DCI Better than original source music?

[perc2100]

DC fans, already a small and self-selected lot who seek out a music genre set apart from the mainstream, have an automatic preference for the DC idiom. So, I guess the answer to the OP's question is "all/most drum corps music is superior to the original source."

I mean, there may be DC charts that we think were weak -- that is, weak as drum-corps arrangements -- yet I'm guessing most of us still prefer those charts to the original composition.

Perhaps the more illuminating question would be: what original-source music was worse as a DC arrangement; or, what original music cannot be improved upon by DC and should be left alone?

I guess for me, when I say I like SCV 88 & 89 better than the original "Phantom of the Opera," I could've been more honest and said I really don't like "Phantom of the Opera," can't stand it really, but I really like SCV 88 & 89 because they took music that is barely tolerable, changed things up enough to not get boring, and presented a program that accomplishes its goal w/out slogging down in melodramatic drivel.

[perc2100]

Perhaps the more illuminating question would be: what original-source music was worse as a DC arrangement; or, what original music cannot be improved upon by DC and should be left alone?

John Cage's 4'33. No matter what a drum corps did, it would likely lose ALL effect as the corps would either be marching while 'performing' the musical content, and/or they would shorten Cage's piece in order to make it fit with drum corps conventions.

* edit *

1) yes I know a corps has done it before, and I haven't seen that performance but I suspect I will still feel the same

2) I believe much of Cage's work would not translate to drum corps. Something like his "Living Room Music" for example just wouldn't work in our medium (maybe as an I&E piece)

Edited June 5, 2014 by perc2100

[HockeyDad]

I guess for me, when I say I like SCV 88 & 89 better than the original "Phantom of the Opera," I could've been more honest and said I really don't like "Phantom of the Opera," can't stand it really, but I really like SCV 88 & 89 because they took music that is barely tolerable, changed things up enough to not get boring, and presented a program that accomplishes its goal w/out slogging down in melodramatic drivel.

Lol. I remember sitting in Arrowhead Stadium in '88 with my dad, who was in his mid-60s, and his proclaiming that he hated Phantom Of The Opera. I remember thinking to myself "you old coot, how do you even know what it is?" The Andrew Lloyd Weber production was new at the time. I had no knowledge of the history, and that it was an old story. Ahh, the ignorance and confidence of youth!

[82ryder]

To this day, I am still partial to the '82 Madison version of "Strawberry Soup". To me, it's a perfect condensation of the 17+ minute original with satisfying builds and jaw-dropping payoffs... I was sooo jealous of that chart that year.

And yes, I prefer the '82 version over '83... probably more for personal reasons. I also give it the knod over later versions by BD and Crossmen. Unfortunately, I have never heard the '78 version from the Cadets.

Edited June 5, 2014 by 82ryder

[OrlandoContraAlum]

To this day, I am still partial to the '82 Madison version of "Strawberry Soup". To me, it's a perfect condensation of the 17+ minute original with satisfying builds and jaw-dropping payoffs... I was sooo jealous of that chart that year.

And yes, I prefer the '82 version over '83... probably more for personal reasons. I also give it the knod over later versions by BD and Crossmen. Unfortunately, I have never heard the '78 version from the Cadets.

That's a fair point, although I prefer the 83 version. In fact, I find the 93 version to be the most powerful, simply because they were hyping so much due to performing in a downpour.

[N.E. Brigand]

I guess for me, when I say I like SCV '88 & '89 better than the original "Phantom of the Opera," I could've been more honest and said I really don't like "Phantom of the Opera," can't stand it really, but I really like SCV '88 & '89 because they took music that is barely tolerable, changed things up enough to not get boring, and presented a program that accomplishes its goal w/out slogging down in melodramatic drivel.

You also describe my sentiments.

[N.E. Brigand]

- Crossmen 90 (the New York Voices stuff is cheesy and unlistenable)

Agreed. I once heard a high school choir's take on "Now or Never" and preferred that to the original as well.

[N.E. Brigand]

Franz Biebl's Ave Maria is better than PR's.

Indeed. The performance by Chanticleer is magnificent.

[N.E. Brigand]

"Terpsichore" (Crown '97) - Crown breathed a ton of life and rhythm into the piece that's just not there in the band version.

I have a mix cassette of Renaissance music on period instruments, recorded apparently in the 1970s, a tape from a tape that I got from my father and he from a friend with no titles or artists indicated. On it is the same dance piece from Michael Praetorius's Terpsichore that Crown played in 1997, and it blows every other version out of the water, including Crown's, with shawms and sackbutts and cornetts wailing away, but I've never been able to discover who the performers are.

[HornTeacher]

Just to be the devil's advocate...

If you're talking "symphonic" pieces, and you were to take a population of "symphonic" based listeners and ask them to compare the original "symphonic" selection to the D&BC corps version, to which do you think most of them would gravitate?

If you're talking "jazz" pieces, and you were to take a population of pure "jazz" aficionados and ask them to compare an original "jazz" based performance (let's say, Buddy Rich's "Channel One Suite") to the Blue Devils' '86 performance, to which do you think most of them would gravitate?

My point is...by and large, I think people gravitate to a style based on their own personal preference. Classical listeners, by and large, prefer classical. Jazz listeners, by and large, prefer jazz (in its' original intended form). D&BC listeners gravitate toward D&BC for its' own unique sound.

I realize that eyes would be opened -- but I think that would go both ways.

As a personal aside, I've heard Barber's "Adagio for Strings" done countless times (both through recordings and live) in the intended setting. I've heard it done many times on the D&BC field. For me, there is absolutely no comparison. The depth of feeling...the pathos...the heart-rending emotion inherent in the piece which is almost always present in the intended form has never been even closely approached by Drums and Brass. To those familiar with the movie "Platoon"...which version, if available at the time, do you think the directorial staff of the movie would have used in it's climactic scene?

Let me posit this. Copland's "Fanfare For The Common Man." We know it as a brass/percussion piece. Many don't know that Copland himself used it as an uninterrupted entrance to the 4th movement of his 3rd Symphony. It was stated twice...first in clarinets, bassoons, and other woodwinds, which flowed from a slower, softer feel of his third movement. Immediately after the woodwind rendering, he re-stated it in it's more well known form -- brass and percussion. Surprisingly, both renditions have their merit. The woodwind rendition makes sense as a progression out of the mood before it...the brass rendition makes more sense to our ears because it exists as we have come to know it. When we hear the brass come in, we have a feeling of "aaaahhhhhh....ok." But both make sense -- WITHIN their reason for being.

BUT...and that is a very important caveat...all of this is only the opinion of one man -- one man who tends to ramble, and not shut up when it is best to do so. And I fully grant that for others, the case may be different. No, that's not waffling. It is a mere statement of understanding and fact.

Maybe it simply comes down to this: "We like what we like...because we like it. Things make sense to us...because they make sense to us. Things seem right...because they JUST seem right."

Ahhhhhhh....the human condition.

Edited June 6, 2014 by HornTeacher