New Year, New Music, New Vision
January 26-27, 2008
“Renaissance” was brought to life for the first time on Sunday afternoon in the Gilmore Middle School theatre. Our musical performance of the five Movement 2008 Kiltie field show elicited enthusiastic applause and marked the first milestone of the young season. Besides being a reflection of the great work ethic of the Kiltie membership, it was also the culmination of an almost super-human effort by the 2008 creative staff. They put the entire musical show in the hands of the marching members by the middle of January so that we could make the Sunday afternoon performance of “Renaissance” a reality.
As will be the case all winter, camp weekend started Saturday morning with 9AM breakfast followed by 10AM brass warm-ups in the cafeteria, percussion warm-ups in the theatre and band room, and guard stretching in the gym. Following warm-ups, the guard continued with instruction in the gym, while brass and percussion broke up into sectionals. The mellophones were lucky to score 2008 drum major Guy Gregg as our sectional instructor. Guy is a great mellophone player himself and has a way of getting the most out of us while keeping us loose when we don’t get things right the first time. Most of our pre-lunch work was done on our two parade tunes “Scotland the Brave” and “Auld Lang Syne”, and on our concert performance piece “Water is Wide”.
Lunch was notable (as was breakfast), not so much for the great food, but more for the fact that like most meals this season, it was provided by the corps as part of the 2008 program. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is just one of many examples of how the operation of the corps has been tweaked to reflect our commitment to making membership in the Kilties a great experience at an affordable price. Hats off to our expanded 2008 support staff for helping to make this all happen.
After lunch, the brass line joined the guard in the gym for some work on visual basics. Marching style elements that were introduced at the open house were reinforced and built upon. For a veteran like me that has marched lots of different styles over the years, the thing that struck me most about this session was not so much the elements of style such as how we will execute direction changes, or how much toe point, or how far on the toes we will be while marching backward, but rather the fact that nearly all of our marching exercises were done with Dr. Beat pounding out a tempo of around 150 beats per minute. An hour at 150 BPM can get the heart pumping. It’s time to start doing a little cardio between camps. Well over half the 2008 field show will be at 160 BPM or greater, a little faster than the tempos we marched this camp.
The rest of the evening for the brass line consisted of full brass ensemble work on “Scotland”, “Syne” and “Water is Wide”, dinner, sectional work on field show music, and full brass ensemble work on Movement I (“Out of the Darkness”), Movement II (“Celebration”) and Movement IV (“Peace”). We learned a few hard lessons about 2008 show tempos, and how metronomes are sometimes brutal in their ability to point out tempo problems and where they happen. They almost always seem to start directly after rests or musical breaks. It’s as if we relax when we come to a rest in a musical passage and lose focus. I see plenty of Dr. Beat in our future. We kept hammering the rough passages, and things got noticeably better as the evening progressed. The evening ended with a full corps meeting in the theatre where 2008 corps director Scott Stewart talked to the corps about work ethic and how it relates to the Kiltie philosophy. It was time well spent.
Sunday was phenomenal! I know that word is thrown about quite frequently, but I really don’t know how else to describe what we accomplished. 9AM breakfast was followed by a 10AM full corps meeting in the cafeteria. We covered a wide range of subjects from Brewfest and Brewer games, to the Kiltie Klassic Invitational show at Historic Horlick Field on Friday June 27th. Then the REAL fun started. Imagine watching the Kilties on the field in 2008, horn line performing a beautiful ballad, 50 flags on the field performing to the music… that’s right, 50 flags performing… it will be a highlight! During Movement IV (“Peace”), all 32 percussionists will grab flags and join the guard on the field to help visually highlight a great piece of music that climaxes during what Scott describes as the longest, loudest note in drum corps. On Sunday at 10:30 AM, the entire percussion section joined up with the guard and began the process of learning flag work for “Peace”. An hour in, I got a chance to look in on the progress. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen at a Kiltie rehearsal! Watching veterans like Russ Trawicki, Wally “Boom Boom” Schlig learning and performing flag work, and taking it as serious as anything they’ve ever done was about as cool as it gets! The Kiltie percussionists will spend time spinning all winter to help produce one of the visual highlights of the season.
Meanwhile, the brass section was busy with more visual basics. Not that we were terrible on Saturday, but the improvement from Saturday to Sunday was noticeable. I mean really noticeable. I left the gym feeling really good about the session. At around noon, the guard returned to the gym and the rest of us returned to our instruments, and after warm ups, worked in sectionals until our 1:30 PM lunch. We touched all 5 movements of the show. Lunch was great! Former Kiltie mellophone Joan Kraus is back with her Kiltie family in a support role and served up about the best dog-gone chili and hot dog feast ever! Thanks Joanie!
