From: DER107@psuvm.psu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: Re: Drills and Drillwriting
Date: 27 Jul 92 20:28:54 GMT
Organization: Penn State University

In article <Bs25Ls.GJD@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, bjh42543@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
(Glorfindel) says:
>
>I would like to hear what all you fans think about drills.  Who generally has
>the best drill?  Is the hardest drill necessarily the best, or does difficulty
>count AGAINST quality?
>
>Also, if there are drillwriters reading this, I would be interested in what
>you use to chart.  Computer programs, hand tools, etc.
>
Marc Sylvester and the CBC drill are usually recognized as one of best in
the activity. Since I know little about any of the other major drill writers
I'll offer a few comments about Sully's style and this year's Cadets drill.

Marc has been writing for CBC since 1989 when Zingali left. He was Zingali's
assistant and ran a lot of rehearsals before then. I think he marched in the
corps in '78 or something like that. He does drum corps full time during the
summer: he moves his stuff into storage and lives off a bus. I think he paints
and is getting a masters degree in art during the rest of the year.

He seemed to do most of his writing when a) in a very bad mood, and b) at some
hour of night when the rest of humanity is asleep. I'd always see him charting
off in a corner somewhere when I went to the can at 5:00 am or something. He
plays a big role in choosing the Cadet's shows: Short Ride on a Fast Machine
was his discovery.

Sully's most famous concept is the freeform that the Cadets started in 1989.
He has the members of the corps role play to the music while marching out
of tempo and with no form. The scene from '89 where the Contra player gets
killed by a soprano in "On my Own" is kind of the epitome of this. A different
kind of freeform is the insanity in the '91 show just before the big zigzag
move in Riffs. This year they don't do it as much, but there is some in the
ballad and also when they explode and rebuild the company front at the end
of the show.

A more subtle effect that he likes to use is to identify musical elements
with distinct sections of drill. A great example happens in the middle of this
year's show (Part 3 or 7, I can't remember) when the low brass, bass drums
and half the guard make a 4X4 grid shaped like a triangle that moves and
distorts in half tempo as that section of the corps plays a quarter note theme
while the rest of the corps does a fast, pass through, garfield-ish drill
and plays sixteenth note ornaments on the main theme. This same idea is
done more complexly in last year's Fugue (of Prelude, Fugue and Riffs) where
each fugue voice has it's own drill pattern (and colored guard flags), and
the percussion get a different drill idea and play in 5/8-3/8 against the
brass line's 4/4.

The outright insanity of good Cadets drill comes from Sully's playing with
things after he has them on the field (and also from the fact that people
really fly to make their sets). Rather than simply reshaping a form, he
often will break a connection point between sections, have both sections
reverse their order, and then reconnect. It adds more motion, and makes
the forms seem to come out of nowhere. A good part of the evolution of
Cadets drill during the summer is Marc defining lots of subsets to make
things transform in just the right way. The long move that ends in a
company front in Short Ride from 1991 was a good example of this. This
year, watch the mellophones just before they make the airplane. They could
have simply backed up to make the set, but the passthrough/pinwheel thing
makes the airplane shape come out of nowhere and hit at the last second.

So my favorite moves in the 1992 show:1)   end of the section after the
ballad. It ends with a symmetrical form, but the 60 count move getting into
it is incredible-and I hear it's the toughest move in the show. 2) the move
in part 7 where one section of the corps moves and plays until it touches
the next segment which then starts moving and playing,etc. (and all the
links have to be made blind.) 3) everything from the zigzag to the end. I
think this section is supposed to show off the fact that a certain mid-west
corps isn't the only one who can do technically impossible drill.

Sylvester probably inspired me more than any other Cadets staff member. He
doesn't go for cheap impacts to get applause, but he writes stuff that
honestly attempts to interpret the music in a visual dimension. The ending
drill to A Short Ride, IMHO, captures the emotions and concept of the original
much more effectively than our musical performance of it. And when his drill
is really executed well (such as in 1990 Candide) brings people to their feet
because it's all so overwhelming. I hope this year's corps can bring the drill
to that level of perfection so I can watch it in Madison!

I probably took this followup a little further than the original poster
intended. Any one else want to give their analysis of the other big visual
corps, and why they do what they do? Or anyone who worked under Zingali?

-Doug Rank
1991 Cadets of Bergen County
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