ShortAndFast Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Well you certainly aren't seeing negative reactions or booing! In fact Medea is craftily hidden in much of the show. The ostinato is played underneath the Dobson piece. It's sprinkled throughout the show so that it can be picked out if you know what to listen for. But you rarely hear pure, unadulterated Medea. This is a real pity IMO. Star 1993 took Medea seriously as a piece of music and spent almost their whole show playing it. Whatever shape or theme or emotions they portrayed came pretty directly from the haunting, violent, relentless original piece. Crown 2016 cherry-picks some good moments from Medea, and gets some nostalgia points from people who remember Star's version, but it's just one of a bunch of pieces and often is in the background of the musical texture. I would love to hear Crown 2016 play Medea's Dance of Vengeance by Samuel Barber, but apparently you can't get rewarded if you do something crazy like that. It's really hard to combine musically satisfying arrangements of original works with story-telling. This is another dimension where Spartacus succeeded but a lot of story-telling shows have failed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Crown 2016 cherry-picks some good moments from Medea, and gets some nostalgia points from people who remember Star's version i didn't read klesch's arrangement as trying to do that at all. relentless is a revenge show, and medea is all about revenge. her lust for it drove her crazy. the 7-note ostinato and 6-note theme from the piece work for the show. love how he played with it. i didn't see it as an attempt for nostalgia points. in fact, i'm glad that's not what klesch did with it at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 I would love to hear Crown 2016 play Medea's Dance of Vengeance by Samuel Barber, but apparently you can't get rewarded if you do something crazy like that. I'm not sure that's true at all. I just think the piece in it's entirety doesn't fit the "western" show theme whereas the quotes do suggest the concept of revenge. I'd love to see Crown take on Medea in a more complete fashion. But I don't get a vote :-) It's really hard to combine musically satisfying arrangements of original works with story-telling. This is another dimension where Spartacus succeeded but a lot of story-telling shows have failed. I disagree. Lots of successful "story" shows with music choices that support the story well. IMO what's "special" about Spartacus wasn't the music or storyline at all. It was how well the performer's communicated with the audience and how the audience responded. All about the performers in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownBariDad Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 This thread needs some Channel3... Well, you know what happens when you say the name 3 times, don't you? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShortAndFast Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 i didn't read klesch's arrangement as trying to do that at all. relentless is a revenge show, and medea is all about revenge. her lust for it drove her crazy. the 7-note ostinato and 6-note theme from the piece work for the show. love how he played with it. i didn't see it as an attempt for nostalgia points. in fact, i'm glad that's not what klesch did with it at all. Well let's put it this way, suppose somebody who had never heard the work watched Crown 2016 and then went to hear a professional orchestra play Barber's piece. Do you think they'd recognize it as the same work? At best, I think they might pick up on the big climactic chords as the same. That's what I mean by cherry-picking: Crown 2016 uses a couple of significant musical moments from Medea, but discards the structure, development, most of the themes, and the resolution of the original. I don't hate Klesch's arrangement this year, nor did I hate what Cadets did in 2013, but I don't see either as committing to a performance of Barber's piece the way that Star 1993 did. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeDz Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 I really don't prefer whether or not a corps has a story to tell or wants to get me emotionally involved. Last year's Crown, Madison, Academy, Phantom had themes or stories that flowed nicely through the entire show. The best "show" themes I've seen came from DCA's Empire Statesmen. They took topics like Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Out of Many---One, and Going to Oz and did them "Statesman Style" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xandandl Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 (edited) I am presuming that the posters here know the deep and wonderful friendship and mentoring shared by Jim Prime, Jr. (arranger for Star of Indiana) and Michael Klesch (arranger for Carolina Crown) and why Michael would respectfully never try to outshine his mentor although he certainly would strive to make Jim Prime proud of the work Michael Klesch arranges. They worked closely when Michael marched in Garfield Cadets for whom Jim Prime Jr. was the arranger with Donnie Van Doren as brass caption head (similar to how they were later at Star.) When Jim and Donnie left the Cadets for Star, Michael succeeded Jim as arranger. Over the years, Michael has continued to consult with his mentor and friend. Edited July 14, 2016 by xandandl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ouooga Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Wait, there's concern that a corps isn't playing the full source music? That's like 99% of drum corps for the last 25 years. Medea as written doesn't fit the theme (put the pitch forks away, I said theme, not story) for Crown's show, but they chose the source music and made it their own. Star's show was actually called The Music of Barber and Bartok, thus, theme. Picking and choosing is drum corps nowadays. I mean, have you heard the actual music for Sweeney Todd? Just to confirm, Medea isn't a cowboy western piece, right? Please don't tell me Barber also had a story I didn't understand.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Well let's put it this way, suppose somebody who had never heard the work watched Crown 2016 and then went to hear a professional orchestra play Barber's piece. Do you think they'd recognize it as the same work? No. Which is why I don't think Klesch or Crown't intent was to earn brownie points with the choice to use music from the piece. It was a specific choice. That driving ostinato from Medea that permeates Crown's show conveys a desire for revenge. It would work for any show built around vengeance. If I were making a trailer for a new action movie where somebody's hunting somebody else, I'd use that motif. It's a brilliant and visceral ostinato that singularly conveys an emotion. Could Klesch have made Medea work for a spaghetti western revenge show if it were played more "straight" as you're saying? Probably. I'd love to hear it, actually. It's not the choice he made, though, and I think it works really well with the iconic Morricone spaghetti western scores. I lament the lack of faithfulness to great pieces as much as anybody, don't get me wrong. I'd actually argue that it's been rare for it to happen in the past 20 years or so, but chop/hack/slap arrangements are at an all-time high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFZFAN Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 I remember when a show was just a few tunes thrown together - performed well - and was entertaining as can be. Now that you have to try to interpret the theme or story by what the lead prancers are doing in front of the corps just makes it a less enjoyable experience. Bring back precision guard that impresses with their mastery of the flags and rifles and get rid of the wannabe jazz dance club. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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