Putting the Arts Back in Marching

This past weekend, the eager young performers of Drum Corps International (DCI) descended on Foxborough, MA for their annual World Championships. The ensuing spectacle did not disappoint, with the New Jersey-based Cadets taking home top honors, with the Cavaliers (Rosemont, IL) and Phantom Regiment (Rockford, IL) rounding out the top three.

In any discussion of DCI specifically, and marching activities in general, musicians tend to drift into two opposing camps. There are those who feel that these sorts of activities can represent the best in quality performance and are vital to the motivation and education of young musicians. There are probably just as many who feel that the marching arts are inherently unmusical and that promoting competition in music is contrary to the spirit of the arts. Both sides have proven to be rather vocal in their support or dissent, with viewpoints as varied and numerous as the different marching experiences students have in high school, college and independent marching ensembles in the United States.

Opponents’ arguments can be very compelling. There are still high school band programs in which marching band is the only aspect of music-making seriously focused on by the instructional staff. There are the tales of innumerable students who have permanently turned their backs on music-making as a result of music programs in which the goal was not to grow musically and personally but to beat the other guys. I pride myself on never having been involved with such a program, but they’re clearly still out there.

DCI seems, to an outsider, anyway, to eschew this kind of attitude. There is still scoring and competition involved, and champions undoubtedly take pride in their achievements. But the stories I hear most often from ex-corps members sound like tales from a mobile summer music camp, an atmosphere in which every member—and every competing corps—does everything in its power to push the musical and visual envelope. Long gone, it seems, are the days of putting the latest pop hit out on the field for a ten minute “park and blow.” Groups in recent years have performed everything from Gershwin, W. C. Handy and Nobuo Uematsu (he of Final Fantasy video game fame) to Bartok, Schoenberg, Bizet and Shostakovich with frightening musical and visual precision.

I’ve been on both sides of the fence of this issue. My high school had (and still has) a very competitive marching program that taught me a lot about leadership but made me question what I wanted to accomplish as a musician. I’ve been on the educational staff of several high schools now and have had friends and colleagues march drum corps. I’ve come to the conclusion that the marching arts do have a lot to offer our young musicians, but only if we are very careful about how we promote and execute them. We must remember that our goal is music and personal growth first, with competition a very distant second. We must use this activity to bring students in, to give them a home in music. And if our students have musical aspirations that do not include marching, we cannot penalize them. We must equally encourage them by opening up opportunities with community ensembles, chamber music and private lessons. Too many band directors act first for the glory of their program rather than for the needs of their students, and we, as young teachers, must not make the same mistake. As the new school year dawns again, then, I put forth a challenge for the young educators among us to constantly keep in mind the future of our field and the educational good of our students, who will bear the torch of this noblest of arts when we are old and grey. Best wishes for a healthy and happy school year.