

For every 5 bad ideas I have, I usually have 1 good one. My next thought should be a doozy.

Edited July 19, 2007 by alto92

[dccorpsfan]

What I really love about drum corps is it's simplicity. I suppose that's why I love the old school stuff so much. I love the fact that you can do so much, musicially, with just brass and percussion. The visual aspect of the activity...well, I guess I just don't have much of a mind for it; but I love the music. I guess it's because I'm just a fan boy. I'm not an insider like some of you guys, but I just can't think of anything. It's all so awe inspiring already.

[bawker]

#### you for appealing to the artists here.

...hell, I think we've all had enough of ZOMG CAVIEZ and cadets sux0rs this season that we can have a thread for the big kids, right? :P

Corps COULD move in a WGIlike direction, presenting abstract concepts and exploring them.

Do you have examples? (not trying to be smart, I mean just for a reference point)

Relationships between numbers and philosophies could be explored.

As in the Golden Ratio, Penrose Tiling and that sort of thing? Again, I'm not trying to be a jerk, just trying to get clarification. (One wonders about upcoming SCV shows here ....is 2008's "3hree" part of that in some small way? )

We could politically interpret, though it would be unethical, I think.

Yeah, we've seen where that thought process ...even in interpretation by others...leads us here (re: cadets and "choice". :P )

We could have a completely serialist drum corps show. THAT could get interesting.

...so here, a show based on dodecaphony (it's been a while, I work in IT now so I'm way rusty...serialist is twelve tone technique, right?). Schoenberg and Webern on the field. :)

[Hrothgar15]

Okay...but, as a creative mind...can you think of something (in those instrumental/visual confines that you've created for yourself with that statement) that hasn't been done yet?

Can a drum corps take whatever point of comfortability you have with the idiom (G bugles, Bb, P/R, marching tympani, whatever reference point you think of "drum corps" as) and move creatively into a undiscovered/untapped design realm?

I don't want to really put this in terms of "adding toys", because that's leading the thought process...but what musical/visual cues from art, popular culture, etc is drum corps not using? Can those elements be used realistically/successfully?

I can think of hundreds of thousands of pieces of music that have yet to be put on the field, if that's what you mean...

[Elmo Blatch]

At some point, I see the visual element getting more attention (not that it doesn't already get enough). While we are currently attracted to forms and their movement, I see a move toward less drill and more grouping and group settings (what do you do when we start adding more and more members on the field???).

I see fields becoming more "staged," with programs becoming more like theatre productions than drum corps or marching music ensembles. I am not giving a positive opinion of this, just stating the facts.

I see lighting to play a factor in this at some point. Different colors, effects, shades, hues, and lack of lighting at times/places would all add visual impacts.

Elmo Blatch