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2019 Phantom Regiment


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But it is the same. The staff picked what they felt best depicts what they want to portray. IIRC certain pieces written by female composers were considered but did not make the final cut. It happens.......so, if you’re expecting a big “mea culpa” from the design staff, I don’t think it will happen. As I’ve stated before, most of the posts on this thread are written to dismiss the efforts of the 2019 Phantom Regiment BEFORE they even hit the field. That is a shame. People are entitled to their opinions but to count them out before a signle note is played on the field, I feel is a great disservice to the members who have committed their summer to march Regiment.

Flame away!

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14 minutes ago, Sutasaurus said:

But it is the same. The staff picked what they felt best depicts what they want to portray. IIRC certain pieces written by female composers were considered but did not make the final cut. It happens.......so, if you’re expecting a big “mea culpa” from the design staff, I don’t think it will happen. As I’ve stated before, most of the posts on this thread are written to dismiss the efforts of the 2019 Phantom Regiment BEFORE they even hit the field. That is a shame. People are entitled to their opinions but to count them out before a signle note is played on the field, I feel is a great disservice to the members who have committed their summer to march Regiment.

Flame away!

I hope that at no point my words have been misinterpreted to bash the MMs in any way. This is a critique of the design process, and nothing more. 

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18 minutes ago, Daave said:

One could.  They chose not to.

And that’s what a lot of people are upset about, isn’t it?

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2 minutes ago, acolli17 said:

And that’s what a lot of people are upset about, isn’t it?

Yeah, that's the way it is with a word like could.  They apparently have chosen not to. 

In 2016 the Troopers wore an androgynous cowboy stripper costume.  They could have opted otherwise.  They chose not to.  Probably a bad analogy, but maybe you get the drift.... or not.  I could have made a better one.  I chose not to.

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I think Will Pitts explained their show design and music selection rationale thoroughly in the Who is your Joan series of videos on the PR YouTube channel. This buzz that they generated that was very likely unintentional, but regardless I'm excited about the music and am looking forward to them this summer! I think this show will have a little bit of Spartacus, with a little bit of Triumphant Journey, and a hopefully a lot more chickens!

Did PR miss an opportunity to include music composed by women into a show that "...celebrates bold, empowered women and the spirit of revolution through the lens of Joan of Arc, one of the world’s most prolific independent women." Sure, it was definitely a missed opportunity. Was PR obligated to do so and was the harsh criticism warranted? Not necessarily, but hindsight is 20/20 and opinions on both sides of the aisle are valid.

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41 minutes ago, acolli17 said:

That’s not the same logic though - if a group is going to do a show about women, the idea could be to disclude, at least for one selection, male composers. Because the point to drive home is that women can create music on par with men. 

The difference I think we’re expressing is your example says the concept drives the music. Why couldn’t, for at least one movement, the music drive the concept?

Because 99+% of the audience will not know or care who composed the piece. They will just know the emotion it invokes and whether or not it conveys the visual theme or concept that they are seeing at that time. The music CAN drive the concept but the gender of the composer of the music is not something that would help to drive the concept in any meaningful way during the corps 12 minute performance. In other words the gender of the composer does not impact the program in ANY way competitively nor should it.

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6 hours 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.

BOOM!

And given their recent design flaws, this could be a real dud if not done correctly!

However, the activity really isn't about the music so much as it is about being able to tell the story. If they can tell the story effectively, no one will care who the original composer was. 

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5 hours ago, acolli17 said:

I get the feeling that last post will be misinterpreted, so allow me to clarify:

if you were going to do a show about Hanukkah, you could include a Jewish composer. If you did a show about the history of slave music, you could use a slave song. If you did a show about pirates, you could include a sea shanty. If you do a show about a specific theme, it makes sense to use music created for and by that theme. If your theme is women, wouldn’t it make sense to use music written by women?

Using slave songs and sea shanty tunes will highlight the theme of the show as heard and seen. It makes no judgement on who composed the music. I'm not sure very many pirates were sitting down and writing music, though there are lots of pieces that might demonstrate that theme written by "traditional" composers. 

I would guess that it what PR did, and the post by Will Pitt seems to bear it out. They looked for music that fits their theme, movement by movement. Having to also factor in aspects that have nothing to do with what the audience member experiences isn't something they considered. They, like every corps staff, focused on what will be on the field that they think best highlights their show. Looking back, would it have been nice if they had thought of researching and using a piece by a woman composer if they found a suitable piece? Sure. They said it themselves. They did not. Oh, well. Beating them up over it is just plain silly, IMO.

 

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