SBOCommentary: DCI, Summer 2010

16 School Band and Orchestra, June 2010

By Joe Allison

The Repertoire of the “Major League”A Preview of Drum Corps International for 2010

Students and teachers in instru-

mental music programs across

the country annually partici-

pate in one traditional rite of

summer: the competitive season of

“Marching Music’s Major League,”™

Drum Corps International.

For those unfamiliar with this organization, DCI is a collection of marching music ensembles (drum corps) of high school and college-age stu-dents who travel across the entire continent each summer to perform unique approximately 10-minute “shows” in a competitive setting, along with several other groups at each event. The instrumentation for the units consists of brass-winds, all manner of percussion, and electronic instruments – sort of a “marching-band-on-ste-roids” type of thing! There are also special “Pre-mium” contests where a larger group of teams perform in state-of-the-art venues around the nation. These “tours” culminate in the World Championship events, held in Indianapolis, In-diana. This year’s Championships are scheduled for August 12-14. (For more information, visit DCI at www.dci.org.)

Santa Clara Vanguard of Santa Clara, Calif.

School Band and Orchestra, June 2010 17

In light of our recent analysis of music selection issues for instrumental groups both indoors and out, it might be fun and to check out some of the lit-erature and concepts that will be inter-pretively presented in the contest pro-grams this season. A significant part of every DCI corps’ mission is to produce shows that are highly entertaining to the audience, while satisfying the competitive aspects of highly technical scoring assessments. As we’ve previ-ously noted, that in and of itself can be quite a daunting task! Toward this end, new rules exploring electronic in-struments and amplification began in 2009. Additionally, last season was the first of several in which the Champi-onships will be held indoors – at Lucas Oil Stadium, “The Big Oil Can,” home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.

Another entertaining innovation to be inaugurated this season is the optional five-minute “pre-show” in which corps are free to entertain their audience in any manner they see fit. Traditionally, this show-opening rit-ual was a brief on-field warm-up for the performers, but forward-thinking groups have been experimenting with “entre-act” type concepts of late, and this new policy allows creative license to explore new and more-involved “first impressions.”

DCI’s advertising campaign this year is entitled “Come Feel the Mu-sic!” The catch-phrase refers both to the intense emotional delivery that occurs during performances, as well as the fact that audience members can literally “feel” the sounds, due to the intensity, volume and massive projec-tion of the instruments. What sounds will we feel from the “Major Leagu-ers” this season? The defending DCI World Class Champion Blue Devils from Concord, California will pres-ent an intriguing produc-tion based on California composer Robert Graet-tinger’s tone poem “City of Glass,” which was written for the legendary Stan Kenton Orchestra, complete with full string section. Including move-ments entitled “Dance in the Mirror,” and “Reflections,” the corps will utilize spectacular mirrors on the field, and offer short “hints” of past BD musical glories while in-troducing the dynamic avant-garde work. This, naturally, comes from an ensemble known for intellectual depth and emotional substance.

Last year’s Reserve World Champi-ons, Carolina Crown of Ft. Mill, South Carolina (metropolitan Charlotte), will

present “A Second Chance,” featuring music from the second symphonies of several composers, including Mahler, Bernstein, and Rachmaninoff. Visually and musically, the corps will explore the concept of second chances and what might be done differently with a “do-over.” An intriguing concept, and fertile ground for exploration!

The Cadets, from Allentown, Penn-sylvania, will perform “Toy Soldier,” which examines the relationship be-tween a child and a toy soldier. Musi-

cal selections include the Rimsky-Korsakov stan-dard “Procession of the Nobles.” Rumor has it that the nine-time World Champions are exploring innovative uses of cos-tuming as an integral part of their latest production.

The Cavaliers of Rose-mont, (Chicago) Illinois are premier-ing a program entitled “Mad World,” and will feature the title tune made popular by the group Tears for Fears, as well as Peter Graham’s wind band piece “Harrison’s Dream,” and the classic “Smile,” by Charlie Chaplin – quite an eclectic collection of source material!

One year removed from exploring Copland’s ballet “Appalachian Spring,”

“This new policy allows creative

license to explore new and more- involved ‘first impressions.’”

� Blue Knights of Denver, Colo.

� The Academy of Tempe, Ariz.

18 School Band and Orchestra, June 2010

the Santa Clara Vanguard of California will produce “Bartok,” featuring ex-cerpts from both the “Concerto for Or-chestra” and “Music for Strings, Percus-sion, and Celeste.” As their name would imply, the Bay Area organization upholds a well-earned reputation for innovation in the drum corps community. Rock-ford, Illinois’ Phantom Regiment will present the symphonic poem “The Old Moon in New Moon’s Arms” by Ameri-can composer Michael Kamen. Refer-ring to a phenomenon of a “shadowed” crescent moon, the music was originally written as a soundtrack for a film of the same name. Also from the Midwest, the Madison Scouts of Wisconsin are revis-iting two of their own “golden oldies,” with “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” and George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Toledo Ohio’s Glassmen are planning a program entitled “The Prayer Cycle,” and are utilizing material from Phillip Glass and Ron Nelson, among others.

Continuing west, Iowa’s Colts are showing their “True Colors” by per-forming music of Michael Torke, noted symphonic composer and synesthete (sees colors that correspond to musical pitches). Colorado’s Blue Knights are presenting orchestral music of Georges Bizet, Edward Elgar, and William Wal-ton. The Academy of Arizona 2010 pro-gram is entitled “Strangers in Paradise,” and will logically employ the music of Russian Romanticist Alexander Boro-din. On the “Left Coast,” Mandarins’ latest edition will explore American Phillip Glass and Indian Ravi Shankar in a production entitled “To Dream of Faraway Lands.”

Looking back on our exploration of literature for instrumental ensembles over the previous editions of this maga-zine, what might we glean from this in-formation?

First, it appears that groups favor source materials written for the orches-tra or wind band. Perhaps this is due to the relative similarity of the media, and the fact that it provides a more idiomatic path to translation/interpretation of the original material’s concepts. It might be enlightening to know that this activity has just gone through a cycle of utiliz-ing “original material” for productions. Several competitively successful groups experimented with crafting a musical

scores based on visual ideas and designs, rather that the traditional converse.

This is certainly not to suggest that other forms of music originally from other media cannot be successful in the arena. Show tunes, various forms of jazz, chamber music, popular music, and other sources have yielded fruitful result over the past few seasons.

A continuing discussion in this ac-tivity that relates to other ensembles is concerned with the authenticity of tran-scriptions. Those involved primarily in bands and orchestras are very familiar with this concept. Most would agree that a piece transcribed for an alternative instrumentation could never “be exactly the same” as the original, but what level of interpretive tolerance is artistically ac-ceptable? It is readily apparent why the discussion has been long and involved.

In the next segment of this article, look for a discussion with American orchestra and band composer John Mackey on his feelings about transcrip-tions, outdoor musical media, and what he thinks when he hears his own works performed by a marching band or drum corps. For a “warm-up,” visit: ostimusic.com/blog/in-defense-of-marching-band.

If you’ve made it this far, you prob-ably are convinced that a visit to a Drum Corps International event this summer is not only an entertaining divertisse-ment, but a great way to experience band and orchestra literature in a 21st Century way – I would encourage any-one remotely intrigued to “Come Feel the Music!”

Glassmen of Toledo, Ohio.

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