cfirwin3 Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 39 minutes ago, skevinp said: It is a very self-centered instrument. Talk about wrapping everything around yourself. It's as if everything revolves around the individual. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cappybara Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 7 hours ago, garfield said: No, I’m brand new here and know nothing about any of theses bands. I’m only here to lurk and cause trouble. /sarcasm (Psst...I actually love Fini.) You mean Finis? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cappybara Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 Hmm 7 pages in and the original topic creator still hasn't answered my question: What exactly has changed so much design-wise from last year to this year such that last year's shows are being described as creative genius while this year's shows are being described as self indulgent? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ediker Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 19 hours ago, WarriorWay said: I can relate to this, never send them home confused should be written down in stone. Take for example crowns ballad. Gabriel’s oboe is a beautiful piece, but it’s almost over arranged to the point that it looses the effect it had on it own. I think arrangers are overly arranging music so much lately that we don’t hear a lot of melody and the natural effect of the piece then gets lost. My two cents. Let the source music do the work! One challenge in drum corps is the time constraint. Pieces are trimmed to the essentials and stitched together with flourishes. Gabriel’s Oboe is a gorgeous piece. Personally, I liked Klesch’s drum corps translation of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfirwin3 Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 (edited) 47 minutes ago, Ediker said: One challenge in drum corps is the time constraint. Pieces are trimmed to the essentials and stitched together with flourishes. Gabriel’s Oboe is a gorgeous piece. Personally, I liked Klesch’s drum corps translation of it. I'm a fan as well. The arrangement has to get down to business efficiently. The intro to that source material builds for over a minute... got to get to the theme and play only the essential phrases, the clock is ticking. Crown plays it beautifully IMO. Edited June 26, 2019 by cfirwin3 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 1 hour ago, Cappybara said: Hmm 7 pages in and the original topic creator still hasn't answered my question: What exactly has changed so much design-wise from last year to this year such that last year's shows are being described as creative genius while this year's shows are being described as self indulgent? Nothing ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxfreq1128 Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 (edited) On 6/22/2019 at 1:39 PM, adman said: Creating anything fresh, unique, and exciting is a process of trial and error and risk. Without experimentation creativity would be stagnant. In 2018, creativity crafted some of the most brilliant shows in the history of the activity. I'm an old-school guy. I was in this when G Bugles, Marching mallets, and worse were the rage. Within that long history I still believe SCV of last year rightfully earned its place as ine of the best shows in DCI history. As had BD for years just ahead of that, and work by Bloo and on and on. This year the big corps shows seem to cross a line from creative exploration to design team self-indulgence. It seems like staffs are trying so hard to become "famous for their new ideas" instead of trying to get famous for creating a great integrated show. Yes it is early, but nothing is giving me a "wow" factor of the past few years. Corps have zero identity (and I am all good with changing uniforms if it makes sense). The result is a drum corps show today is a mass of abstraction separated by theme, rather than brilliant ideas creatively communicated. I'm pretty open-minded and sophisticated about this stuff. But if I can't understand the intent, how is a first-timer going to? So many recent examples of brilliance. But this year? Just one giant abstract mess. This seems like a long way of saying that corps shouldn’t push or challenge us, nor ask us to expand our taste or ideas about the activity. Which means that the corps — which explicitly have educational missions — shouldn’t push, challenge, or expand their members. I can’t get with that. And I can’t get with treating this mission like it’s snobby or automatically navel-gazing. Art isn’t self-indulgent just because it asks you to leave your comfort zone or asks you to work a little to meet it where it is. Art is where we should feel SAFE leaving our comfort zones and challenging ourselves. That’s at the heart of being any kind of performer, and audiences are selling themselves short by not embracing that. Some of the shows that came up here as “indulgent” or “esoteric” are so strange to me. A Rite of Spring show? Esoteric? In a music activity? I find that really disheartening; but if Stravinsky is what counts as esoteric nowadays then I’m gonna take the side of any corps that’s trying reverse that. This is the arts, man. Art can be, mean, sound like, look like so many things. Corps are trying to explore how much of that we can bring to the football field. They’re trying to diversify, keep things lively. Not every show or risk works, but never in the history of this activity has every show or risk worked. There’s a simple trick to enjoying contemporary drum corps. Stop worrying about what they aren’t doing and comparing it to the past, and try to think more about what they are doing, in the present. You guys see corps trying to self-indulgently stuff weird, abstract music into our ears; I see corps trying to expose their musicians to a new range of sounds that they can make with their instruments. You guys see people shuffling and running and not “marching and playing”; I see blossoming young performers proving their athleticism by basically doing High Intensity Interval Training between rounds of playing “Flight of the Bumblebee.” Some version of this criticism pops up every year, and it’s always a bummer, because it’s always about what drum corps isn’t, and never about what it is. Edited June 26, 2019 by saxfreq1128 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammaster Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 There was a time when DEMAND meant something. Like your bass line does flam drag splits but the other line that plays it safe and only does triplet based books and wins percussion.. ninja please. Now days you can do Jingle Bells or I wanna hold your hand. BARRRRRRF! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammaster Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 I got into drum corps to hear insanely difficult music and esoteric ideas not tap my toe to something I can hear on any radio! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cappybara Posted June 27, 2019 Share Posted June 27, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, flammaster said: I got into drum corps to hear insanely difficult music and esoteric ideas not tap my toe to something I can hear on any radio! Maybe wind band music is more up your alley since those pieces tend to employ difficulty for difficulty sake. Would you like me to point you to some concerts in your area for you to intensely listen to? Edited June 27, 2019 by Cappybara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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