Veritaffle Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Hey all, I was wondering if anyone had any experience writing program notes to accompany drum corps shows? In particular, what are important things to highlight? I have some experience writing them for orchestral pieces, but when there's also these strong and important elements of visual and storytelling, I get a bit lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drumcorpsfever Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Hey all, I was wondering if anyone had any experience writing program notes to accompany drum corps shows? In particular, what are important things to highlight? I have some experience writing them for orchestral pieces, but when there's also these strong and important elements of visual and storytelling, I get a bit lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Are you looking for a show summary? If so, each year, DCI publishes a Souvenir Yearbook that provides a description of each corps' shows. I agree, though, that it's easy to get lost in the presentation. However, one thing that's really cool about seeing a show multiple times is gaining a different perspective on some many nuances of the production. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaffle Posted December 16, 2012 Author Share Posted December 16, 2012 (edited) Are you looking for a show summary? If so, each year, DCI publishes a Souvenir Yearbook that provides a description of each corps' shows. I agree, though, that it's easy to get lost in the presentation. However, one thing that's really cool about seeing a show multiple times is gaining a different perspective on some many nuances of the production. I'm not really looking to plagiarize any summaries, no. The idea is to briefly write about the music and the visuals and the story of the show in some meaningful and integrated way. Essentially, I'm trying to avoid something like "in Phantom Regiment's 2008 production 'Spartacus,' Spartacus is a slave who gets angry at the Romans when they murder his wife, and starts a revolt, which leads to a sympathetic Roman killing Will Pitts and everyone yelling "I am Spartacus!" They also play Ein Heldenleben and Khachaturian and run around really fast on a football field." Edited December 16, 2012 by Veritaffle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Boo Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Hey all, I was wondering if anyone had any experience writing program notes to accompany drum corps shows? In particular, what are important things to highlight? I have some experience writing them for orchestral pieces, but when there's also these strong and important elements of visual and storytelling, I get a bit lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I've got multiple decades experience in doing this for DCI, and it's a bit tricky in that one has to be somewhat general, because so much changes before and during the season. I learned that early on when I was told certain shows were being written around huge effects and then those effects, in some cases, never even materialized. So, it became necessary to give an overview of the show to help readers understand something about the production without tipping the hat to something that might not even be on the field by the time the program books were printed in late May. Consequently, my advice is to not talk about any effects that are promised, or even present at the beginning of the season, because they might not be there at the end. Research the origins of the source music and the source visual inspiration and enlighten the audience about those things. If the show is based on a particular concept, delve into that and see if you can water down its essence to the bare minimum needed to explain it. Edit, edit, edit. Say the most with the least amount of words. People at shows are going to want a general overview, not an in-depth analysis. You have a minute tops to grab their attention, keep it, and impart the knowledge you gained from your research. Just because it's interesting to you doesn't mean it's going to interesting to them...but if you're lengthening what you write and it's not all that interesting to you, it certainly won't be interesting to them. Tell them something they wouldn't know by themselves from just watching the show. Give them something that helps make their experience a bit deeper and more meaningful. It's a fine line between not talking down to an audience by simplifying everything and using terms and phrases the bulk of them won't understand. You're neither writing for kindergartners or PhD candidates. Aim for the middle and the most number of people will get something out of your writings. Accept the fact that no matter how much you read up on something, sometimes what you write is just going to be wrong because shows sometimes change quite a bit, and, honestly, sometimes what you think is important isn't. You don't have control over those things...they just happen. Shrug it off and say you'll get it right the next time. If you hit the concept on the head, you'll read it later and realize you've taught yourself something you didn't know about the show. That's when the art of writing becomes something you can't learn from books or classes. It's a fleeting joy. Enjoy it when it happens. And when you do it right, no one will realize who wrote it, because you've made the show more important than yourself. Ideally, your excitement should shine through. That's the difficult part. Someone will tell you their show is inspired by Mesopotamian death rituals and ancient rites of colonic cleansing and you've got to somehow present that without wanting to jump headfirst off the nearest golden arches. You want members of each unit to believe what you wrote about them was the best thing you wrote. You want that, but the reality is members of each unit will often think you hate their group and are out to sabotage them by purposely writing something that makes their show sound stupid. I have heard from people criticizing me for obviously loving one unit and hating their own, followed the very same day by e-mails from people from the corps I supposedly had the hots for, stating It was obvious I hated them but loved the corps the others thought I hated. I am NOT making this up. You have to develop a thick skin, but not so thick that you can't step back and ask if you missed something. Being an effective writer requires a lifetime of willingness to evolve. When you think you've figured it out, you haven't. The activity's moved on without you. More than anything, do it because you love what you do. Whether you think you have something to say is irrelevant. Love what you do and what you write will be something that touches others. Love what you do and others will share in your enthusiasm. It's not about you...it's about being convinced you're involved in the best activity in the world and you want to share your joy with others. When you allow yourself to passionately love what you do, it won't be a job...it will be a privilege. Do it and keep doing it even when you get no recognition. Recognition is fleeting. When asked what the favorite thing is you've ever written, hopefully you'll be able to respond, "The next thing." Now have fun. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibexpercussion Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 We actually wrote a synopsis of our show this past year, and had it given to the judges at contests. In our case, we were trying to bring attention to some of the more subtle story lines of the show, and being that the judges generally only saw us that day, we wanted them to be understand where we were taking the show and story line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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