Stop all the Storytelling

[jwillis35]

I certainly don't want to "eliminate" any styles, but I would question whether the the designers are as "creative" as all that.

Also, Crown has two themes, only one of which is "Western Fantasy". (I'm not sure "fantasy" enters in at all.) Their title is "Relentless" and their recurrent musical selection is "Medea", neither of which have anything inherently to do with the Old West--but they do connect with the story that's presented to us (which in my opinion needs further clarity).

I don't think you have to play only music of the traditional westerns to support a western theme. The way Crown is using Medea is great. Forget about who wrote the tune or what it was used for or who previously performed the music. It's only purpose in this show is to support the high-points of their western theme. Also, I respect your take on this. You always have solid, well educated and researched opinions (and facts), and are very knowledgeable of the activity. But I do think of their show as a Fantasy. They don't explicitly ask us to follow a direct story. They don't introduce specific characters in a manner in which we would know their name or have some insight into their lives. They allow the audience to make of the western what they will. Use your imagination...that kind of thing. To me the whole thing is soundscapes & visual tapestry woven together with a short skit.

By the way, this is how I looked at "INK" by Blue Devils. They created a series of soundscapes and visual tapestries through color, music, costume, and inserted several short skits regarding story-book characters. They didn't really tell a complete story. That show was a Fantasy or perhaps Dreamscape that might occur in one's head and imagination when reading a book.

[wesleyrp]

I think thematic and even story boarding approach is what helps to grab an audience. Think about it from our own comments on here, how often do we see/hear- I'm not sure what the story or theme is of corps A. Star so many years ago took the mantra of pushing boundaries and beginning the abstract side of story boarding. BD for instance went from being that jazz corps that melted you with their playing and great compositions to more modernized abstract art and storyboarding.

I still see more general thematic ideas and those shows do well, but if you look at the top this year, you've got corps in every sense that are thematic minded but really don't follow a script or scenes on the field. While I think there's good to both ways, the audience being able to make inferences and have emotional attachment to an idea is the new age. I for one like the direction the activity is trending towards.

WP

[DrumManTx]

I don't think you have to play only music of the traditional westerns to support a western theme. The way Crown is using Medea is great. Forget about who wrote the tune or what it was used for or who previously performed the music. It's only purpose in this show is to support the high-points of their western theme. Also, I respect your take on this. You always have solid, well educated and researched opinions (and facts), and are very knowledgeable of the activity. But I do think of their show as a Fantasy. They don't explicitly ask us to follow a direct story. They don't introduce specific characters in a manner in which we would know their name or have some insight into their lives. They allow the audience to make of the western what they will. Use your imagination...that kind of thing. To me the whole thing is soundscapes & visual tapestry woven together with a short skit.

By the way, this is how I looked at "INK" by Blue Devils. They created a series of soundscapes and visual tapestries through color, music, costume, and inserted several short skits regarding story-book characters. They didn't really tell a complete story. That show was a Fantasy or perhaps Dreamscape that might occur in one's head and imagination when reading a book.

Interesting. I myself have taken their show as having a pretty explicit story with concrete characters. Two ride in at the beginning, a bandit/bad guy comes in and shoots one dead.

BUT. The story completely comes to a halt there until the ballad. If it is a concrete story as I suspect it will be, they will later some stuff with the character into the Journey portion and Roxanne.

In the ballad we see the main interact with the one that was shot in the beginning in the little graveyard up front, and at the end the main character confronts the bad guy from the beginning, shoots him, gets revenge.

I saw in an Instagram post they've added some distinguishing features in terms of costume additions for the one that gets shot at the beginning.

However, you can certainly just watch it as a Western Fantasy and enjoy it just as much.

[corpsband]

I certainly don't want to "eliminate" any styles, but I would question whether the the designers are as "creative" as all that.

Also, Crown has two themes, only one of which is "Western Fantasy". (I'm not sure "fantasy" enters in at all.) Their title is "Relentless" and their recurrent musical selection is "Medea", neither of which have anything inherently to do with the Old West--but they do connect with the story that's presented to us (which in my opinion needs further clarity).

son sees bad guy kill father

journey to seek revenge (western fantasy if you please)

son kills bad guy

relentless is the nature of the son's pursuit

medea (a story of revenge) is just a musical thematic element used to book-end the story from beginning of journey to end

that's all there is. there isn't any more.

im positive crown will continue to enhance and clarify.

i don't think western fantasy is far off -- maybe spaghetti western fantasy in a steampunk style?

