DCW article regarding touring . . .

[Jeff Ream]

A band I taught one year did "Carmen". A parent said, "Oh, the Bad News Bears theme". They may recognize the music, but that doesn't mean they know the name or who wrote it.

Well, I was responding to a claim that this year's classical music was by "obscure" 19th C. composers. As the saying has it, no one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public, but even by that standard I think I am correct that 1) this year's classical selections were as mainstream as anything played in the Triassic era of drum corps; and 2) that the public knows more 19th C. music than my interlocutor suggested -- which your post supports: even if they can't name what they're hearing, they're familiar with it. For myself, I long thought of "Greensleeves" as the theme from "Lassie". And I remember my high school calculus teacher hearing the band play "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera and thinking it was "School Days" ("School days, school days / dear old golden rule days").

I'm not sure a lot of the stuff played this year could be considered well known to the average Joe

[N.E. Brigand]

If you're talking about expanding the activity to a wider non-drum corps audience and an audience that is old enough to be able to pay for tickets, you'd better start thinking about playing some music that's not the latest technical edgy version of some obscure composer from the 1800s or the latest concert band composer who's primarly popular on college campus. Read the repertoire of the 23 world class corps. you'll get bored just reading it!

From the list of this year's programs, these are the composers of works written in the 1800s: Georges Bizet, Alexander Borodin, Johannes Brahms, Dudley Buck, Edward Elgar, Charles Ives, Gustav Mahler, Nicholai Rimsky-Korsakov, Camile Saint-Saens, and Samuel A. Ward.

Of those ten composers, only Ward and Buck might be called "obscure", but I hope you'll forgive me if I doubt that your complaint is directed at "America the Beautiful" and "Festival Variations on the American National Air".

I know very few people outside my college band cohorts who would recognize most of those names. Beethoven, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Chopin. That's about the limit of most people's recognition of 19th century composers.

If your friends haven't heard of Brahms, or if they don't recognize "Carmen" or "Carnival of the Animals" or "Stranger in Paradise" or "Pomp and Circumstance" or "Scheherazade" when they hear it, then they've lived very sheltered lives. I can't believe that the eight 19th C. composers I listed could be more obscure as names to your friends than --to turn to classical composers of any era played in the 1972 DCI championships-- Manuel de Falla, Gustav Holst, William Walton, Modest Mussorgsky, or H. Owen Reed.

I would add that American audiences seem to have gotten more ignorant about classical music since the time many legacy drum fans think of as a peak for the activity. I just saw a clip from the 1959 film, The Five Pennies, in which Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong sing "The Saints Go Marching In" (in a delightful performance, by the way) but with lyrics that list some "saints" of music, mostly composers (plus one conductor) and all but one of them from classical music -- and the names are often the subject of puns. This was a Hollywood movie, and therefore aimed squarely at a mainstream viewership, and yet that audience, if they were to get the jokes, were presumed at least to recognize the names! These were: Bach, Bizet, Brahms, Chopin, Haydn, Khachaturian, Lizst, Mahler, Massenet, Mozart, Offenbach, Paganini, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rossini, Saint-Saëns, Suppé , Toscanini, Vieuxtemps, Wagner, and Waller.

[DrumCorpsFan27]

Paging Mr. Stewart, Mr. Scott Stewart.

http://www.drumcorpsworld.com/articles.cfm?id=833

The majority of this article covers stuff that's better left for the G7/WSoDC forum (and I created a thread over there about some of the other things mentioned), but there was one stand-out thing that George Hopkins said that bears discussion here in the main forum:

There's a lot to consider there. Do we include "entertainment" as some sort of mandate and have the sheets read more DCA-like in the future? What can the performances do to be more "relevant" to the average audience member?

I think Hop is right on here . . . in the regard that we've experimented a lot these past ten years in the "what" of drum corps (instrumentation, electronics) . . .maybe now it's time to tinker with the "how" regarding a judging and scoring overhaul.

What do you think?

(I know this article covers more than the above . . .but I thought this was important enough that it required a separate thread. Let's try to focus on whats quoted above here, rather than the touring discussion, which has a separate thread).