After a little more brass ensemble rehearsal we got the entire corps together at 3:45 in the theatre for combined brass and percussion ensemble work. It is what I was waiting for all weekend, our first shot at playing down the entire show, brass and percussion. Staging was as follows: Battery on the stage; bass, cymbals, tenors and snares back to front, pit percussion just in front of the stage, and the brass line in 2 rows across the theatre standing between rows of seats with music stands in the row of seats directly in front of them. The drum major podium was halfway up the theatre seating section. This left the back half of the theatre for viewing. It was really great to see so many friends and alumni in this section of the theatre. I think this is the best configuration for sound that we have used in all our years at Gilmore.
Movement I, “Out of the Darkness” cooked! This is a powerful piece of music that drives at 160 BPM and features every section of the brass and percussion lines trading leads. I can’t tell you how much easier it was to play that tune with our percussion section. They were spot on, and listening back to them made everything fall into place for the brass line. When I put my horn down after the tune, I was literally giddy with excitement.
Movement II is called “Celebration”. This is the song that the brass line had the most tempo problems with on Saturday. There is tons countermelody going on in the first half and we struggled to get things lined up. Playing it together with the percussion seemed to cure what ailed us. From where I was standing, the tune hung together nicely. The second half of the song is in 3/2, and a portion of the ending was changed on Saturday to be conducted and marched in 2/2, which turned everything into triplet patterns at a tempo two-thirds of what is written. That part was a little shaky but overall, we were happy with the run-through. Look for the playful and fun contra / keyboard trios that bookend this tune. They are a highlight!
Movement III is called “Conflict” and to borrow a description from a certain West Coast all age corps, it is evil! It is a percussion feature that cooks along at 172 BPM. After starting out with 16 measure of serious pit, there is a 12 measure bass drum feature that is jaw dropping. Then about half way through, some small brass ensembles start in on some seriously conflicted melody. It builds to a climax that finds the entire brass line frenetically playing accented notes in seriously odd rhythms. The best way to describe it musically is that despite the fact that it is written in 3/2, the rhythms produced result in the impossibly conflicted time signature of 3.5 / 2 if you were to try to identify it. It’s a trip!
Movement IV, “Peace” is the ballad. It slides along at 86 BPM with lots of nice eighth note and triplet runs that build to a 7 measure power chord that sees to go on forever, and then fades to a peaceful ending. We tried to play this song with great emotion to complement the visual extravaganza that will complement the piece when it is put on the field.
Movement V is called “A New Beginning”. From where I’m sitting, it is our toughest chart, although that may be partly due to the fact that we’ve only had it for about a week. The opening fanfare of this piece is guaranteed to get your attention. I won’t spill the beans quite yet, but let’s just say that you will recognize the first 3 notes and start to smile. Time signatures, key signatures and tempos change frequently in this piece, yet there is a thematic melody that runs throughout. It climaxes at a frenetic 172 BPM and I’m sure we’ll be charging the stands at that point. Our performance of this piece was a little below the level of the other pieces, but that was to be expected. We’ve had that piece for only a short time, and there were a few major changes that were introduced on Saturday that made things a bit difficult. But we hung in there nicely and played it down top to bottom. When my horn snapped down after the last note, it really hit me… The 75 brass and percussionists in attendance had just played down the entire show… in January! That is a first for the Kilties.
Scott Stewart was all smiles as he congratulated the corps on a phenomenal camp weekend. He asked if anyone was tired, which elicited a hearty chuckle from most of us. He told us that as well as we had just performed the show, that was our new low-water mark for the season. It is now up to each individual to go home and work on the hard stuff. Based on what I saw over the weekend, I’m confident that the membership will do just that. We were reminded that there are only 2 camps worth of rehearsal before we debut our show to the public to cap off the March camp. We will learn the drill in April and May, and will be doing complete run-throughs of the show on Memorial Day weekend. The goal is to be good out of the chute. Paying fans deserve nothing less.
Then Scott talked about the summer schedule which will be released in the next 2 weeks. It is a nice schedule that balances rehearsal time with 23 performances; 12 field shows, 7 parades and 4 concerts. We’re just waiting for one or two gigs to become finalized before we publish the schedule. Then he talked numbers. We will field 50 brass, 32 percussion, 18 guard, 2 drum majors and 8 honor guard for a grand total of 110. Since a few people have had to drop since Open House, we still need either a baritone or a mellophone, and four sopranos to round out the horn line. We will go with 32 percussionists. We’re in good shape there. We’ll field 18 guard and are accepting applications for 6 more. Better act soon. I have just been informed as I type this closing line that the baritone spot has been filled. :-)
As is our tradition, we closed camp with the playing of Slow Syne. On this day, it stirred just a little more emotion in me than usual. It sounded particularly sweet!
So there you have it. Next camp is February 23-24th. It’ll be more of the same, and we can’t wait!
WWBD,
J.C.
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P.S.S. Kiltie Klassic Tickets are on sale! Get all the details and buy your tickets on our home page: www.kilties.com
P.S.S.S. Please keep the Fazzari family in your prayers. Joe’s sister Robin passed away last week after a brave 5 year battle with cancer. Her bravery was an inspiration to all that knew her.
