2019 Phantom Regiment

[Jeff Ream]

47 minutes ago, acolli17 said:

Can you elaborate on your tip of the spear statement? I don't know if I'm understanding it correctly, but it seems like you're saying the way that equality is being represented in this context is as the beginning of an assault on norms. I could very well be wrong, so I apologize if I misread your comment.

in some cases, equality is being forced by threat.....usually reputation. 

[Brian Tuma]

Meanwhile, Blue Stars are playing a really fun piece that just so happens to be composed by a woman. No “look at us” involved with their choice. 

[alvinpr89]

7 minutes ago, Brian Tuma said:

Meanwhile, Blue Stars are playing a really fun piece that just so happens to be composed by a woman. No “look at us” involved with their choice. 

And yet you have created a "look at us" moment.

 

[cixelsyd]

18 minutes ago, acolli17 said:

And to answer your question, disregarding gender is real equality, yes. And were Phantom to have created a gender neutral show this year, I don't think there'd be any issue. But the show is in fact not disregarding gender - it is very strongly about female empowerment. So to then turn around and not do that in all of the different facets of the show feels disingenuous, almost as if they're jumping on the bandwagon because it's the hot topic of the times. I understand your point about equality, but the concept of this show is not gender equal, which then creates a lack of consistency in the design because of the decisions that were made.

In case this is a sincere post, here are my sincere responses.

a.  I am not here to defend the Phantom Regiment design staff, or their choices... but in case we all forgot, the show was supposed to be about Joan of Arc, not Joan Tower.  That could reasonably result in choosing music that speaks to her particular story and era.  But after months of the social media marketing behind the show chasing the wider concept of empower-women, I think even the design staff lost focus on what the show was about.  (In that sense, this is much like Cadets last month, when their show description veered off theme and became a political bucket list.)

b.  But in any case, you do realize that there are different ways to do a pro-women show, right?  Choosing music written by women would be one such option.  Choosing a female hero and making her story the theme is another.  You are not required to do both simultaneously.  (If you were, Cadets would deserve just as harsh criticism for creating a fictional female protagonist for their show, when they could have chosen a real-life female role model instead.)

[phd-student-TTU]

Considering the press releases from the corps have stated multiple times that this show is about female empowerment, I think the staff has once again embarrassed themselves. They’re putting out videos of MM’s telling stories about all the influential women in their lives. How could they forget to have a female composer’s work in their program? Shows should work on many levels of interests, so including at least one female composer should have been a no-brainer. 

And btw, being PC is a good thing. It’s called having manners and respect for others. People who have issues with it are often projecting their “I can’t be an insensitive jerk anymore” attitude. Identity politics is about bringing attention to the gaps in society between the majority and minorities. If it offends you, take a moment to reflect why it does. 

[Brian Tuma]

5 minutes ago, alvinpr89 said:

And yet you have created a "look at us" moment.

 

Lol. More like a “look at them” moment. 

[acolli17]

11 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

In case this is a sincere post, here are my sincere responses.

a.  I am not here to defend the Phantom Regiment design staff, or their choices... but in case we all forgot, the show was supposed to be about Joan of Arc, not Joan Tower.  That could reasonably result in choosing music that speaks to her particular story and era.  But after months of the social media marketing behind the show chasing the wider concept of empower-women, I think even the design staff lost focus on what the show was about.  (In that sense, this is much like Cadets last month, when their show description veered off theme and became a political bucket list.)

b.  But in any case, you do realize that there are different ways to do a pro-women show, right?  Choosing music written by women would be one such option.  Choosing a female hero and making her story the theme is another.  You are not required to do both simultaneously.  (If you were, Cadets would deserve just as harsh criticism for creating a fictional female protagonist for their show, when they could have chosen a real-life female role model instead.)

I think we can all agree that the lack of foresight on the PR portion of Phantom was subpar.

I went through the history of Phantom's repertoire, and the only time they played a piece by a female composer was in 1972, when they did Bates's America the Beautiful. It doesn't seem like this has ever been an issue with fans of the activity in the past, but only when Phantom made it a point of their show did the criticisms come to surface. There have undoubtedly been many aspects of criticism of Phantom's show designs over the years, does proper representation of gender inequality not warrant the same level of validity?

[HockeyDad]

16 minutes ago, phd-student-TTU said:

Considering the press releases from the corps have stated multiple times that this show is about female empowerment, I think the staff has once again embarrassed themselves. They’re putting out videos of MM’s telling stories about all the influential women in their lives. How could they forget to have a female composer’s work in their program? Shows should work on many levels of interests, so including at least one female composer should have been a no-brainer. 

And btw, being PC is a good thing. It’s called having manners and respect for others. People who have issues with it are often projecting their “I can’t be an insensitive jerk anymore” attitude. Identity politics is about bringing attention to the gaps in society between the majority and minorities. If it offends you, take a moment to reflect why it does. 

Good news then. Phantom Regiment got it right. Males are the minority in the US today. Or are you slicing the demographics up in some different way?  Oh, and disagreeing does not equal being a jerk. 

Edited June 3, 2019 by HockeyDad

[acolli17]

5 minutes ago, HockeyDad said:

Good news then. Phantom Regiment got it right. Males are the minority in the US today. Or are you slicing the demographics up in some different way?  Oh, and disagreeing does not equal being a jerk. 

Your last statement is a great point to remember, for all people, in all aspects of life.

[MikeN]

13 hours ago, acolli17 said:

I've been doing a lot of research into women and minority composers this year. I am purposely avoiding adding my opinion to this specific topic, but I read a few pages back about some people not being able to name female composers, so I'd like to offer a list of names to get you started! Again, not adding any input specifically on the politics of programming, but just a reference for those who would like to expand their composer knowledge:

Alex Shapiro
Julie Giroux
Cait Nishimura
Fanny Mendelssohn
Jennifer Jolley
Caroline Shaw
Clara Schumann
Roshanne Etezady
Nicole Piunno
Hildegard Von Bingen
Carol Britton Chambers
Libby Larsen
Lisa Galvin
Jennifer Higdon
Cindy McTee

Obviously there are more out there, but these are ones that I've listened to and I think would work extremely well on the marching field. I put the composers in bold that I think would REALLY work well.
 

Carol Britton Chambers is our high school's music arranger.  She also works in some original stuff as well.  I dig it.

Mike