The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps, sponsored by the village of Rosemont, Illinois, featured the opening of the finale of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony in its 2015 program, "Game On." Then there's a slightly dizzying segue to "Fêtes," from Debussy's Nocturnes. According to the Drum Corps Repertoire Database, the first drums-corps group to play Bruckner was the Guardians, in 2013; their ambitious young director, Johnathan Doerr, has also programmed Mahler, Elgar, Percy Grainger, Copland, and John Adams. YouTube shows that various high-school bands had previously delved into Bruckner; the Dickinson Gator Band put together an all-Bruckner program in 2008. Some other interesting repertory choices among this year's Drum Corps International finalists: the Santa Clara Vanguard, with Corigliano's Piano Concerto; the Phantom Regiment, offering Poulenc's Piano Concerto and Constant Lambert's Horoscope; and the Bluecoats, essaying Adams, Reich, Michael Gordon, and the Books. The Blue Devils, of Concord CA, won the DCI championship earlier this month with a mostly Sondheim program. I've been hoping for the past few years to write in The New Yorker about the drum-corps world, but have been foiled by scheduling issues; I hope to make it happen next summer. This post is inspired by Noise reader John Bodnar, whose daughter plays in the Cedar Park High School Timberwolf Band; their program this year is the delightful "What's Opera, Doc?"
Previously: Ligeti at the 50-yard line.
