DCI Minimalist Movement

[stxmoose32]

This is why I love DCP. This thread right next to the "lolcorps" thread. Gotta love it!

[Officer_Jenny]

This is why I love DCP. This thread right next to the "lolcorps" thread. Gotta love it!

And apparently a thread like this is not above average in the eyes of the panelists

[KingJoeVII]

I think Bawker is hitting at what I was thinking. In a drum corps universe it is minimalistic in a sense. I never took a music history class so I don't know how the term minimalism technically applies to music. I guess I think about it as being exposed parts, exploring the lower dynamics, low brass doing an ostinato for the last half of the show, etc. Compared to the "meaty" tradition of drum corps music it was pretty "bare bones." I know that's not a very technical way of putting it but that's how I see it from my "blue collar" music perspective.

Anybody bored enough to try and explain the technical meaning of minimalism in music to me? I'd really like to know.

you are right, "minimalism" is not really the word you want here...maybe something like "complexity" would work better as a definition of what you are talking about.

There has been some discussion on here about whether star's 93 show was minimalist.

I guess not, if you go by the true definition of minimalism.

However, I think the reason people think that is because that program had a very cerebral, mature and distinct show concept (especially for the time) that was INCREDIBLY hard to pull off. And I think that's why so many people now love that corps that year: it was incredibly brave to try to be emotional on material that would not automatically touch hearts and minds, and we respect them for the inherent difficulty in that. Not only were the notes, drill, etc. a high level of difficulty, the emotional connectivity was too. and they did it.

Star stands out as an incredible show because it is so different from the standard model of drum corps show design we have all grown to love. It isnt your simple "soft-build-hit-release-build-hit-release-build-hit-release" that we see in every freakin show...Star 93 takes its time and is careful. One might say that a show like this has even more meaning because nothing is gratuitous - i.e there is a reason for every note they play.

Sorry, this may be a bit off topic but...

What would you suggest for a person to listen to in order to better understand minimalism?

Morton Feldman is another great example of minimalism....

I'm just stopping by to say that that sounds extremely cool. What's the instrumentation?

I'd love to see a corps pull that one out. Maybe as an intro and outtro? (for some reason, SCV 06 comes to mind.)

It would be kind of cool to hear it on the field, but it really would not be "In C" by Riley...the piece is made up of notes (duh) but Riley also composed it to be a certain length and a certain number of repetitions. Any attempt to transcribe this onto the field would automatically destroy the context of the piece - which in minimalist music, amounts to destroying the entire piece.

Drum Corps shows are inherently inclined against minimalist concepts. The show is limited to 11:30 minutes, and in that time, in order to remain competitive, all corps need to do certain things (fast difficult drill moves, loud playing, soft playing, fast playing, drumming, etc.) I think you would be hard pressed to try and incorporate these things into a minimalist style show...

[PercussiveEric]

Star 93' always stands out as a good example for me.

[Officer_Jenny]

Yeah, imagine that on the field....it'd make the threads about Cadets seem tame :P

Although, it might work as an intro/outro piece before the corps program actually started...

You should check out Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians"

Very cool

[fourouttheforty]

Short Ride in a Fast Machine by Adams is standard minimalism. Rhythmic, repitition.. and yet incredibly accessible and popular!

[Michael Boo]

And apparently a thread like this is not above average in the eyes of the panelists

A thread can be well above average and still not get stars from the panelists. The stars are for threads the collective of GoldStar panelists think are well above just being well above average. If lots of threads met that standard, it wouldn't mean as much. And what excites one doesn't necessarily excite the other, which is why eight votes are needed, but there are more than eight panelists.

[Michael Boo]

BOA

I keep reading it here, but pardon my ignorance, what does it stand for?

Here's a review I wrote of the latest BOA Grand Nationals that might give you a little insight into the approach of many BOA bands.

Boo review of BOA Grand Nationals 2006

[OMello1]

ummm, I would say Star '93 was the epitomy of minimalism. Very few colors, exposed music, no literal theme, no gimmicks. You could say it was our own response to the '92 show. I don't see how the cavaliers Machine show could be seen as minimalistic. They had everything but the kitchen sink in that show (except for narration thank goodness)...this isn't a bad thing just and observation. Tangible and accessible, yes...minimalist no. On second thought, from a "theme" perspective, I see what you're saying. Take a very basic/skeletal idea and run with it from there.

To clarify my answer, I'd say Star '93 is minimalism of content while recent Cavies shows are minimalism of theme.

I would venture to say that Star '93 was ALL gimmick. The concept, being something SO far outside of what any other drum corps had done, was intentionally selected to create a stir among our community. I think that makes it a gimmick. Now, I'm not saying it is a bad thing AT ALL...the word gimmick has a lot of negative connotations associated with it in our activity that make it an unappealing way to describe a show. But along those lines, you could argue that just about any show that tries something new is a gimmick...so...now my head hurts...

M

[mobrien]

I think it's possible for corps to be minimalist in comparison to other corps, but that the basic nature of true performance minimalism (as opposed to musical minimalism) is antithetical to the nature of drum corps.

In a theatrical context, minimalism is defined by spareness of physical setting and text in favor of a focus on specific scenic and physical elements, all of it working together to intellectually separate the items from their everyday contexts. Beckett's short plays (essentially everything written from '58 until his death in '89) are the exemplars of minimalism, with every sentence and every image stripped to its barest essentials (sometimes to LESS than their bare essentials - NOT I features just a mouth, no body), which opens up a whole realm of discussion regarding 'meaning'. In that medium, minimalism is an artistic choice that replaces 'spectacle' with 'mystery', which, to be frank, only works with a relatively small set of the total audience (trust me on this one... B) ).

Star's 93 program was a move in that direction from a visual standpoint, with the simplicity of the guard unis and equipment and the intentional lack of visual color in the show, but the music itself culminated in a highly emotional display, which runs against the idea of performance minimalism. Cavaliers shows from '00 to '03 had an intellectual and musical minimalism (in a good way :P ) while maintaining a certain level of visual spectacle, and that may be as close to drum corps minimalism as anyone wants to get.

If someone were to try a TRUE minimalist approach to drum corps, it would require such a severe restraint in terms of color and musical emotion that most audiences would lose attention pretty quickly. Imagine, for ex, a whole show based on themes developed during PR's opening mallet feature this year - JUST the themes and sounds as initiated by the keyboards. I think you'd hit about 4 minutes into it when people were asking "where's the wedge?"

Edited August 19, 2007 by mobrien