[thirdcoast]

Paging Mr. Stewart, Mr. Scott Stewart.

You know Dave, Mr. Hopkins is known to say and do things just to rile people up. You know as much as I do that his words there were just taking what Scott said and using them for his own purposes. Now if that is really what he wanted for Drum Corps that is the direction he would be pointing his Corps and wanting others to follow with him, it definitly is not his vision IMHO. Its all good though, they were great last year and the Cadets will be great in 2011 and one difference between him and Scott is that he is still here doing and pushing DCI and the Cadets to let kids still do there best year in and year out just like we were able to do when we marched. Scott has moved on and in reality has nothing good to say about DCI per usual and I dont even see him helping out the Scouts much (which in reality he really could be a great help to the Corps in many facets he just has moved on). That in a nutshell as you know has been a big stink between him and I and always will be. I am all about DCI and the kids he is all about DCA witch is great for him, and am sooooo happy that he is doing what he for awhile has wanted to do DCA. I just wish that he would not forget where he got his Iconic status from and that if it was not for doing the Madison Scouts in DCI for so many years that he would not be doing what he is doing now. It is so easy to forget where you came from, what got him to where he is today an Icon in our activity. I am happy that he is in a better spot for himself with the mighty KILTIES and it is always good to see him every year like I do, we just have different ways of looking at the activity always have and always will. They both have there spot in the world of Drum Corps.

[Jeff Ream]

who is to say Scott hasn't asked to be involved or conversely told to stay away?

you cant argue with that article tho, when you see where drum corps has gone since then.....and with what many people see as the flaws that currently exist

[corpsband]

Since this thread is about relevancy ... then let's stick to the topic. Who is DCI relevant to?

1. Legacy Fans (what's left of them)

2. Recent generation FMM's.

3. Family members of Legacy fans and FMM's

4. High School Marching Band Programs

5. Parents outside of DCI who have kids interested in music (see the Steve Young interview when Champs were in the Rose Bowl a couple years back)

Who is DCI NOT relevant to?

1. Symphony, Opera, Theatre and Orchestra afficianado's.

I'm not so sure you're right about that.

Reference http://www.facebook.com/notes/carolina-cro...as/413279268590 . And I'm sure there are many other similar stories.

I genuinely think a lot of it is the "marketing" not the "product".

[Big Bad Bari]

Can anyone list here who Drum Corps "COULD BE" relevent to besides the obvious?

1) Legacy Fans

2) Current MM's

3) Former MM's

4) Current and former MM families

You take it from here...

[Hrothgar15]

Can anyone list here who Drum Corps "COULD BE" relevent to besides the obvious?

1) Legacy Fans

2) Current MM's

3) Former MM's

4) Current and former MM families

You take it from here...

People who would enjoy all kinds of music played with a unique, exciting sound against fast-paced, visually appealing drill formations? Say, people who like action movies, or the outdoors.

Drum corps is only as insular or inaccessible as show designers make it.

[JonW]

I genuinely think a lot of it is the "marketing" not the "product".

This is a very good place to start - marketing.

In decades past, not only did competitions occur most every weekend, most were tied to events going on in those cities/towns. Weekend long musical extravaganzas highlighted by Drum Corps competitions. Seeing the corps in parades brought many out to see the show. Radio spots, TV commercials, newspaper ads, posters, flyers... all letting anyone listening know that there was an event worth checking out coming soon! Of course, that was when it all had a more regional focus rather than national, but it did bring in large numbers of people.

During the 2010 season I saw only one ad for a competition, it was tied to a weekend music event and enjoyed a mighty good sized audience.

Larger venues in larger cities probably did additional advertisements, but it seems predominantly all done on internet and then you'd need to be looking for it to find it.

Get the corps back on the streets, show the people there is something going on. Plug the hell out of it on the radio, have them give away tickets to the 20th caller. TV may be too expensive, but radio and newspaper certainly are not (and yes, people do still read papers).

[BRASSO]

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I would add that American audiences seem to have gotten more ignorant about classical music since the time many legacy drum fans think of as a peak for the activity..

If true, what a terrible indictment of the American public education system, huh ?