The Sound And The Fury (madison Scouts) :: essays research papers fc

The roar of extreme sound emanates from a football field. It is clear that this is not an ordinary high school marching band playing at a football game. These are Drum and Bugle Corps, boasting an instrumentation of all brass and percussion instruments. This arrangement of instruments can create an enormous amount of sound, sometimes louder than a rock music concert. Due to their thorough auditioning processes, they have a group of musicians, who can play extremely well, all of whom are brought together to entertain the crowds on their three month tour in the summer. Their goal is not just entertainment, but to end up on the top of the order when all is said and done at the championships. In 1972, several Drum and Bugle corps, who wanted to perform competitively against each other, embarked on a venture to create their own rules of performance. The original rules were set forth by the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, from whom competitive Drum Corps w!as given birth. The competing units had little to say in any modification of rules. From this new coalition, Drum Corps International (DCI) arose. The Madison Scouts, one of these charter members of DCI, were originally formed as a division of a Boy Scout troop in 1938, so that Madison would have their own Drum and Bugle Corps to resemble the Racine Scouts Corps. Each year 125 men, ages sixteen to twenty-one, come together for three months, practicing an average of eight hours every day in the summer, to put together the production for the coming competitive season. Each year the Madison Scouts thrill audiences with their talent and power, creativity, and an emphasis on entertainment to consistently become one of the crowds' favorite corps.Amazing us with the sound they can generate, the Madison Scouts are known as "The guys who can blow the corks right out of their spit valves". This is an unattainable feat, unless you are using tremendous amounts of air and pressure most professional players cannot do this. The Madison Scouts are noted for tapping into this unbridled power which their musicians possess. They utilize extreme variation in dynamic levels. Like adjusting the volume on a stereo, this is how loud and soft the ensemble gets as a whole. They create an atmosphere on the football field which draws in the audience. Their soprano bugles are renowned for pushing the limits of their playable range by not only playing high "C", but going further to play high "G" above high "C".