Frontiers: 2016

[Kevin Powell]

Why is this thread called Frontiers: 2016 ?

Edit: Duh, I get it. That was his suggestion for the name of the program and the year it would be implemented. I is a dummy.

I thought it was about Frontiers Drum and Bugle Corps and started a different thread with the same idea.

[Kevin Powell]

I've been thinking more on the line of "Original Shows" and less on one original piece. I am liking Pete's idea to encourage this within DCI.

If they want to be artist, they need to be artist.

[Ghost]

Was not the Cavies music between 2000 and 2003 all original?

[ScoutMello]

I think it would be a very good thing for drum corps to establish it's own repertoire musically instead of relying on adaptations. Compositions would be better fitted to the ensemble, and could be better integrated with the visual package. And it would add a sense of legitimacy to the form for outside observers.

However, there are challenges:

Good arrangers are not necessarily good composers. That kind of talent is not as prevalent in our activity, so there would be growing pains.

Composers writing for a drum corps are going to have their composition performed by one ensemble for 3-4 months. At best. It likely won't get published, and even if it did, the potential market is minuscule. That's not a situation that attracts talent. Could you imagine an original corps show composed by Eric Whitacre, for example? It would be amazing, but what incentive is there for him to put in that effort when he could spend that time writing for wind ensemble or choir and market the work to thousands of performing ensembles.

For something like this to happen, we would have to adjust our expectations for show content. (Specifically, the re-use of material) No one looks down on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for playing Mahler 6 after London played it the year before. We would have to adopt a similar mentality for original compositions to really work. If, say, the Glassmen do a piece that was originally commissioned and performed by the Cadets a couple years before, that should be okay. (And could be seen as an opportunity for a group to explore that work in a different visual context) This could have a happy side effect of reducing operating costs for newer or financially unstable organizations as they would have access to decent quality 'box charts' to build a show on, instead of bearing the financial cost of a good arranger. (Or the quality cost of a cheap arranger)

The other thing we need for this to be viable is more corps. Lots more corps. They would be the customer base for these original compositions.

[Michael Boo]

Was not the Cavies music between 2000 and 2003 all original?

2000 was Michael Daugherty's "Niagara Falls," a wind ensemble piece, with a little original music in the ballad.

2001 through 2003 were all original.

[Pete Freedman]

2000 was Michael Daugherty's "Niagara Falls," a wind ensemble piece, with a little original music in the ballad.

2001 through 2003 were all original.

It's easy to forget that most original works are, ah, how do I say this delicately, ####. (I just put in the hash marks myself).

What we hear in both the classical ('serious') and popular collections of famous works are the very best from a vast mountain of uninspired creations.

So, if a drum corps show coordinator creates a work, and it's not good, and he/she is also the one selecting the work, then the corps director is in a tough spot. "How do I say no to this person who put so much effort into this? How do I now say 'No, scrap this thing you put your soul into, find something off the shelf, arrange it and teach it.'" Granted, most directors seem to have the personalities that could easily do this, but I would think even they would want to avoid that situation. This is probably why we don't see more original works. Kudos to the Cavies and any other groups for doing it.

[fsubone]

2000 was Michael Daugherty's "Niagara Falls," a wind ensemble piece, with a little original music in the ballad.

2001 through 2003 were all original.

I thought I had read somewhere that 2003 used some other music in it, but was mostly original. But I'm sure you know more about this, I might have mis-read something.

Those were all great shows, 2003 was my favorite musically, those guard uniforms ruin watching it though.

Edited September 1, 2012 by fsubone

[Michael Boo]

I thought I had read somewhere that 2003 used some other music in it, but was mostly original. But I'm sure you know more about this, I might have mis-read something.

Those were all great shows, 2003 was my favorite musically, those guard uniforms ruin watching it though.

Now that you mention it, was a section of Cindy McTee's "Circuits" in that show, or was that another Cavaliers show? I just listened to a recording of "Circuits" and can't pick it out of my memory of any of Cavaliers' shows, yet I remember reading something about that.

[acolli17]

I think of it in another way: Pop music, along with rock, hip-hop, r&b, country, and a few other genres are pretty original (with exceptions, or course), because they try to create new music and interesting pieces of art to listen to.

On the other hand, "Classical music, and symphony orchestras don't necessarily do the same thing. How many times has any given Beethoven symphony been performed by any number of orchestras, ranging from the mediocre high school, all the way up to the most professional of ensembles? Now they didn't write that."

"But they're offering new interpretations to a piece, making it completely new each and every time!"

"Isn't drum corps doing that, but even more so?"

I would like to make a case that drum corps is as original, if not more original of ideas, than any genre of music. You're taking something that's been done numerous times before, and putting it in a completely different light, one that's obviously never been done before. So what if West Side Story's been done 29 times in the last 15 years? How many times have different orchestras played the same symphony? So, by your definition, classical symphonies aren't an art form, because they're not necessarily a source for ideas, other than the new interpretations. And I'd be hard pressed to find someone who believes any symphony isn't art.

I also know that modern composers have differing views on it. Maslanka flat out refuses to let anyone touch his music, because the way he interpreted it is the way that he believes it to be performed, and he obviously trumps anyone who feels differently. On the other hand, if you look at composers like Whitacre, and Mackey, both of whom have perennial appearances in the activity, they love seeing their music performed.

But to ask that all corps go out and make their own, home-grown music is a lot like asking symphony orchestras to do the same. Is it plausible? Yes. Is it practical? No.

And I also have to respectfully disagree with your definition of Art. For drum corps to be art, it needs to be a living place of inspiration for ideas. For that, I am sure that drum corps is an art. To make art, it's not about the source, but the inspirations you draw from it.

[fsubone]

Now that you mention it, was a section of Cindy McTee's "Circuits" in that show, or was that another Cavaliers show? I just listened to a recording of "Circuits" and can't pick it out of my memory of any of Cavaliers' shows, yet I remember reading something about that.

I believe Circuits was used in either 2003 or 2006. I can't remember right now, but I know it's one of those two shows. Both shows had some similar musical elements in them