Understanding a show

[BoyWonder1911]

^ My bad. Not Orwell, but Huxley. I really ought to read that book one day anyhow.

For me, a theme is just about everything. It doesn't have to be a concrete theme, it should be left a little open to interpretation, of course. But the more solid of a theme you are trying to present, the harder the job is of depicting that theme.

When Mahler started to write symphonies, he was all in favor of programs for the concert. He wanted people to know what his 1st symphony was about. He later changed his mind and got rid of the programs, and never went back. He said the music should be left to the audience to interpret for themselves what the music means to them.

But like in any symphony, there is a revolving theme throughout the work, usually in the form of musical motifs. You can hear this is Mahler's 1st - even in the 1st movt, there is a hint of the last movt poking through.

If any of you are a fan of Mahler like I am, then you probably know that Mahler's music is very emotionally complex. A LOT of his music can mean different things to different people.

For me, the Mahler 1 is about nature. #2, well, it's about the resurrection, but the each individual movts are subject to interpretation as well. Symphony 5, 6, especially the 9th, all subjective. In symphony 9, movt 1 I think he was writing about the dying of humanity's soul. Movt 2, was writing about his beloved Austria, movt 3, about his mother, and movt 4 about dying and letting go.

In any case, a lot of things in drum corps are open to interpretation, and I was just trying to get some others' subjective interpretations of various drum corps shows.

Seems like a lot of you are saying "I don't care what it's about, I just like to sit and watch." That kinda irks me. And others have mentioned that "this show is about x, and it is mentioned right <here>."

In any case, XtraordinarY is about a little boy who has a dream that we went inside the book "Where the Wild Thing are" and that is how I will see the show for the rest of the season.

[ShortAndFast]

Seems like a lot of you are saying "I don't care what it's about, I just like to sit and watch." That kinda irks me. And others have mentioned that "this show is about x, and it is mentioned right <here>."

I'm perfectly happy to have the theme be "we have no theme" - since I voted for it in the 2nd place poll, that's one of the things I love about Cadets 2001 Juxtaperformance. But if a show has a theme, and you can see that the whole design is themed, then the show pretty much succeeds or fails for me depending on how well it gets communicated.

Cadets are working for me this year because the theme is clear and gets communicated very well on many levels of the design (for the first 3/4 of the show, at least). At the other extreme, Bluecoats work fine for me too - it's clear that "Brave New World" is just an excuse to play some cool modern music, they're not trying to portray Huxley's novel any more than they did Fritz Lang's movie last year.

I tend to get frustrated with a show like A Second Chance where it's clear the designers had a theme, and the theme obviously drove the design, but somehow it just doesn't communicate very coherently to the audience.

[Cop]

Directors commentary is always a great part of the season on VOD's and CD's, I like to know what the designers were thinking...

I just viewed the Troopers on VOD from July 2nd show.. It's obvious there is a road and I knew the show title.. But taking the show in for the first time today.. Troopers on my TV, brought a tear to my eye, just because they were so darn poetic..

I can Understand good taste...