Why the recently released Crown brass teaser is such a big deal.

If you know your drum corps history, you don't need to read this post. A few years ago, Halftime magazine did an issue on what people considered to be "DCI's most legendary shows." The #1 answer? 1993 Star of Indiana, "The Music of Barber and Bartok." (Source: http://www.halftimemag.com/features/top-5-legendary-drum-corps-shows.html)

Star of Indiana as a corps had already become quite infamous, being the first and only corps to date to make DCI World Class finals in their very first year of existence, and being a finalist every year until they departed from drum corps in 1994. They also became trend setters in hornline sound and teaching techniques (thanks to the work of men like Jim Prime and Donnie VanDoren), drill design (thanks to the already legend George Zingali), and uniform design, especially their later trend of debuting a new uniform every year to fit the show theme. They also took first place in 1991.

Looking at it today, it may not have the same effect, but this 1993 show was almost 20 years ahead of it's time in the use of full-corps body movement, musical selection, and arranging (particularly using musical silence within a show).

The most well remembered moment from the show is the last few minutes of "Medea's Dance of Vengeance" by Samuel Barber (which can be viewed totally legally on DCI's channel, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpwDrz8TZ04 ) This show went down in history as a defining moment in the development of the activity, and was the last show before Star left the field and became the broadway show "Blast!"

Recognize the tune? If you've seen the first Crown Brass teaser that has also been posted on this subreddit, you might. A lot of people in the drum corps community have been freaking out at the prospect of Crown tackling this piece for a few reasons. The biggest would be the corps' very close ties to Star of Indiana. Brass caption head Matt Harloff was the SoI drum major in 1993. His brother and fellow brass technician Ben was a soprano player that year as well. Donnie VanDoren, who also works on Crown's staff, was on the staff of Star of Indiana as well.

Long story short, if Medea is a prominently featured part of this year's Crown show, it will be a dream come true for many who have wished to see it revisited again in a modern setting. Yeah, yeah, Cadets tried a few years ago, but this time it's being done by a staff who created the legend in the first place.

So excited to see what happens with it this summer!