Sedici

[c mor]

Sounds like a bowel problem.....OH MY GOD I HAVE TO SEDICI.... Shouldn't have eaten that burrito

What you need is a good waffle.

[wesleyrp]

Hehehehe you bet

[cajal]

Maybe the Boston and Devils shows can be enjoyed without a libretto, but there's more in there if you want to go into depth?

I enjoyed both shows without any previous background info, and I like that there's more there if you want to go into more detail.

[HornTeacher]

Maybe it's the first step of a veiled advocacy for increasing the DCI finals field from 12 to 16. Sort of a "G16" thing....

[Lincoln]

Maybe it's the first step of a veiled advocacy for increasing the DCI finals field from 12 to 16. Sort of a "G16" thing....

Personally, I wish they would have called it "G - Your Hair Smells Terrific" - the 70's were so great for slogans!

[JohnD]

Maybe the Boston and Devils shows can be enjoyed without a libretto, but there's more in there if you want to go into depth?

I enjoyed both shows without any previous background info, and I like that there's more there if you want to go into more detail.

This.

I can certainly enjoy both shows without a libretto - however, having one makes it more interesting for me. I'm also the guy that reads 'liner notes' on an album/CD and watches the 'Additional Features' / 'behind the scenes' content on the DVD/Bluray.

[garfield]

I haven't watched the video yet, but I notice that one of the first comments says "Thank you for explaining what is going on. Never would have understood otherwise". Now, I like BD's show a lot, but as with some of Boston's recent videos, comments like that make me wonder why the corps can't get their meanings across in the shows themselves. Lots of people mocked Cadets in 2010 for having volunteers hand out synopses of "Toy Souldier"; how is this any different?

BD's is a better show than Toy Souldier was?

[BRASSO]

Seriously, folks?

Ha!

Well I'm not telling...yet

Are you attempting to make an oblique comment on illegal immigration, garfield ?

[N.E. Brigand]

It's a well-made video, but anyone who has:

1. Seen the show at least once on the Fan Network;

2. Made note of their repertoire as listed, e.g., in mingusmonk's thread above; and

3. Been paying a reasonable amount of attention to the discussion on these forums...

already knows 95% of what the video tells you.

Here's everything I learned from the video:

A. The show's three movements are titled "Fellini's Religion", "Fellini's Circus", and "Fellini's Fantasy";

B. The figure who lurches down the catwalk followed by someone else with an umbrella is a "broken clown";

C. Individual member movements in the post-fanfare transition were in fact each separately choreographed (I figured as much, and so did you, but this confirms it); and

D. Gordon Goodwin found the collaborative process of creating music for drum corps to be different and interesting.

Besides that, the rest of the video is at the level of a middle school book report: following some opening blather from the narrator (e.g., "from its dramatic opening moments to its triumphant conclusion", which describes most successful drum corps shows), we hear comments by the members that are almost always merely description that anyone who's seen the show could articulate at least as well as they do. For instance: "Marking the end of the drum break, there's a very definitive quick second break, and then we cut to the front ensemble, and people are hustling around again. You see all these drill forms; there's a lot going on, a lot of stuff to see, a lot of excitement, and that basically sets us up for the next mood change where we form this large diagonal that pushes toward the corner." Most of the other comments are as blandly descriptive as that.

In my opinion, this video should make people think less not more highly of BD's show. Accordingly, since BD's show is very, very good, this video should be ignored. This is not terribly surprising. Artists' statements about their works frequently are less illuminating than the works themselves. (I will allow that we probably have no reason to expect anything more illuminating from other corps. Certainly the interviews used in DCI's cinema-casts are no better.)

However, if you have seen the video, you may be inclined to wonder about matters they don't address:

--What makes BD's opening fanfare better or worse than Madison's opening fanfare? I'm not saying it's not better (nor that they need to mention Madison); I'm saying that they give no indication of what makes theirs good; there is merely assertion that "it's a brilliant way to start the show". Are both BD and Madison conveying the same message through their fanfares (here described as "the show is here, we have arrived, this is the beginning")? Are we meant to think there's something innovative about BD's use of a fanfare? Or are they carrying on a grand drum corps tradition?

--Has any observer yet mentioned that the trumpet player in the early transition looks like he is being pulled away by a balloon? If not, BD is failing to convey that point?

--What is a broken clown? And what is special about juxtaposing a beautiful love theme with "this broken person, who might be lonely or sad"? For one thing, we don't know who that person is, so we don't know if he's lonely or sad. Does it matter if we don't know? For another, if presenting two discordant elements simultaneously is special, then why should BD be rewarded for what most corps also do regularly?

--Describing the end of a piece, a member says, "We continue on. Again just an instant mood shift". Isn't that the sort of thing that people are complaining about in Madison's show? Again, what makes BD's treatment of such a transition special?

--Back to "Fellini's Religion". How on earth is religion conveyed in BD's show? One of the most famous images in Fellini's films is the statue of Christ being transported by helicopter in La Dolce Vita. There's no reason that BD should include a reference to that image ... unless they're making a point of saying that one-third of their show is about Fellini's religion. Or do they mean that Fellini's real religion is cinema? Is that why they specifically mention the film-reel imagery at the beginning and end of the first movement? If that's the case, then the video should have been more clear about that, and it then must address the film-reel imagery later in their show.

Finally, even though it was just published four days ago, the video is already out of date: the end of their show has changed.

[kaseyW]

This is unfair. Gordon Goodwin wrote some of their music.