Crying to Drum Corps

[verzephobe]

I really want to ask this because I feel a bit silly for the way I react to DCI.

Consistently, every time I listen to a few certain shows (or watch a few specific runs), I can’t help myself and I start crying. For example, I can’t listen to the solos of BK19 or the ballad of Mandies ‘24 without sobbing like a baby, and I started crying in my history class while watching a BD victory lap. 
 

Does anyone else have these strong emotional reactions? I figure it’s just out of love for marching arts, but I can’t help it from happening.

[cixelsyd]

1 hour ago, verzephobe said:

Does anyone else have these strong emotional reactions? 

Yes.  Music has that effect on me at times too.  And it is okay - it just means music touches your soul.

You may want to stop watching drum corps in history class, though.

[KVG_DC]

Totally normal.  

Although in my experience, it was more heightened and frequent when I was younger, partiuclarly in high school and just after.  I'd easily get hyped or cry with music. Not just marching band peforming but jazz band too where we could express and emote our enjoyment a bit more without being scolded to "stop it, you're doing a marching and manuevering solo at this point!"   I was not alone with that scolding..heh. 

The best part of performing though is learning to channel that into the performance. In concert band my senior year we had a student teacher that chose Holtz' Mars for her direction number with us. Her first day she's having us sight read the piece and I'm reading those amazing pppp >>>>>>>> ffff dynamic markings.  We start, I sort of zone out and really go from near nothing to "loud AF" to the point I'm sticking out big time. I'm swept in the emotion of the dynamics.  Everyone else is having Monday first periord flat playing.  She cuts us off and barks, "WHO IS GETTING SO LOUD!"  People point to me and I'm like half "oh crap" and half "but I'm doing it right" inside.   "WHY ARE YOU GETTING SO LOUD?"  "We'll the dynamics are pppp to ffff on a 2 count note so you sort of have to ramp it up fast."  "Exaclty.  Now, why aren't the rest of you playing it like that?"  Suddenly I felt a lot better.  She's the one that convinced me to try out the bassoon for pit orchestra too, I liked her a lot because she affirmed the EMOTION of playing.

Later in life those reactions are more muted but still there.  Probably less hormonal influence.  I'm sure you'll be a jaded aged fan someday complaining that "back in my day we had hand crafted props not these holographic projections!"  😆

But yeah Sinnerman's shift from I'm tired into Take Me to Church just slaps.  That whole show is a master class in pacing.  Hearing that live outdoors in Annapolis I was absolutely grooving.  It was fun to see the stauch Cadets backing crowd get into the show finally at that point then sort of try to check themselves because Cadets and Mandarins were in direct competition at that point. 

[Vuitton]

3 hours ago, verzephobe said:

Does anyone else have these strong emotional reactions? I figure it’s just out of love for marching arts, but I can’t help it from happening.

Not with drum corps, but I cannot listen to the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto without sobbing. It's a piece I can only listen to at home, alone. The first movement of his 14th Piano Sonata, the 4th movement of his 9th Symphony and the 2nd movement of Mozart's 41st Symphony are also emotional challenges for me. I will see those three pieces performed live, but I struggle to reign in my emotions every time. The 5th Piano Concerto, I have never mustered up the courage to attend a live performance, and it is such a magnificent work.

[ranintothedoor]

You're not alone, my friend.  The pure power of drum corps has directly affected (in a positive way) how I process music in my life.  

- Cadets '93 (end of ballad with the drums building backfield gets me every time).  

- 2014 BK, "That One Second"....... *siiiiiggghhh*

- Original Bjork "Overture" from Dancer in the Dark.  It's a 2-fer... the 2005 Cadets experience + the actual freakin' movie (holy crap...) = emotionally wrecked every time

- Mahler 2 - the last 10 minutes.  I listen to the whole thing when I mow the yard, and when "the moment" hits, I usually just stop and stand in the middle of the nearly-finished lawn, covered in sweaty grass clippings, doin' the ugly shoulder shake with my dopey headphones on.  It's a mood.

[OldSnareDrummer]

Nope, not me. No once. Not ever. No siree. 

 

[Lance]

Phantom 2010 Into the Light is one that really gets me for a lot of reasons. 

Resonates with personal losses I went through. 

Michael Kamen's diatonic mastery that just ravages the heartstrings.

Rosander's visual design fitting the theme so well after battling with his own life a couple years previous.

[Tim K]

I’m not someone prone to tears. It’s not that I’m not emotional or heartless, i just don’t cry. That being said, if there was a time I was nearly bawling, it was in 2012. The first volume of the Essentials BluRay had been released and at prelims, anytime you went to the souvenir booths, there was a TV broadcasting the greatest shows featured on the collection. I remember hearing “The Way We Were” from Madison in 1975, looked at the screen, saw the famous removal of the hats and bow, and almost lost it. The next day at semi’s when the young soloist from Crossmen had that great screamer solo in “Earth Song” and you knew it would end with a spot in finals for the corps for the first time in years, I almost lost it again. There was just something about that moment. Another near floodwater moment was Madison’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” in 2013 but everyone had a Kleenex for that ending.

 

[Sutasaurus]

‘96 finals. To this day when I watch the chord resolution in Regiment’s closer I get a little misty eyed. It’s a little hard to explain but to me that incredible chord washed away many years of them being considered “second best”. Something I’ll never forget.

Edited March 27, 2025 by Sutasaurus

[mingusmonk]