Michael Klesch arranging for Crown

[supersop]

Starting to draw a few personal conclusions now that I'm seeing the reach of Prime's work and the departure from the norm for those like Downey. I would lump Jay Bocook in with Downey as far their departure from past arranging styles. It seems they've taken more to the tighter chordal structures and motif driven arrangements.

It makes me wonder who is doing the cuts for the shows before the notes are written. It's pretty vague sometimes when you look at Program coordinators and show consultants on the staff page. I know it's usually a collaborative effort when cutting a show, but in the end it's always someones final decision. Where to cut, what to cut, where to put what parts (pit, brass, both), making up transitions to make things work.

Ok I've got it. EUREKA! I would opine that Downey and Bocook, and the like, are charged with making up transitions in awkward spots AND FREQUENTLY. Whomever is cutting the show at inception is leaving some wicked bad holes in the design and the arrangers are taking up the slack as best they can. This makes much more sense looking back on recent shows and the change in arranging styles. Maybe the overall "theme" of the show has taken precedent over the actual flow of "music" being presented?

Where Klesch has the advantage; Crown is cutting a better show to start with. The pieces seem to fit together better to begin with, which makes writing transitions a lot easier. I do give Klesch a ton of credit for using his old bag of tricks wherever possible. I think it gives the hornline a unique sound that has been missing for a while. It rarely "all sounds the same" because he's actively looking for opportunities to add color to the tonal structure, change the warmth and depth of a piece by how it's voiced and exposing the talent of the hornline by really working each segment of the brass in spots that would normally be weaknesses (upper register ppp features, the near 3 octave splits on low brass, octaving of mello's and trumpets, etc etc etc.)

I'm not hearing very much of those things from the other Premier arrangers of today. Maybe on their older work, but not anymore.

[CuriousMe]

That would explain he and Maroney working together at Spirit in 1990. Barb was the brass cap at CBC in 1989. Not that Maroney and Klesch hadn't marched and worked together in the past ... but not on this level until 1989.

Sidenote - My example of corps in the past blending 2 songs together as compared to the hack the slash approach ..... Check out Spirit in 1990 when they returned to the top 12. There is a great piece that Klesch arranged that mixes "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (or was it "Old Man River"?) and "Oh Christmas Tree". That part of the show always caught my attention.

Barbara & Klesch worked together '86 - '89 at Cadets....I wasn't there in '85 but wouldn't be surprised if she was a brass tech that year.

[supersop]

Barbara & Klesch worked together '86 - '89 at Cadets....I wasn't there in '85 but wouldn't be surprised if she was a brass tech that year.

Right right .. but wasn't Barbara caption head in 89 only?

[SkyRyder_FMM]

Barbara & Klesch worked together '86 - '89 at Cadets....I wasn't there in '85 but wouldn't be surprised if she was a brass tech that year.

I may be wrong, but I thought that Barbara taught at Crossmen in 85.

[jwillis35]

Ok I've got it. EUREKA! I would opine that Downey and Bocook, and the like, are charged with making up transitions in awkward spots AND FREQUENTLY. Whomever is cutting the show at inception is leaving some wicked bad holes in the design and the arrangers are taking up the slack as best they can.

This is true sometimes. I wouldn't just limit this to Downey and Bocook. I still think those two are some of the best in the biz, but there is not doubt that it may be easier to arrange for certain shows and harder for others.

For example: In 2005, Bocook's writing, IMO, is masterful! Musical, purposeful, easy to follow the musical line, yet with good demand, and his development to climax points are almost perfect. But this is largely because the Cadets did not have to do much re-writing. Other than finishing their closer, the show was really ready to go. Whether people liked it or not, all the elements of that show just fit together like a good puzzle.

Then take 2006 and you have a much different task. They had much to rework, and that is where a lot of the trouble can begin. Making tweaks to a show can be dangerous, and having to make wholesale changes is even far more dangerous. I actually think Jay's West Side Story music this year is really good. The few tweaks that the Cadets will have to make are largely driven by their visual needs. Bocook is known for his whiplash fury-like writing in the closing seconds of some of his arrangements, but that is a technique that works for outdoor field use. And each arranger needs a style.

Where Klesch has the advantage; Crown is cutting a better show to start with.

I'm not hearing very much of those things from the other Premier arrangers of today. Maybe on their older work, but not anymore.

Crown hasn't always been doing this, but as of late (last few years) I would say yes. I look at how experimental the Cadets have been with the 2006, 2007, and 2008 shows, and I think how hard that had to be for Bocook to write a book for those shows. Whereas with Crown over that same period, I think you are right, they have certainly had the better product from day one.

I think, on a whole, that the arranging has actually improved in the past few years. We were getting a lot of "popcorn" effect hits and "donut" style writing in the late 90s up to 2005 or so. Donut writing, of course, is the use of whole notes and half notes while running around on the field like a chicken with its head cut off and calling it demand and good. It was neither demanding, nor good. And the popcorn effect was supposed to be some kind of GE hit that would make you jump out of your seat or say "wow," but all it did was drive most people batty.

