The tyranny and folly of abstraction - an open letter to the Cadets de

[CCorps]

Is he really still posting like this will make a difference? Go take this to Cadets. At least they'll laugh behind closed doors.

[BozzlyB]

If they march 10 snares I'll be happy regardless. I really miss seeing the big lines.

[Cappybara]

They played and marched the hell out of it, but the narration was just too annoying. Sucked all the life out of the show. The music and drill make the same points much better than spoken words.

Disagree. The narration saved that show from being a show with good music crippled by bad staging. I wouldn't ever listen to Cadets 2014 without the narration.

[perc2100]

(Someone JUST beat me to it...)

I'm going to come close to playing devil's advocate and say I do understand what the OP is getting at with the whole "ShosT's 10th wasn't about the number 10" thing. This was a minor quip I had with Crown's 2010 (A Second Chance) design...It's not like the audience could get that these were 2nd Symphony's just by listening to them (unless you recognized the music, I guess...) They weren't about the number two, or a second chance. That being said, that didn't preclude Crown from taking the great music and incorporating it into a very good show. The fact that they were second symphonies was just kind of arbitrary to the success of it.

This might be a valid-ish concern, but...I'll reserve judgment until I ACTUALLY SEE THE DANG SHOW. I've shuddered at half of the design announcements in some years, but those I was most cynical about have turned out to be pretty awesome. Sometimes.

Ah, but this activity is often at its best when designers reimagine, or repurpose music to fit there need. For example, the vast majority of Cadets 1995 music had NOTHING to do with war, or a small town, or whatever. But they took music that stylistically kind of fit what they wanted to do visually. Or BD 1996 slipping in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE score music into their old-school gangster show. Or Crown last year slipping an improvised car muffler solo into a space show. There are a ton of examples in the activity of this, and at the end of the day (summer) all that matters is if a show can stand on its own w/a cohesive marriage of visual and musical. It doesn't matter so much what the source material means so much as the arrangements and visual design work well together. Writing of very vague concepts out-of-hand is foolish, especially when a corps has not even had one audition camp yet, let alone a performance of the product in question.

[Super Don-O]

Disagree. The narration saved that show from being a show with good music crippled by bad staging. I wouldn't ever listen to Cadets 2014 without the narration.

The staging was dictated by the fact that there was an actual stage blocking the front sideline and audience lines of sight. So you could argue that the narration directly led to the bad staging.

[xandandl]

But the drill and the narration developed in stages!

Almost no two shows were alike.

[2000Cadet]

Things just haven't been the same since the Blue Devils folded in 2020 due to a lack of hindsight.

At least they didn't use drones and caronae like in Cadets 2027 version of "A tribute to Pluto, inspired by the music of Van Buskirk's Symphony Number MCM". Cadets completely destroyed a beautiful piece just because they wanted to take us off this planet.

Edited November 20, 2014 by 2000Cadet

[perc2100]

At least they didn't use drones and caronae like in Cadets 2027 version of "A tribute to Pluto, inspired by the music of Van Buskirk's Symphony Number MCM". Cadets completely destroyed a beautiful piece just because they wanted to take us off this planet.

But at least they (literally) explored new ground.

But to be honest, I haven't been a Cadets fan since Hopkins retired & the corps changed their colors to clear: those uniforms = YIKES!

($.02 to Steven Wright)

* EDIT *

also, this direction the thread has turned is INFINITELY more interesting and entertaining than originally, so good job DCP!!

Edited November 20, 2014 by perc2100

[brichtimp]

The staging was dictated by the fact that there was an actual stage blocking the front sideline and audience lines of sight. So you could argue that the narration directly led to the bad staging.

It might be said that the stage was the Cadets' gift to the Bluecoats.

[garfield]

I never understood the point of the size of the stage. Everyone who used it could have fit on a couple of podiums.

Why block the view?

I really think he was actually viewing the height and width spectrum so he'd be ready when, in 2019, guard are elevated by wires dangling from the LOS roof, raised and lowered onto the field "stage". In his groundbreaking show in 2020, "Angels and Demons Part Deux - The Angels Fly!", his guard are swept above the field using the most complicated suspension system ever designed. For the first time in recorded history, he stood motionless during the entire finals performance as his angels danced above the demons and, on the final resolve and push, each guard angel came crashing down on it's respective demon, ending with victorious foot on the back and a finger pointing to the heavens. His amps recorded the highest decibels ever recorded in Lucas and two of the glass end-panel windows cracked. After receiving the highest score ever awarded, 107.2 out of 100, he retired the following day, saying "I've done all I can do. My place in heaven is assured."

In 2021 LOS first allowed DCI drum corps to install live rigging above the field during finals week. On his death bed, Hopkins' last words were, "Finally, Cirque..."

Hopkins is credited with initiating the Age of Enli-HEIGHTEN-ment and the eventual development of guard levitation.

Edited November 20, 2014 by garfield