The Wonder of Source Music

[Willie85]

Great topic Matt. I had a similar ‘time-stands-still’ experience the first time I heard Santa Clara’s glorious rendition of-the Copland’s ‘The Tenderland’ at a midseason show in Ankeny, Iowa in 1984. It was our (the Knights) first show with them that year and after we performed, our horn instructor told us to be sure to catch Santa Clara and pay attention to their horn line’s outstanding dynamic control (as if we would miss SCV). They were on last and we had to head back to line up for retreat when they started their closer, but when they launched into the “Promise of Living” company front, I just had to stop were I was on the sideline and listen in dumbfounded amazement. I’ve been a lifelong Copland fan since than and have seen the CSO perform the Tenderland Suite as well as a staging of the entire opera by the Chicago Opera Theater.

I “came of age” in drum corps and music in general along with the Cadets during their Bernstein era, and I was always scouring record stores and our local classical music station’s weekly listing (this was pre-Amazon) for Leonard Bernstein pieces. So that bleak winter after my ageout year, when Leonard Bernstein himself passed through Chicago conducting his own Jeremiah Symphony (Cadets ’85) with no less than the Vienna Philharmonic, there was no way I was going to miss it – in spite of the ‘exorbitant’ price of $20 for seats in the rafters. I still manage to drop jaws of classical music fans with that story when the topic of 'first real orchestra concert' comes up.

[Willie85]

Crown's show three years ago inspired me to buy two CDs of music written by Richard Danielpour and Boston's show two years ago led me to get CDs of music written by Jennifer Higdon.

In December after Boston's Higdon show, I sat immediately behind her at a band conference in Chicago. I didn't know it was her, but I pieced it together somehow. (I had spoken with her on the phone weeks earlier for an interview feature on DCI.org.) When I verified she was Jennifer Higdon and introduced myself before the concert began, she couldn't stop talking about drum corps.

I happened to meet Philip Glass in Chicago the day after the Madison Preview of Champions show in 1996 (actually drove him from and to the airport for a fly-in performance at a charity fundraiser). 'Somehow', the subject of drum corps came up and it turns out he actually marched with a rag-tag street corps as a kid. He just couldn't conceive of a drum and bugle corps with chromatically limited, out of tune horns taking on serious music. Hopefully, the likes of Santa Clara taking on his music in 1999 will have changed his mind by now.

Edited September 15, 2008 by Willie85

[warsawstory]

Has drum corps ever motivated you to rent a movie?

The Red Pony - Soundtrack by Aaron Copland

Ivan the Terrible - Prokofiev

Alexander Nevsky - Prokofiev

I actually got to see Alexander Nevsky with live music by the Milwaukee Symphony

Blue Stars should revisit some of the music they did as a division 2/3 corps now that they are back in world class.

I was blown away that they set the bar so high with both of the above Prokofiev pieces. It was always exciting to watch

them progress over the Summer.

[FTNK]

2000 SCV--Bartok's 1st Piano Concerto.

Has a corps show ever inspired me to rent a movie?

Spartacus.

[Willie85]

Has drum corps ever motivated you to rent a movie?

The Red Pony - Soundtrack by Aaron Copland

Ivan the Terrible - Prokofiev

Alexander Nevsky - Prokofiev

I actually got to see Alexander Nevsky with live music by the Milwaukee Symphony

On The Waterfront - Bernstein/Cadets/Bluecoats

Dancer in the Dark - Bjork/Cadets

Thanks to the Guardsmen, I stayed up late once to watch "The Seahawk".

Actually, I also saw Alexander Nevsky with live music by the Chicago's Grant Park Symphony.

Also saw live versions of Candide (Bernstein/Cadets), Samson & Delilah (Saint Saens/Phantom) and going back a-ways, Evita - due to SCV's version in 1980. And, for that matter, Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables - saw the drum corps versions long before I ever saw the stage versions.

ETA: How could I forget?! Jesus Christ Superstar - The Knights/Madison/many others

PS - Great handle Warsawstory!

Edited September 15, 2008 by Willie85

[notelvis]

Very good thread - thanks

Being a 'band director's kid' I was exposed to a lot of the 'standard literature' early on......things like the Holst suites and Ralph Vaughn Williams.......Percy Granger..... I had heard and liked these guys by the time I was a junior in high school. I was familiar with some of the standard 40's and 50's big band stuff.......even knew and liked early Maynard Ferguson and was beginning to enjoy Chuck Mangione.

Having said this - there were two corps early on who 'turned me on' to several things I didn't know yet or needed to know better -

Thanks to the 1974 Santa Clara Vanguard, a corps I've seen only on videotape, I began to really, really appreciate Aaron Copland. Yeah, I knew Appalachian Spring but 'Candide'...........wow!

Later, Santa Clara excited me with music from Evita........inspiring me to go see what else this Andrew Lloyd Webber was up to.

Finally, the 27th Lancers, who I was already loving with their Vaughn Williams stuff really turned me on to the music of Don Ellis. Just a couple of years ago I went through and bought the CD's for all the Don Ellis LP's I had to get (and practically wore out) nearly 30 years ago. It was almost like discovering Don Ellis ('Niner-Two'......wow!!!!!) all over again.

Again.....great topic. Thanks for the memories.

Edited September 15, 2008 by notelvis

[TerriTroop]

1983 SCV: Copland "Appalachian Spring." I immediately bought a copy at a music store on cassette tape to play in my walkman for the rest of tour. (do you young whippersnappers even know what a walkman is? ) My reaction, which is typical of lots of musically uneducated kids of 16: "they don't play it like SCV, this thing is long and kind of boring in places. Blah."

But something must have clicked with me because by the time I graduated I knew I wanted to be a music major, I wrote more than a handful of papers on Copland (including my masters thesis) as well as Brahms and Berlioz and lots more, and now enjoy exposing my band and choir kids to the source music of the arrangements I bring to them.

As for movie rentals inspired by drum corps: Silverado, the Cowboys, Magnificent Seven... see a trend? Also On the Waterfront, West Side Story, and much more.

Edited September 16, 2008 by TerriTroop

[NR_Ohiobando]

DCI and Marching Band is probably 90% or higher the source of my "first listen repertoire". My music teachers would be the other source, but they would usually tell me a piece I've heard already in a DCI show.

My teachers always kinda chuckled whenever we came across something I heard in a corps show:

"This is an excerpt from Scheherezade, a famous program work. Have you heard of Scheherezade?"

"Yeah actually!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, SCV did a show on it last year"

"huh..wha...?"

1983 SCV: Copland "Appalachian Spring." I immediately bought a copy at a music store on cassette tape to play in my walkman for the rest of tour. (do you young whippersnappers even know what a walkman is? ) My reaction, which is typical of lots of musically uneducated kids of 16: "they don't play it like SCV, this thing is long and kind of boring in places. Blah."

Yes actually I do. I used to record the background music from my videogames onto cassette tapes and put em in my Walkman on the way to school. Sonic 3 and Knuckles had some jammin stuff.

[ArgonneRebel]

I remember when I was in high school, the first show I heard was 1996 Phantom, which then introduced me to Shostakovich. I checked the source material from that show, then more, and more....and more. And now he's my favorite composer. Woo!