Finals in 2007 seemed to be a return to a lot of melody and the kinds of arranging that help to develop that melody. 2008 was also wonderful. So I have seen some improvement, but to some degree we are still getting the chopped up effect. However, this will always be the case when you ask good musicians and arrangers to take 15- to 20-minute works of art (maybe longer) and cut it so that you can develop a show that is 11.5 minutes long, especially when there needs to be drum breaks and visual highlights and GE impacts and all that good stuff that helps a corps score points.

Cutting a show is nasty stuff and much harder than we think.

[ostinato]

.....Crown is cutting a better show to start with. The pieces seem to fit together better to begin with, which makes writing transitions a lot easier.....

This is likely the lion's share of the tale, right here. Often we (and design staffs do this too, I'm sure) put pieces on the table as "awesome potential drum corps music" because they are cool, they are loud/rhythmic, etc etc. but there is an additional element of *adaptability* that exists independently from all these other features. This can take a number of forms. Good arrangements of a tune with lots of "big tunes", like SCV's excellent distillation of Scheherezade, can take the music and simply cut the fat until the uneccessary repetitions, discursions, and other indulgences are pared away. Or with a piece that relies more on motives and textures, like PR's arrangement of Wild Nights in 2003, more freely abstract it to fit the spirit of the production as a whole.

But this isn't the important thing; it's that an awareness of how best a particular piece should be arranged is maintained by a design staff. A lot of hack and slash adaptation is likely a lack of sensitivity to this, or even worse, trying to shoehorn music into places it shouldn't be. To accomplish that, slicing a tune to ribbons is sometimes the only way.

Also, a lot of the "old-school" tricks that everyone is hungering for in this thread are all just principles of good orchestration. If you clutter up the bottom range of your ensemble with close harmonies like a jazz band, you'll sound like a jazz band. Octave doublings, wide spacing below the mid-range, sectional contrasts.....these aren't magical old school techniques, they're about the only way to write for a large ensemble and not have it sound like grey mush.

[Malibu]

Donnie VanDoren, Jim Prime Jr. and Larry Kershner were our brass staff in 1979. Jim and Larry were previously working with Bridgemen. Larry wrote the book but it was Prime and VanDoren who cleaned it. I do remember hearing Donnie say he wanted to make the symphonic sound on the field.

[Rollo Tomasi]

Klesch was a bass drummer for the Cadets prior to becoming their DM in 83. I think he was a vocal music major in college, but I might be wrong about that.

During the early to mid 80's, Jimmer was the arranger and Donnie was the technical teacher and enforcer of that amazing Cadets hornline. Clearly Mike Klesch was absorbing a lot, although he was not a part of the brass line as a marching member.

Jimmer and Donnie went to Star in 86; 87 was odd in that I don't think Donnie was there and I don't remember if Jimmer was; all was right with the world when they returned to Star and helped to build and sustain that great hornline.

Both Matt Harloff and Frank Sullivan learned under Donnie and Jimmer in Star and have both gone on to have great success elsewhere, as have many other folks. It's amusing to watch and listen to many of the "Donnie Disciples" teach, as they all fall into his patterns and style of cleaning and pushing a hornline. I haven't seen any of them that have Donnie's ear and abillity to clean, clean, clean, however.

Klesch continues to be my favorite arranger of the "next generation"...although he's kind of the "tweener", in terms of age. (I would have loved to have heard his take on this year's Garfield show, which I find choppy and unsatisfying, from a brass perspective.) Frank Sullivan is really coming on with some gorgeous work. too.

I wish Jimmer would come back and take another shot at arranging for one of these big, lush hornlines. I've never enjoyed anyone's arrangements more, and the fact that he is such a great guy is just an added bonus.

Cheers!

Karen

Good stuff. I remember that insert report in the '83 DCI broadcast that focused on Klesch and the fact he was a choral major. Don't remember the college. Was it UMass? They had video of Klesch walking around on campus, grabbing tree limbs with his coke bottle glasses. Gotta love it!

I believe there is a tremendous amount of respect and admiration between Klesch and Prime. It would be a tough challenge to succeed Prime anywhere, but Klesch's '85 arrangements for Garfield are amazing.

It would be great to hear some Prime arrangements from Crown, or Vanguard, or even the Cavaliers. His ability to write around the incomplete two-valve bugles cannot be overstated. He was able to write within a comfortable range in the "heart" of each instrument. As a performer, you felt that he must have written the book around "your part."

The activity is lucky to have these guys as part of their history. They, along with Wayne Downey, Jim Ott, and the other great arrangers are what separate drum corps from other pageantry arts.

It's interesting to note that Van Doren has always considered the '85 Troopers as one of his greatest achievements. If you saw the corps live that season, you could understand why. They sounded remarkably symphonic and different than any corps on the field that season.

[SF2K4]

Klesch writes for the MDB here at 'Bama... though sadly our music isn't quite on the Crown level.

[CuriousMe]

Right right .. but wasn't Barbara caption head in 89 only?

Yup, I was just pointing out they had been working together for a while :)

Peace,

CuriousMe