J.C.'s REVIEW
Developing a New Love for the Opera
Feb 27-28, 2010
I’ll be the first to admit it… I’ve never been a huge fan of Opera. Somehow, typical opera vocals seem unnatural and artificially injected with over the top vibrato. But as Bob Dylan once so famously said, “The times, they are a changing”. After spending the weekend working on the musical selections from our 2010 field show “A Night at the Opera”, I am hooked on at least a few operatic melodies (albeit without the vocals or the vibrato). After playing through the entire 2010 production on Sunday afternoon with the full Kiltie brass and percussion sections, I am convinced that I would be a huge opera fan if the genre contained less vocals and more really loud brass and percussion.
February camp began on Saturday morning with 9AM breakfast followed by 10AM full corps stretch in the gym. Both the Saturday and Sunday stretch sessions were fronted by color guard member Mary Wheaton, who is a physical therapist when not marching with the Kilts. She was capably assisted by Ellie Hinds. Mary has designed a stretching routine that provides a full body stretch while emphasizing injury prevention. The stretches can be tailored to both the very flexible members and the not-so-flexible members like me. In honor of the Winter Olympics, it was hockey jersey day at the Kilties, so everyone wearing jerseys led our famous ending to the stretch – shakey-shakes.
By 10:30, I was loosened up and ready for an hour of marching basics with Bobby Lindsey.
Bobby introduced a few new concepts related to upper body carriage and direction change. We worked some drills whereby we pivot our lower body 180 degrees, moving from a forward slide to a reverse slide in 2 counts. We did some classic “Figure 8” block drills concentrating on upper body facing during the forward and reverse slides. We finished the session with a marathon run of the Figure 8 drill. Good stuff!
Then the various sections of the corps split up. The guard took full possession of the gym, the brass line invaded the cafeteria, and the percussion sections went off to wherever it is they go off to. Brass arranger Rick Kirby passed out new brass warm-up exercises and took us through our breathing block and warm-ups. Then we worked concert piece “Water is Wide”, concentrating mainly on dynamics and tuning. I was asked to tell the new members of the brass line about the significance of that piece. As always, I had a difficult time rehashing the story of Joel “Lothar” Magnuson and the 2005 DCA Championships without welling up. For those new to the Kilties, Lothar passed away on the field during the first of our two 2005 DCA National Championship prelims performances. “Water is Wide” was written as a tribute to Lothar. It concludes with a mellophone solo identical to one that Lothar was originally slated to play in the 2005 show, but had ultimately been cut, much to Lothar’s chagrin. Including it in “Water is Wide” was Jerry Kelsey’s way of giving Lothar his solo back.
We concluded our pre-lunch session with work on our parade tunes, “Scotland the Brave” and “Auld Lang Syne”, working mainly tuning and tempo. After all that, our 1:30 sandwich buffet lunch was more than welcome!
After lunch, the guard took over the cafeteria for an hour, while the brass line headed to the gym for more marching. This time Bobby introduced some circle drills, first expanding a circular form ala the “Trooper Starburst” of old, then rotating the enlarged circle before contracting it to the original form.
Next on the agenda for the brass line was work on Movement I of the show which is a concatenation of “Ride of the Valkyries” and “William Tell Overture”. Rick Kirby explained that the arrangement has been tweaked to shorten it by about 20 seconds, and to add another musical climax after “Ride of the Valkyries”. We did a couple of run-throughs of the new arrangement to give us a sense of what parts need the most work. Then we split up into sectionals. The mellophones headed off to the chorus room with Rick Kirby. We spent about an hour or so breaking the chart down. At 5PM we got the full brass line back together and worked the full brass ensemble to the incessant accompaniment of Dr. Beat. Like I said last month… hold on to your hats folks. At 152 beats per minute, William Tell cooks!
After dinner, the brass line got back together and jumped into Movement II, “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Like our pre-dinner work on “Ride ‘em Willie”, we played the chart down a couple of times as a full brass ensemble before breaking into sectionals. At 8PM we got the brass line back together and worked the full brass ensemble, once again accompanied by Dr. Beat. I love this tune, and find myself singing along during the parts that the mellophones aren’t playing.
Sunday morning breakfast was followed by stretch. This time, the color guard led “Shaky Shakes” along with a rousing full-corps rendition of “Happy Birthday” to corps director Scott Stewart who was celebrating his birthday doing what he loves… drum corps.
For brass, this was followed by another basics block in the gym. Bobby introduced two new block drills to add to our growing repertoire. The “Star Drill” (named for the geometric shape, not the former DCI corps from Indiana), and the “Stop Sign” drill were introduced. Both are great drills that help develop group cover and dress skills while marching in every direction possible, including all diagonals.
At 11:30, the guard invaded the gym and the brass line headed to the cafeteria. Following breathing and warm-ups fronted by Mike Madonia, we jumped right into Movement III, “Bacchanale”. Like I said last month, I love this arrangement because it allows the mellophones to peal a little paint! Lots of trills, runs and rips culminating in some seemingly unending triple forte power chords to finish the piece. Very powerful! We attacked this tune like the others, playing it down and then breaking into sectionals. This took us all the way to everyone’s favorite lunch… pizza and birthday cake. YAY!
Lunch was followed by more work on Movement III which prepared us for the much anticipated assembly of the entire musical ensemble in the theatre. The battery was positioned on risers at the rear of the stage with the pit percussion occupying stage front. Baritones, contras and mellophones assembled wall-to-wall / elbow-to-elbow in front of the stage and the sopranos fronted the ensemble in their own elbow-to-elbow line.
We ran each show tune first with percussion only, and then with the entire ensemble. “Ride of the Valkyries” was first up. After the full ensemble played it down, Scott Stewart told us he was pretty much tickled pink! Next we ran “William Tell Overature” and after my horn snapped down, I was absolutely giddy. The performance quality was better than I think anyone expected. Momentum was indeed building. And so it went for “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Bacchanale”. I honestly think that we played at a level that is at least where we were at for our first performance last year, and Scott Stewart told the corps as much as well.
We followed up the performance of our field show repertoire with the performance of our concert and parade repertoire. I was particularly impressed with “Water is Wide”. I think it was our best performance of that arrangement since the 2006 season when it was a part of the field show.
Scott Stewart congratulated the corps on another solid camp weekend. He told us that he thinks we are considerably ahead of where we have been in February in previous years in all sections… brass, percussion and guard. But it is no time to get complacent. There is still considerable work to be done to become the best that we can be in 2010. The goal is still to take this thing to a whole new level and to have a great time doing it!
Then Scott again told us where we’re at numbers-wise as of this moment. We still plan on fielding a slightly larger corps than we did 2009. In the brass line we have an opening for a contra, a lower baritone, and a lower soprano. In the percussion section we have openings for an experienced quad player and a front ensemble performer. We have 18 guard members and would consider expanding that number if someone were to act soon. Drill writing will be getting underway this month which means the membership will be closed for the season.
Finally, Scott reminded us that the March camp will conclude with our first performance of the season on Sunday March 28. The Saturday portion of camp will be at Gilmore as usual. Sunday we will rehearse at the South Milwaukee High School, 1001 15th Avenue, South Milwaukee, WI (a mere 14 miles north of Gilmore via Hwy 32). At 3PM Sunday, the Kilties and the South Milwaukee Municipal Band will perform at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, which is on the campus of the South Milwaukee High School. The performance is free to the public, and the facility is great. So mark your calendars and plan to be there for the Kilties first performance of the 2010 season!
WWBD,
J.C.
