DrumManTx Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 Guys you are missing it. Brad likes the song. I think he knows what hes doing :) That's what I'm saying. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumManTx Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 (edited) Also, check this out. Talk about some emotional music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB0ordd2nOI Edited February 5, 2014 by DrumManTx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcjordansc Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 DrumManTx: The melody from the song Mack the Knife is also really 'upbeat' with an optimistic feel; but the thing is that many people have not analazied the lyrics. And if they knew the background of the song it would be really wierd for them to use that song as a tribute to the Love of Humanity 'just because it sounds upbeat with an optimistic feel'. I guess we put Stu down as undecided. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jthomas666 Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I'm sure it will be a fine drum corps show - Blue Stars have a history of fun and engaging productions. That said... "The show will explore what it means to build a home, and how that environment shapes and forms the love of a family." Yeah, good luck with that one. Mike I can't help but wonder how many similar posts were made when Crown announced their show last year... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Freedman Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 If that is the case a corps can title a show, "The Way to Love a Woman; a Blissful Relationship"; and without intending to be sarcastic but actually portraying the blissful love, they can use the music from the movie Sid and Nancy, the punk rock group the Sex Pistols, as well as excerpts form many of the other misogynistic rock bands because, as you say, they just like the music and the background of the pieces do not matter. Bad analogy in part. Sid and Nancy, yes. But the rest would be applicable only if Adams himself had disgraced the concept of home in his personal life. We're talking about the subject of the work, not the author. Greatest Love of All was made famous by Whitney Houston, who, to say the least, did not love herself very much. But it is a classic drum corps tune (although CorpsReps claims it hasn't been played in DCI since '94 Suncoast. Is that possible?). And I would also say that while Mao was indeed brutal, it's a stretch to say that his brutality was about home life in some way. So, a song about his widow's longing for him is not hypocritical, because it's about her longing for him. Still, I have no problem with Stu bringing this issue up, because if it were Hitler and Eva Braun I suspect Blue Stars wouldn't use it. Anything that can be perceived as romanticizing dictators is an ok subject for discussion at least, it seems to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 "The Chairman Dances", which is also part of the opera, Nixon in China, is a programmatic piece about the wife of China’s leader Chairman Mao barging into a ceremony and engaging in a dance with a portrait image of her husband which joins her for a foxtrot. Mao was a very brutal leader who ordered close to two million of his own people killed during Land Reform and the Campaign to suppress Counterrevolutions; and he was also someone who idolized Linen. Just curious: how does that fit in with the Blue Stars' philosophy of "Where the Heart Is" and especially how "that environment shapes and forms the love of a family"? I think you stumbled into your own answer. For many people, linen goods evoke a homey quality. Maybe the Blue Stars will construct a house from sheets and towels during the show, in an homage to the Blue Devils' 2011 show. By the way, Mao was responsible for the death of a lot more than two million people; he's arguably the greatest mass murderer in history. His "Great Leap Forward" campaign alone resulted in about 30 million deaths (that's a middle estimate), and his other programs and campaigns and purges may have cost as many lives again. As for Adams's foxtrot, I think it is an excellent piece of music--and it's not actually from Nixon in China, by the way; rather, it is a companion work. From Wikipedia's description of "The Chairman Dances", which tracks fairly close to yours, I can't tell what Adams's attitude toward Mao is: is the dictatorial couple being praised, mocked, or merely observed? Anyway, great art can certainly tackle evil subjects, and arguably can even present an evil point of view, and remain great. (Great art can also be created by bad people: if the revived allegations against Woody Allen were proved true, must I deny my former enjoyment of Midnight in Paris?) A friend of mine loves Respighi's Pines of Rome, despite the fact that he believes it to music that supports Fascist ideals. I'm no Communist, but I'm a great admirer of Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, which is definitely Communist propaganda. How does Adams's work fit the theme of this year's Blue Stars show? I'm not sure. It doesn't seem any more appropriate to Santa Clara Vanguard's 2008 theme of "3hree: Mind, Body, Soul", in which this particular tune, as I recall, plays as the guard members represent over-stressed businesspeople. I'll grant you that the Reading Buccaneers' 2011 theme of "A Dancer's Dream" is a more obvious fit. If Blue Stars cared to make sense of it all, they might reply that Mao and his wife, homicidal as they were, were at a family and quite possibly in love with each other, and certainly shaped by their environment. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Freedman Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 I'm sure it will be a fine drum corps show - Blue Stars have a history of fun and engaging productions. That said... "The show will explore what it means to build a home, and how that environment shapes and forms the love of a family." Yeah, good luck with that one. Mike I predict they will build a home on the field, using prefab struts and plastic planks. The drill will then adapt their shapes and forms to the house, wherever it is. At the end a loving couple will move in, or perhaps someone will return home after a long journey. And we will be drawing comparisons to BD's 2011 The Beat My Heart Skipped. And it will be wonderful. Good luck, Blue Stars! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HockeyDad Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 The Chairman Dances, which is also part of the Opera Nixon in China, is a programmatic piece about the wife of Chinas leader Chairman Mao barging into a ceremony and engaging in a dance with a portrait image of her husband which joins her for a Foxtrot. Mao was a very brutal leader who ordered close to two-million of his own people killed during Land Reform and the Campaign to suppress Counterrevolutions; and he was also someone who idolized Linen. Just curious: How does that fit in with the Blue Stars philosophy of, Where the Heart Is, and especially how that environment shapes and forms the love of a family? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HockeyDad Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 The Chairman Dances, which is also part of the Opera Nixon in China, is a programmatic piece about the wife of Chinas leader Chairman Mao barging into a ceremony and engaging in a dance with a portrait image of her husband which joins her for a Foxtrot. Mao was a very brutal leader who ordered close to two-million of his own people killed during Land Reform and the Campaign to suppress Counterrevolutions; and he was also someone who idolized Linen. Just curious: How does that fit in with the Blue Stars philosophy of, Where the Heart Is, and especially how that environment shapes and forms the love of a family? I like linen just as much as the next guy. I wouldn't say I idolize it though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Freedman Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 ... if the revived allegations against Woody Allen were proved true, must I deny my former enjoyment of Midnight in Paris?) ... This is a complex question. It could reasonably affect your future enjoyment of his works. A decline is box office and back end sales hardly qualifies as vigilantism. But future generations are less likely to avoid his works because of what he may have done, probably because after he's dead he's beyond punishment. Again, though, in the present case it's about the subject of the work rather than the author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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