Edited July 14, 2016 by corpsband

[DrumManTx]

son sees bad guy kill father

journey to seek revenge (western fantasy if you please)

son kills bad guy

relentless is the nature of the son's pursuit

medea (a story of revenge) is just a musical thematic element used to book-end the story from beginning of journey to end

that's all there is. there isn't any more.

im positive crown will continue to enhance and clarify.

i don't think western fantasy is far off -- maybe spaghetti western fantasy in a steampunk style?

I was not aware it was a father and son.

Thanks for the info!

:)

[corpsband]

I was not aware it was a father and son.

Thanks for the info!

:)

i think it makes the show more interesting when the details are somewhat left to the audience to interpret. sometimes too obvious just destroys things.

[Hrothgar15]

I'm kind of frustrated with the current state of the activity. My frustration isn't about narration or trombones or electronics, it's about lack of brassline's playing for an extended period of time and a lack of good musical construction. It's appalling that some brasslines play for about 6 minutes of the show. There is no sustainable melody. Shows today are like a brass concerto with the drumline acting as the orchestra. It's boring, quite frankly. A few seconds of horns playing, followed by a lengthy drum solo, followed by few seconds of horn playing...rinse and repeat. When I say a few seconds, I mean 20-40 seconds. There's just no development on the musical side. I'm honestly at my wits end with this activity.

Took the words right out of my mouth. It is absolutely *night and day* when compared to '90s shows.

How many hornlines this year keep playing after the first big hit of the show? Madison Scouts'? You tell me the players are more talented than ever yet have to take a break a minute into the show, when their presence is needed the most?

[BRASSO]

I'll take even incoherent themes, if the music played by the Corps is appealing. On the other hand, if the music played is unappealing to me, no amount of even great " storytelling " with the theme's coherent messaging, will save that Corps with me regarding its entertainment levels. I'm a music guy first, visual guy 2nd, need -for- great- storytelling- by a Drum Corps- on a football field, - guy 3rd. I know the current DCI judging system does not tend to reward what I prefer they reward, but thats above my pay grade anyway.. I can only express what I find entertaining for me personally.

Edited July 14, 2016 by BRASSO

[Hrothgar15]

I guess with so much more in the pit now (both volume wise and instrumentation wise, including synths that can play sustained notes), it's much more feasible to have percussion play for extended periods without the brass. In the '90s, if a designer tried that, the show would stop dead in its tracks multiple times. What they don't see, however, is that doing that today completely messes with the pacing and development. The best shows these days are the ones where the designs employ this technique to a minimum.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Hrothgar15

[N.E. Brigand]

I don't think you have to play only music of the traditional westerns to support a western theme. The way Crown is using Medea is great. Forget about who wrote the tune or what it was used for or who previously performed the music. It's only purpose in this show is to support the high-points of their western theme. Also, I respect your take on this. You always have solid, well educated and researched opinions (and facts), and are very knowledgeable of the activity. But I do think of their show as a Fantasy. They don't explicitly ask us to follow a direct story. They don't introduce specific characters in a manner in which we would know their name or have some insight into their lives. They allow the audience to make of the western what they will. Use your imagination... that kind of thing. To me the whole thing is soundscapes & visual tapestry woven together with a short skit.

By the way, this is how I looked at "INK" by Blue Devils. They created a series of soundscapes and visual tapestries through color, music, costume, and inserted several short skits regarding story-book characters. They didn't really tell a complete story. That show was a Fantasy or perhaps Dreamscape that might occur in one's head and imagination when reading a book.

Thanks for those kind words. Back at you!

I agree with your first two sentences. After that, it seems we may be using "fantasy" in different ways. For me, that term, when applied to a narrative, implies the involvement of the supernatural. I wouldn't refer to most Westerns as "fantasy" (I'm thinking of, e.g. The Virginian, Stagecoach, The Searchers, Red River, High Noon, Winchester 73, The Searchers, The Magnificent Seven, For a Few Dollars More, Unforgiven).

As for the option of forgetting the revenge theme, which I see as the other primary aspect of Crown's show, that's hard to do when Crown's staff has said that "Medea" is used to convey that theme, and when the story, such as it is, ends with one character killing the villain who earlier had murdered his companion. By contrast, Kidsgrove Scouts made even more prominent use of "Medea" last year, but the idea of revenge was much less prominent--although given the presence of a druid and something like a dragon, fantasy was definitely present!

Coincidentally, I was just browsing a history of English literature last night, which suggested that the last important revenge stories to make use of fantasy were Hamlet and, ironically for this year's drum corps season, The Tempest. The revenger in the latter tale opts to forgive in the end, which one loquacious DCP contributor has suggested would be a good change for Crown to make.

Edited July 14, 2016 by N.E. Brigand