DCI Finals

Working 26 out of the last 48 hours has left little time to blog (not that I'm particularly diligent as it is) but I feel the twinge of creative mania, and thus do I post:



I've been listening to quite a lot of music recently, most notably the 2006 Summer Music Games Finals. This recording, ordered from the DCI website in November, was recently garnered unto me, and was promptly iPodded. My top show concepts go as follows:



1st Place : MACHINE performed by the Rosemont Cavaliers. This show, reminicient of Frameworks ('02), was, as its name would indicate, mechanical to the "t." Every aspect of the show's design was robotic, including the music (similar at times to the ACME theme from Loony Toons) as well as the drill, which begins with gears turning, and includes a moment with the screech of bending metal, while the block in the center warps and bends as well.

Polio's favorite moment: the "broken record" section when the trumpet section plays the same riff over and over again until a guard member whacks one on the head to get it to finish playing. Classic.



2nd Place: Faust, performed by Phantom Regiment from Rockford, IL. Phantom Regiment, characterized by their impeccable musicality and orchestral sound, followed last year's Rhapsody in Blue, with the story of Dr. Faust and his pact with the devil Mephistopheles. While I won't go into detail about the Faust legend, I should remark that nearly every aspect of the tale is somehow included in Phantom's 11 minute production. This includes the summoning of the devils (guard guys in black bondage suits), the death of Gretchen (a guard girl who is covered in a black sheet, but later rises, reborn in a different, grander outfit), as well as Faust's redemption as the hornline plays Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection." A well thought out and executed dramatic production with one of the loudest hornline's this blogger can remember, and possibly the most precise battery.



Polio's favorite moment: The end of the ballad, Franz Bibel's "Ave Maria," in which the percussion sections tacet, and the horns sustain a beautiful suspended chord, growing louder while perfectly balanced, until it resolves, leaving me in shivers every time.




3rd Place: The Godfather: Part Blue performed by the Blue Devils from Concord CA. This show's value lies for me in its listening value rather than its visual performance. The beginning is a shoot-out with the snare section running behind horn players, rat-a-tat-tatting at tenor drummers across the field. This section is a gripping start to the show, and sets the tone for the dark mafia themes that follow. The Blue Devils are famous for their jazz, and though it shows in certain sections, they opted not to rely solely on the same tried and true jazzy solos and stacked chords, but branch out into more symphonic and dramatic musical styles. While this may not have resulted in a championship, it makes BD much more enjoyable to my ears.



Polio's Favorite moment: Towards the end of the closer, a massive cross with the horns as outline and percussion crammed inside runs silently across the field, morphing suddenly into a dagger, as the entire corps recapitulates the main Godfather theme we heard earlier, though much louder this time, and with heart-stopping intensity.



Other mentionable performances: Santa Clara Vanguard's "Moto Perpetuo" in which the corps never stops moving, as well as The Glassmen, as they play Beethoven as though in a concert hall, with tuning, performance, and applause all included in the show.





Though some people's rating systems might need a bit of tweaking (cough), I do honestly give this summer and overall A- for solid shows from top to bottom.