The drum corps activity, some controversy and new designs...

[SkyRyder_FMM]

And let's take this idea one step farther. Instead of five songs that each end in precicely the same set, how about 8 or 9, with only 5 being performed each night. Now your show could be DRASTICALLY different from night to night.

And imagine the challenge on the judges esp during finals night when they have to fairly place THAT NIGHT'S performance !!!

I love it! That would certainly keep things interesting night to night.

[troon8]

Well, controversial aesthetic has existed. I found the 02 Cadets to be rather distasteful in how the ending was changed to the "new Iwo Jima", and all the firefighting trucks that were brought in. In a time of needed solidarity, it seemed to me to be a ploy for some points on finals night. I'm sure the intentions were good, but reenacting an image from a tragedy is controversial on its own.

Another controversial show to me was the 03 Spirit show, where they pulled out the huge Jim Ott banner on Semifinals night, but that doesn't really apply to current events. It was the same theme though; at the last minute, tug at heartstrings for a last minute GE bump.

Anyhow, I actually can't find any part of any show that was more politically poignant than 02 Cadets.

Yeah, I did think about that one. Can't argue that Cadets '02 was controversial. Didn't feel like dragging out a five year old dead horse, but you've certainly got a good point :) What I find really intresting about that one was that it was also a little bit of Item B as well, at least with things like the platforms with the dancing swing girls, pulling the whole corps to the front to jam out for "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," some of the things they were doing with guard (guys as soldiers w/rifles in uniforms, gals as...well, gals.) Granted, none of those were exceptionally revolutionary things, but it was all unsual enough that it did stand out. I kind of like the way danielray is thinking, if not with some of the specifics. Corps for the most part seem to be sticking with what they already know works visually. I do wonder just what would happen if a top corps had a brainstorming session with some people (say, a few dancers of various genres, an architect, a visual artist or two, maybe a theatre set designer. Not because you're going to neccesarily have architecture or a theatre set on the field, but I'm just thinking of proffesions that think creativley when it comes to space.) who knew only the guidlines for the sport (the absolutes, like you can only have 150 people max, they're going to be carrying these X instruments, you've got XX minutes, etc.) but had never seen a show before.

I think it'd take another ridiculous larger-than-life VK show to really break out things out of the box once more. Maybe in a few years...?

Just my long-winded two cents!

[rosski47]

Why are all members on the field all the time and for the whole time? Sometimes less is more? Does the entire corps have to be on the field in order to start the show?

What if the first piece started with just one guy, and the others came and joined one by one? or ... what if they left that way?

I've been thinking about something like that for quite some time now.

I think it would be neat for Copland's Shaker Dance to start out with just a trumpet soloist, then the rest of the corps slowly joins in.

Just something that I thought would be neat.

[LoveKathyG]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... "My Kid Could Paint That."

[snaredrummer42]

I think a Katrina show would be great, if realized the right way. I was thinking about a Katrina show a while ago, and The opener would give a bit of the traditional New Orleans festive flavor, but with ominous overtones. The music grows increasingly dark and the drill more frantic until moving into a "storm" section. After the "Storm" section will be a mournful ballad a la New Orleans-style funeral. Then, a rebirth will occur, as a triumphant chorale (something like the Krypton Fanfare from Superman) sounds. Finally, the corps will perform a new piece that pays homage to New Orleans' past and its future. I don't know, something like that.

I think DCI is a great medium to express ideas and tell stories. Some of the most popular shows in recent years have, essentially, been musical narratives (Triple Crown, Criminal, Faust, etc.). I think it is entirely possible for a drum corps to perform a show based on a current event instead of a fictional story.

Heh, Krypton's our opener this year.

Cuing up by broken record here...

I do find it rather odd that corps are still wearing uniforms, rather than costumes that actually have some relevance to the concept they are trying to communicate.

If you are, however, going to stick with uniforms, why not do something different with the concept? Why can't there be various groups of different colored uniforms? Absolutely solid color, head to toe, in groups primary colors? What about every single uniform being a slightly different shade than another, to the point where you have a full spectrum?

It could be extremely difficult to pull something like this off well, or utilize it's full potential (computer modeling is absolutely essential for making this work) but visual concepts like this could add a completely new dimension.

What about large, white flags silk screened with a single letter. Drill is written so that, when grouped and spaced correctly, various words and phrases are formed at different points (like a funky moving refrigerator magnet poetry). Who needs narration when you can communicate these same literal words in such a much more unique way?

Stilts????

Why are all members on the field all the time and for the whole time? Sometimes less is more? Does the entire corps have to be on the field in order to start the show?

What if the first piece started with just one guy, and the others came and joined one by one? or ... what if they left that way?

What if you found the next Bobby McFerrin... and threw him out there one year instead of a pit?

If you can use microphones, wireless microphones, and mic percussion instruments... why have so many of them? Try something different... 3 snares, 2 tenors, 4 bases... make the guard huge....

Speaking of huge guard, why is a single piece of equipment designed only to be used by a single person? How about some new equipment concepts... HUGE stuff that requires 2, 3, 4 people to use? 10 GIANT .... um, i don't know... things, out there moving like mad.

You know those sort of string games, like Cats Cradle or whatever.... one collection of movement makes one stable form, while another creates another. Why not those, but HUGE... with people, not fingers?

Is dry ice illegal?

You know those frisbees with the hole in the middle? Why not?

