Drum Corps to Allow Electronics

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Source: StarTribune.com

Starting in 2009, the activity’s governing organization, Drum Corps International (DCI), will allow not only electronic instruments such as keyboards to augment the marching performances, but it also will let more performers be amplified by microphones. Brass soloists and ensembles may be miked beginning next year, in addition to the vocalists (narrators and singers) and sideline percussionists who can already be amplified.

The changes have led to heated debates in online forums such as Drum Corps Planet among those who see the expansion of electronics as a necessary and inevitable change in modern drum corps and those who long for the tradition of “the glory days.”

I don’t know how I feel about this. On one hand, this will open the door to whole new possibilities in terms of texture and sound, but there’s just something artificial about it. So we won’t allow clarinets and flutes, but a Korg Triton is just fine??

I guess DCI went through the same kind of debate when they brought the mallet instruments and timpani onto the sidelines …

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=FJeZtf7UBrs]

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