Steve's Stuff

Last week, I posted a quick introduction to the drum corps activity and DCI. If you missed it, you can check it out here: An Introduction to drum corps and DCI

In that post, I mentioned that drum corps performers work hard. Very hard! In fact, ESPN2 picked up the broadcast of the DCI Championships in 2005. During the broadcast, they had a side feature about a performer that they hooked up to all sorts of monitors to measure their energy level during a performance. The results and observations were very interesting. Having performed in a competitive high school marching band that is very similar to drum corps, I completely agree with ESPN’s conclusions about DCI. Enjoy the clip!

This post could seriously go on for pages, taking the rest of your life to read. I don’t have that much time, so I’ll shoot for a brief introduction.

When I mention to someone for the first time that I am an avid fan of drum corps, the first question I get asked is: What is drum corps? Drum corps is amazing. I really feel that the only description that does it any justice is the activity itself. Imagine a “professional” marching band comprised of 150 16-22 year olds who are spending their entire summer, with rehearsals going back to November of the previous year, learning and refining an 11 minute field show. Imagine that these athletes (yes, it is very trying on the human body) are running, moving in an extremely precise manner, and blasting away at their instruments all at once. Did I mention that these individuals are also either musicians, playing brass and percussion, or highly choreographed dancers in the color guard? You’ve now imagined just the tip of the iceberg around what makes up the drum corps activity.

DCI stands for Drum Corps International (http://www.dci.org) and they host almost nightly shows each summer between mid-June and mid-August for around 40-50 competitive corps. These corps compete in two divisions – World Class and Open Class. The corps are judged on their musicianship, their marching and visual performance, and their show’s overall general effect.

I could talk for days about drum corps and DCI, but I’ll have to save that for another post. As I said earlier, you really just have to see it live to understand just how great this activity is. However, since I can’t transport you to a show right now, video will have to suffice! Please enjoy the following clips from The Cavaliers, a World Class corps, performing their 2002 show titled “Frameworks”.

Start Here! This is typically the first clip I show my friends when explaining drum corps. The ability of The Cavaliers when it comes to their formations on the field is just outstanding and it starts to give you an idea just how precise these individuals must be while performing on the field.

Did you like that? Check out the first ten seconds of this next clip:

This next clip is about mid-way through their show. It’s been termed the “Fight Club” sequence – very cool and fun to watch!

It dawns on me that these clips, at least at the beginning, haven’t featured marching and playing! It is terribly difficult and not for the faint of heart. Check out the end of their show in this next clip, which includes a little reprise from earlier…

Since I’m sure that you fully enjoyed all of the clips above, feel free to watch the entire show here from start to finish.

Yes, you read the title right – a virtual choir! More on that in a minute…

I’m a big fan of the composer Eric Whitacre. You can find his web site at http://www.ericwhitacre.com, his blog at http://www.soaringleap.com, and information on Wikipedia at http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Whitacre. He composes primarily choral and wind band music. I’ve actually had the pleasure of performing one of his pieces, Equus, with the Case Symphonic Winds during my time at Case Western Reserve University and I own one of his a cappella compilation CDs. His music is truly fascinating music to me and I really enjoy his compositional style.

If you know me, you know that I’m a big fan of YouTube. Any time I end up running across a particular well done performance of one of Mr. Whitacre’s compositions, I’ll usually favorite the video. A few days ago, I received a suggestion on my home page that drew me right in – Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir performing his piece Lux Aurumque. I thought to myself, a virtual choir? Really? Yes! I’ve watched dozens of barbershop tags that have been multitracked on YouTube. If you don’t know to what I’m referring, you can see a great example here of a tag for Scarborough Fair. Don’t worry, the rest of the article will be here when you get back! And if you already know what this is, still listen to the tag anyway; it’s a good one!

Singers from 12 countries around the globe all signed on to YouTube to post their recordings of themselves singing Lux Aurumque with the help of a conductor video. Then, every video was put together into a wonderful fully 3D experience. After the introductory text, the video proceeds by opening a curtain to reveal all of the singers and Mr. Whitacre’s conductor track in the middle. It’s a virtual stage! It was extremely well done and I appreciated that the “stage” had no floor or ceiling. It really tried to imitate what a virtual stage should be – a gathering of individuals floating out on cyberspace. The backdrop consists solely of virtual lighting. Quite a neat trick and it makes for a very compelling video. Also, I felt that the audio track was equally impressive. If you’ve never heard the music of Eric Whitacre or even if you have, please check out the video of the choir. It’s truly spectacular.

If you’re curious about how this all came together, check out the follow post on Mr. Whitacre’s blog: The Virtual Choir: How We Did It