cadets 2009 v 1984

[truher]

I hadn't heard the Cadets show until finals this year, and I was surprised to hear West Side Story, which I remember fondly from 1984.

I was even more surprised that the 2009 version left me cold, musically. The drill in 2009 is, of course, spectacular, otherworldly compared to what would have seemed possible in 1984, but the music isn't. 1984 was more nuanced: the musical expression of the drama, Barbara Maroney's solos, the focus on dynamics, the patience to include whole quiet passages, the whole arc of the show. In 2009, it's just the fast songs, sometimes mixed together incongruously: all Allegro, no Adagio.

Am I off base here? What's the conventional wisdom on this topic?

(And, yes, I know, WSS is vastly overplayed, I'm more interested in the state of music in DCI than WSS itself.)

[jamesjones0611]

While the Cadets this year marched some really great drill, I agree on the musical aspect.

The drum corps just did not play very musically from beginning to end. It was great music, played un-musically, if that makes any sense. You can't just have one mode - fast and furious - and be successful in the music department. Even the Blue Devils do ballads.

[ZealJ03]

This is the flaw of the 2009 Cadets program: It was too technical to perform. The Design team tried to squeeze every possible technically and physically exhausting situations into the program making the marching members overwhelmed to "perform". The program was a clinic in showing you every exposed concept you could throw out there. There were so many instances to mess up or simply get hurt, that a lot of times members played like they were stepping on egg shells. Talking about falling, this season for the Cadets probably had the most instances of members falling or crashing. Even with the preshow material (which was pretty difficult drill), the show was almost always 1-2 seconds shy of passing the penalty time limit.

1) Rumble: The brassline was spread over 90 yards at very high tempos with extremely massive step sizes. Musically, the constantly recurring cold brass entrances made it very easy to tear. Probably 1/4 of the ensemble rehearsals and 1/3 of sectionals time was spend on this 30 second tune.

2) Prologue: Tons of double tonguing and tough articulation statements made it very hard to have the hornline agree not only the drumline but also each other. The ending drill was probably the hardest visual moment in the entire show.

3) A Boy Like That: This was the ensemble nightmare of the entire show. The corps was split up into 2 mini drum corps playing completely different but complementary brass and percussion parts. Transferring and syncing tempo was like directing air traffic with a higher chance of falling apart. Visually, this ballad was by no means any break from the show. The tempo was very fast and was marched 1/2 at double time with some challenging closing drill from a dissolving company front. The color guard had to spin their final ensemble work with no musical tempo.

4) Cool With an entire long sections empty of percussion, the brassline had quite the challenge to maintain tempos while playing mezzo forte hits spreading over 80 yards apart. Tempo was kept with numerous and clever methods of handing off "duts" from one person to the next. The tons of rotating blocks and lines made cool quite the spectacle for rotating drill and matching responsibilities.

5) Quintet/Tonight, Tonight There's one thing about marching curvilinear drill at the cadets... but... there's another about making letters and shapes: there's no forgiveness in being out of the form. 1/2 this tune was played facing the backfield. Unfortunately, there was one evil catch. The drumline would be playing at the back sideline with the hornline behind them. Tempos were kept through listening to the trumpets who had the main melody making it an extremely awkward feeling of keeping time. The ending drill, well... what else was there to say? Endurance training to the max.

I'm pretty sure the corps only had 1/4 of the tour shows to be as energetic, "shako-raising", performances. There was just no time to soak up the audience or to really enjoy what was going on musically.

Edited August 24, 2009 by ZealJ03

[thePerfectbuzz]

With all that being said....I still really liked the 2009 program just the way it was

[CuriousMe]

I hadn't heard the Cadets show until finals this year, and I was surprised to hear West Side Story, which I remember fondly from 1984.

I was even more surprised that the 2009 version left me cold, musically. The drill in 2009 is, of course, spectacular, otherworldly compared to what would have seemed possible in 1984, but the music isn't. 1984 was more nuanced: the musical expression of the drama, Barbara Maroney's solos, the focus on dynamics, the patience to include whole quiet passages, the whole arc of the show. In 2009, it's just the fast songs, sometimes mixed together incongruously: all Allegro, no Adagio.

Am I off base here? What's the conventional wisdom on this topic?

(And, yes, I know, WSS is vastly overplayed, I'm more interested in the state of music in DCI than WSS itself.)

I think the story arc you felt missing was because they weren't telling the WSS story as they did in 1984....they were strictly focusing on conflict and resolutions...hence why the there wasn't a real slow ballad (not very conflict & resolution like) and why the corps was split in half.....personally, I liked it. But I suppose to each their own :-)

[Sam98]

From what I understand, HNC started off with a different concept for the season ("Lenny,", which was supposed to incorporate several different Berstein selections) and ended up only doing selections from WSS. So what happened? Personally, I think it was a misstep to rehash WSS yet again, especially considering the stellar performance from 1984 (which still holds up today musically, IMO).

