bawker Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 (An aside: Okay, so... recently I bought the PC game "Civilization IV" and have been playing through it... a lot. :P Each era of your civilization spotlights a different composer or composers. Bach for the "classical" era, native chants for the "ancient era", and so on...) The "modern" era in the game soundtrack is all John Adams stuff, including quite a bit of "Nixon in China", and other stuff like "Christian Zeal and Activity" and lesser known works. According to corpsreps.com, only the Raiders have attempted an all Adams show (which I'd like to hear). Aside from the slightly overdone "Short Ride" and "Wild Nights", anyone think a Division I corps could make an all Adams concept (or an all minimalist show, period) work? I keep imagining 2000 SCV playing "The People Are The Heroes Now" for an opener. ^0^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 Phantom Regiment, Santa Clara Vanguard, and The Cadets (maybe). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 Most of his music is... well, not easy, for starters. Not to mention not drum corpsish. It's all about the corps arranger... if you want to stay true to the original Adams, it's going to be difficult. An easier route would be to make it an overall original show with themes spliced in from different Adams works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soccerguy315 Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 last year my [former] high school band did "Minimally Spekaing" by Saucedo... didn't seem like it would lend itself to a corps performance very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmfootworks Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 Not workable (and please don't try). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david403 Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 I would like to think Star 1993 was a minimalist show and it's one of my favorite shows ever. So I think an all Adams show could definitely work. Like the previous post said. It's all about arranging and the design. What's the effect you want to achieve? I think most of the time people equate minimalist with boring, but I think most minimalist pieces are powerful and engaging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_S Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 (edited) I've been preaching a minimalist show for years! A number of John Adams' stuff has been used on the field, and to great success. There's no reason to think any of his other works wouldn't be just as effective. Philip Glass's Canyon is a drum corps classic, after SCV performed it. Why not use something from Glassworks, or any number of his string quartets? Another great minimalist-styled piece is definitely Orawa, which SCV played in 2003. So we've seen that minimalism can be very successful in drum corps. Why shouldn't more corps give it a go? I'd love to see some of Arvo Pärt's instrumental works arranged for the field (though Mike Boo does raise a good point that it's almost too delicate for that). Steve Reich's Different Trains could lay the groundwork for a thrilling section of a show. It's funny that an above poster mentioned marching a Saucedo show. I marched a Gorecki show that he created, and seeing an all-Gorecki production has been one of my fondest wishes since being introduced to drum corps. The power and the precision of drum corps mixes very well with minimalilsm, and while the end result might not retain the character of the original piece, I think it would still produce a remarkable show. Edited December 23, 2005 by Maedhros Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idontwan2know Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 While you could certainly take the works of minimalist composers and adapt them to drum corps, in the translation they really wouldn't be minimalist anymore. More to the point I think the lack of harmonic development in minimalist music would be pretty unsatisfying through an entire show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoltonH178 Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 In the BOA realm, Plymouth-Canton did an all-Adams show in 2001 that I have always thought was really spectacular. It can most certainly be done on the field, and with great effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_S Posted December 23, 2005 Share Posted December 23, 2005 That was one of the greatest shows in either circuit. One my very favorites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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