Renaissance Parte Due - January 24-25, 2009

Music from the Kilties 2009 production titled "Renaissance Parte Due" was brought to life for the first time on Sunday afternoon in the Gilmore Middle School theatre. The musical performance of our parade repertoire followed by four of the five movements in the 2009 Kiltie field show by the full brass and percussion ensemble elicited enthusiastic applause and marked the first milestone of the young season. It was the direct result of a lot of work by both the creative staff and the corps membership, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself...

As is the case for all winter camps, we started Saturday morning with 9AM breakfast followed by 10AM full corps stretch in the gym led by the inimitable Guy Gregg. Highlights included calf stretching with someone you've never met, and "Shakey Shakes" with Ellie Hinds. Then the pit headed to the atrium, the guard got full possession of the gym, the battery headed to the theatre, and the brass line hit the second floor hallways. True to our new emphasis on playing and marching together, we marched around the hallways in squads of 3 playing brass warm up material. For an hour, we marched forward heading south, slid left to the east, marched backward to the north and slid right to the west concentrating on proper breathing while moving. We varied the musical exercise and tempo with each lap around the second floor. It was a good workout and I think this routine is going to pay dividends when we put the show on the field.

Next up for the brass line was a full warm-up in the cafeteria followed by the playing of our parade and concert repertoire. Our parade selections will once again be Kenny Norman's classic arrangements of "Auld Lang Syne" and "Scotland the Brave". There area also another two pieces we will be playing for concerts.

Then we ran down the five movements of the 2009 field show. Movements 1, 3, 4 and 5 were in our hands before camp so we got through them pretty well, but movement 2 was passed out that morning and we sight read it (some better than others :-) ) The time signature of this song changes about every other measure, so I was hopelessly lost after about bar 3. After that humbling experience, lunch was a welcome break.
After lunch, the brass line broke up into sectionals. The mellophones headed to the choir room and broke down the various show movements with the newest member of our brass staff Mike Madonia. He made us all feel comfortable, and his command and interpretation of the music were awesome. Thanks Mike!

The rest of the evening for the brass line consisted of, dinner, more sectional work on field show music, and full brass ensemble work on movements I, III and V. The evening ended with a full corps meeting in the theatre where 2009 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 morning breakfast was followed by 10AM stretch in the gym. My sore muscles really needed a good stretch so I was grateful for the little extra time we spent with stretch-master Guy. Then the guard invaded the cafeteria, the pit assembled in the atrium and the brass and percussion stayed put in the gym for a marching basics session. Staff member Bobby Lindsey passed out a sheet of standard basic block exercises that we will be using this season. The classic "figure 8" drill, a circle drill, an octagon drill and a star drill will be used to help us perfect our marching technique. I think for most of us, the octagon and star drills were the toughest, especially the oblique movements in them. Bobby explained that these drills are designed to be tough so that the field show will seem easy by comparison. Sound strategy indeed.

At noon, the battery headed back over to the theatre and the guard and brass line traded places. The brass warmed up, did some ensemble work and at one o'clock, the corps broke for lunch in the cafeteria. Lunch was followed by a little more brass ensemble rehearsal and then we got the entire musical ensemble together at 4 PM in the theatre for full ensemble work. It is what I was waiting for all weekend. Staging was as follows: Pit percussion on the stage, the battery 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 great to see friends and alumni mingled with the staff in this section of the theatre.

We began each number with the percussion playing it down for the brass line to hear. Then the full ensemble played. We began with Auld Lang Syne and then Scotland the Brave. When we finished Scotland, I turned to Beth Landbo who was standing next to me and smiled. We both agreed that Scotland the Brave has never sounded close to that good at a winter rehearsal that we could remember. Very nice!

Movement I cooked! This is a powerful piece of music VERY similar to last year's opener that drives at up to 152 BPM and features every section of the brass and percussion lines trading leads. The percussion was 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, all I could think of was how good the percussion was performing. Very impressive.

Movement II is going to be impressive and will feature some of the trickiest time signatures in drum corps history (Really, I'm not just saying that). We didn't play it down since the percussion parts had not been distributed. Stay tuned to my February camp review for all the gory details about this tune. It will be unlike anything ever performed by the Kilties.

Movement III is the percussion feature and it climaxes with the same intensity and frenetic rhythmic structure of last year's percussion feature. It gets up to 172 BPM. Again, I was blown away by how well it was performed by the percussion section. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and predict many a standing O following this number this summer.

Movement IV is our ballad. It is quite melodious and beautiful. The pit percussion section shines during this number and there are some beautiful featured baritone and soprano solos that highlight the piece. This piece will have to be played with the maximum amount of dynamic contrast possible, and it will need to be played from the heart.

Movement V will be an encore (albeit rearranged) of last year's closer "A New Beginning". It will be completely restaged visually to maximize impact. The opening fanfare of this piece is completely new and very cool. The rest of the tune features numerous varied time signatures, key signatures and tempos. It climaxes at a frenetic 160 BPM and I'm sure we'll be charging the stands at that point. I thought we performed this piece quite well for January and when my horn popped down I felt really good about where we are at as a corps. I've been around a lot of years, and I've never heard our percussion sound this good in January. We've had a lot of good baritone lines through the years, but this one might be the best. Certainly they are the best one I've heard in January. And we will be fielding the largest and most talented color guard in our history, numbering 18 to 20! YAY!!!

Scott Stewart congratulated the corps on a solid camp weekend. He told us that as well as we had just performed, 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, and we've added an extra May camp from last year to make sure it happens. Paying fans deserve nothing less.

Then Scott talked about where we're at numbers-wise. We will field a corps of 100-plus in 2009. In the brass line, we still have one opening for either a mellophone or a soprano, and one opening for a contra. In the percussion section we have one opening for a bass drummer and one opening for an experienced quad or snare. We have 18 guard, but would accept applications for 2 more. Better act soon. Drill writing gets underway in February which means the membership will be closed for the season.

As is our tradition, we closed camp with the playing of Slow Syne. On this day, it sounded particularly sweet, and I smiled to myself as I was leaving the theatre and I heard one of our new guard members say to another member "I don't know what that was, but it just gave me goose-bumps". Mission accomplished!

WWBD,
J.C.

P.S. Over the winter, the Kilties have lost two of our own. Cozy Baker and Ron Sokolowski, Sr. two of our best and proudest alumni passed away. Please keep them and their families in your prayers.