Inside the Arc - "The Dut Must Die"

[LegalEagle50]

You said it so much nicer than I did.

[Jeff Ream]

well Dave does stupid human tricks occasionally

bwaaaahahahahaha Poor Rex is rolling on the floor.

Sometimes you crack us up. You really do.

Letterman or Leno should have you on his show some time.

[Phirefenix]

"Dutting is not a musical effect"

Best line I ever heard on a judges tape.

[S. Garrison]

I found the duts so prominent in Massillon and Allentown that I started tallying them as I watched.* (Also the moments, during quiet moments in corps' shows, when I could hear other corps warming up in the distance). Didn't know they were actually called "duts" though, until I read this article. The first time I can recall hearing duts is the Cavaliers 1999 show, where they were so prominent as to be mimicked by audience members in finals. At the time I had taken the duts as an aberration not a norm, and was surprised to find them so prominent upon returning to drum corps viewership last year.

*In fact, I asked "Do they judges judge their effect as they might with other vocals, e.g., noting 'That pianissimo section was hurt by the drummers grunting'?"

Lol! That was the 1999 Cavaliers guard mocking the battery "dutting" as a humorous effect written into the design of the show! Not the audience mimicking them. That's pretty funny. I wonder if I have had any accidental misconceptions listening to drum corps shows that I didn't see? (Not that you didn't see the 1999 Cavaliers, I don't know)

[N.E. Brigand]

Lol! That was the 1999 Cavaliers guard mocking the battery "dutting" as a humorous effect written into the design of the show! Not the audience mimicking them. That's pretty funny. I wonder if I have had any accidental misconceptions listening to drum corps shows that I didn't see? (Not that you didn't see the 1999 Cavaliers, I don't know.)

How funny! Were they doing that all season, or was it a late addition? I saw the Cavaliers in Massillon a week or two before finals, and heard the percussion dutting, but don't remember hearing the guard "reply" at that time. Only on watching the PBS broadcast did I notice that. And I don't think there's any way to tell who's doing the "mocking" based on the video.

A question for anyone: had I not posted my misunderstanding here to be corrected, how might I have learned the truth? Is there a book or website that contains good detailed descriptions of past shows?

[CrownStarr]

I can't say whether it was because we got called out on judge's tapes or just out of personal taste, but I can tell you that our staff was aware of this problem last summer. I remember plenty of comments during percussion ensemble about getting the duts quiet enough so that they couldn't be heard from the audience, often changing them from vocal "dut"s to subtler grunts. It was particularly noticeable in the preshow/closer, when there are a series of totally isolated hits by the whole corps near the end of the Mahler. For a while, you could pretty clearly hear "ba dump.... DUT DUT ba dump...... DUT DUT ba dump", until they toned it down later in the season.

As for the necessity of using duts in general, I think everything about actucker's post is spot-on. I obviously don't have any personal experience marching in a drumline, but I've been in a pit for two summers that's had to adapt to some pretty crazy ensemble and listening situations. As a pit, we have the luxury of being able to look at each other and use non-verbal communication, but when you're running around the field and still trying to make it all work, I can see where the duts come in.

Besides that, I think the argument of "good musicians should just be able to play together without dutting" is a bit unfair. Special drum corps ensemble considerations aside, not all marching members are of the same caliber as professional musicians. Not everyone is a music major, and not everyone has necessarily been playing their instrument terribly long, even more so once you branch out from the "top" corps. Being able to just simply play with other musicians consistently is a subtle and difficult skill, and one that takes time to develop. You can't just throw together 150 high school and college kids and suddenly expect them to behave like a professional orchestra.

[Fran Haring]

One of the coolest moments in drum corps …

The late George Parks launches the mace and “quietest four seconds in drum corps” ensues. The catch and the hit are followed by a huge roar from the crowd. Don’t tell me duts would have improved that moment.

A crutch. Simply a crutch.

[Fran Haring]

.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Fran Haring

[Fran Haring]

Guess he never had to clean up an ENSEMBLE problem in today's drum corps.

much more complicated than the 1960's

Absolutely. Frank's involvement with drum corps ended in 1965. He's completely clueless.

Just kidding, of course.

Actually... on this, YOU'RE completely clueless.

[rayfallon]

A hush falls over the audience as the ensemble turns backfield and shapes the hauntingly melodious beginning strain of a deeply moving ballad. The pit percussionists layer tasteful textures onto the rich brass sound, the timpanist applying a perfectly balanced and feather-light touch to a roll even as a gentle wind chime floats above it all. Several thousand people are held enraptured by the delicate mood…and then you hear them: the “duts”!

So much for the magic. It vanishes instantly, replaced by the realization that these particular performers choose to advertise their inability to hold a tempo without grunting out loud for the whole world to hear.

What’s that you say? They’re doing it as a“hype”? It’s a tradition, a trademark of some sort?

Hype this!

 

... Read the rest of the article here - http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/index.php?o...7&Itemid=53

I haven't read this yet and have to get up for work in 6 hours so I'll put it off. I always love everything Frank writes and almost everything he says - maybe everything - man that doesn't even seem possible!

The guy is one of the 3 or 4 smartest people EVER in this activity. As to that dut moment - oy vey have I hated that for the past 30 + years, along with the word hype, although I was there in the birthplace of hype when it entered the drum corps scene. Looking forward to this article. I get to work at 5am - I'll have it read by 5:30.