That said, the kids still did a great job with a highly technical show.

[Matt_S]

(And, yes, I know, WSS is vastly overplayed, I'm more interested in the state of music in DCI than WSS itself.)

I believe you're possibly over-thinking this one. After all, you're comparing two shows written a generation apart, shows which originated in different ways with different goals, and which were written by entirely different people. Just look at the difference in staff. George Hopkins is still directing. Hannum and Sylvester are still around, though as program consultants. Jay Bocook was still directing at Furman during the 1984 season, and Jeff Sacktig was still two years away from joining the Cadets - as a marching member. As for the kids marching with the Cadets this summer, not a single one was alive to have seen the 1984 production. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there are members from the 1984 corps whose own kids have already aged out with a DCI corps.

In short, the two shows have nothing in common apart from the music they used as the source of their show. It's fine to say which one you preferred: we do that all the time here on DCP, of course, and between any two shows. If you're trying to look at these two shows for something more significant than that, then IMO you're looking for something that isn't really there.

[NakedEye]

Blah blah blah too hard, not nuanced, difficult tempos, no heart blah blah blah. Whatever.

I found it incredibly entertaining, and there was no part of it that didn't hold my interest, which is not something I could say about 3 of the top 5. It may have been pushing the limits of what is too much to do, but ultimately they DID pull it off, even with occasional spots that were less than perfect.

Boy Like That/I Have a Love is my favorite moment of the summer, and I thought the split corps/guard effect worked brilliantly to communicate the idea of two sides eventually joining together. I think some people get too caught up in every technical, hair-splitting detail of these shows, and miss the overall effect, and that's too bad, as I thought this particular one was just way too much fun.

[fifer]

This is the flaw of the 2009 Cadets program: It was too technical to perform. The Design team tried to squeeze every possible technically and physically exhausting situations into the program making the marching members overwhelmed to "perform". The program was a clinic in showing you every exposed concept you could throw out there. There were so many instances to mess up or simply get hurt, that a lot of times members played like they were stepping on egg shells. Talking about falling, this season for the Cadets probably had the most instances of members falling or crashing. Even with the preshow material (which was pretty difficult drill), the show was almost always 1-2 seconds shy of passing the penalty time limit.

1) Rumble: The brassline was spread over 90 yards at very high tempos with extremely massive step sizes. Musically, the constantly recurring cold brass entrances made it very easy to tear. Probably 1/4 of the ensemble rehearsals and 1/3 of sectionals time was spend on this 30 second tune.

2) Prologue: Tons of double tonguing and tough articulation statements made it very hard to have the hornline agree not only the drumline but also each other. The ending drill was probably the hardest visual moment in the entire show.

3) A Boy Like That: This was the ensemble nightmare of the entire show. The corps was split up into 2 mini drum corps playing completely different but complementary brass and percussion parts. Transferring and syncing tempo was like directing air traffic with a higher chance of falling apart. Visually, this ballad was by no means any break from the show. The tempo was very fast and was marched 1/2 at double time with some challenging closing drill from a dissolving company front. The color guard had to spin their final ensemble work with no musical tempo.

4) Cool With an entire long sections empty of percussion, the brassline had quite the challenge to maintain tempos while playing mezzo forte hits spreading over 80 yards apart. Tempo was kept with numerous and clever methods of handing off "duts" from one person to the next. The tons of rotating blocks and lines made cool quite the spectacle for rotating drill and matching responsibilities.

5) Quintet/Tonight, Tonight There's one thing about marching curvilinear drill at the cadets... but... there's another about making letters and shapes: there's no forgiveness in being out of the form. 1/2 this tune was played facing the backfield. Unfortunately, there was one evil catch. The drumline would be playing at the back sideline with the hornline behind them. Tempos were kept through listening to the trumpets who had the main melody making it an extremely awkward feeling of keeping time. The ending drill, well... what else was there to say? Endurance training to the max.

I'm pretty sure the corps only had 1/4 of the tour shows to be as energetic, "shako-raising", performances. There was just no time to soak up the audience or to really enjoy what was going on musically.

WOW - thanks a lot for the information. I knew about the challenge of the guard spinning with no tempo at the end of Boy Like That but didn't know about many of the other demands of this show that you identified - thanks. Now, I will watch my DVDs of this show with even greater awe (if that's possible) than I had when I watched this corps live.

[dans]

I really enjoyed every aspect of the Cadets show this year. I thought their music was the most fan friendly, accessible and entertaining of the top 12.