I could go on for days in this topic... fun. Maybe I should get my lazy ### back into things one of these days. :)

Wow, those are all really cool ideas ('cept for maybe the "reduce the battery size" one . . . so many people would miss out!) I saw a show at USSBA nationals last year that was Civil War-based; it was brass and tenors (Union) versus woodwinds and the rest of the battery and pit (Confederacy). I also saw Oakton HS do a baseball-themed show back in '05, where they were all in baseball uniforms; it was pretty cool. Unique pit placements (center of the field, both sides) might be a simple way to mix things up.

On the topic of the "variable show" (which I think is probably the coolest idea EVAR), I think that might be cool for the Crossmen to do; they could use their "cross" set as the base.

When you said "Frisbee" I thought "drumhead;" it might be cool to have one of the tenors start out with a broken head, then take it off and throw it around before grabbing a new set of tenors from the sideline. That would probably only work in one of those shows about the season itself, though; I can't think of any other appropriate context.

[markdewine]

I think a radical, maybe interesting, and certainly difficult concept would be an "Interchangeable Show."

Two shows, musically. Two shows, visually. Music "A" works precisely with Visual "A" Music "A" works precisely with Visual "B" Music "B" works with Visual "B" Music "B" works with Visual "A". :)

A corps learns two musical scores, and two visual shows....and has the option to present any one of four shows on a given night.

Radical because it has surely never been done before.

Interesting because you never know "which" show you're gonna see.

Difficult because the creative minds need to "make it work" and still have the finished product entertaining and competitive.

Thoughts?

[danielray]

OK, so, here's another one...

VOYAGER

In the early 1970's, NASA launched a series of spacecraft designed to explore the outer reaches of our solar system and beyond. With these probes were a series of pictographic plaques and a golden record - messages of hope, friendship and the human experience, something of a message in a bottle cast into space.

The human experience was communicated in pictures, images, lines, rhythms, sounds. The entirety of human knowledge distilled to its most logical form.

These messages contained not only the common, physical characteristics of what defines our world and the human condition, but what defines us as unique cultures and independent individuals.

Click here first, for a point of reference of what I am talking about. (Click on the LEFT side of the record for SOUND, Click on the RIGHT side of the record for IMAGES).

There is more than 90 minutes of music on these recordings spanning human history and cultures (listen to it at the above link... I cannot possibly list or explain it all here), more than enough source for a brilliant arranger to weave a tapestry of sorts.

The mathematical concepts and principles, in their visual form, are ideal concepts to translate to the visual aspects of the program.

Flag silks are printed with the various panels of illustrations in the capsule.

There will be narration, but in various languages... interspersed through the program, the actual greetings as recorded on the disk.

The timeline of the program follows the timeframe of the launch of the Voyager crafts through their journey in space.

The program opens with a short narration, the opening words of President Jimmy Carter

"This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings."

It ends with the final greeting from the recording "Hello from the children of planet earth"

[randomnoise]

And let's take this idea one step farther. Instead of five songs that each end in precicely the same set, how about 8 or 9, with only 5 being performed each night. Now your show could be DRASTICALLY different from night to night.

One of the years I taught Freelancers, we tried something like this. We wanted to have the last set of the show be the same as the first so that we could start at any point.

Couldn't get everyone back to the first set, though.

[jwillis35]

An excellent discussion, and I really enjoy reading all of these posts. I don't get on DCP much these days due to my teaching load, but this thread is enlightening and enjoyable.

Just a quick opinion:

The Cadets 2002 show is really the last to take a stab at something political, but they did so on the heels of the 9/11 aftermath. There were many marching bands that did Americana shows after 9/11, including my own college band. Probably none of them tried to pull at the heart strings the way the Cadets did, especially when you consider the Cadets use of the firemen on finals night. However, that show had its share of problems and it did offend some and make others happy, so it was a controversial show.

To do something like that now, only to try and convey the current war in Iraq and our issues with terrorists, and perhaps to also convey some sense of the political sides here in our own country and how people feel about the current situation might be difficult and certainly risky.

Unfortunately, for those who would like to see a corps take a stab at this, I really believe that the current trends in drum corps do not present the best opportunity for a corps to do this unless one is really willing to sacrifice scoring and current trends in visual design to accomplish this feat. Today's show tend to focus on speed. Speed in drill and music, demand in marching and guard, and it is the flashy that tends to take front state with most top 12 shows. This is not to say that there is NO substance in today's shows, but there is less of it, and it would clearly take a show with well-defined substance to pull off such a feat.

The identity of many corps today would also make this difficult. The Cadets do clearly stand out as a corps willing to take risks, maybe the Vanguard and Bluecoats as well, but who else? The formula for most corps would make fielding such a show difficult, and unless the staff are willing to step back from what they usually do and analyze what would truly be needed for success in such a politically-strong message, one conveying both the right kind of emotion and message, then it is doubtful many corps could pull this off.

As many have said, most of the controversial shows from 2000 to now have been Cadets 05, 06, and 07 (aside from 02), and BD 05, and frankly those shows have been more about the artistic choices and what fans will accept than they have been about any political agenda. One could read into the Cadets narrative from this past year and assume some interesting things, and perhaps if the Cadets do pull off a show on the Declaration of Independence or something like that, then maybe we will see something along these lines. But I believe the current artistic direction of the activity has made such a show difficult.

JW

[danielray]

More random thoughts...

Divide the corps exactly in two parts. One half in one color/style, the other half in another. Two entirely separate programs going on, performed by, essentially, two different corps (75 +75) on the same field at the same time. The nature of what each are playing or doing at one single time is exactly the opposite of the other, yet they are in perfect harmony - musically and visually... like a crazy drum corps DJ mashup.

It is basically like two entirely different shows that could, each, stand on their own mixed together.