Spotlight of the Decade: 2017 Blue Devils

st Place, 98.538 “Ladies and gentlemen, the corps on the field…” The first noise of any kind heard at the outset of “Metamorph” was a voice. Ringing out from the front speakers, the voice of Blue Devils founder Jerry Seawright set the table for what had been the corps’ very first competitive performance in its existence. It wouldn’t be Seawright’s final appearance in the 12 minutes that followed. With Seawright’s introduction, his corps’ horn line executed an “off-the-line,” emerging onto the field in a single straight line, with members of the color guard all leading the way, rifles spinning in hand, in unison. The corps’ founder continued. “This is their first year in competition; this is their very first field show…” At this point of the show, Blue Devils’ brass and percussion sections were dressed in long blue jackets with white trim, black shakos with tall white plumes, and black pants. Color guard members wore long, flowing, black and light blue covers that would eventually be removed to reveal an array of colors and fabrics.

If you wanted to boil down Blue Devils’ 2017 production to a word or phrase, you easily could. A many-layered design that — through a variety of metaphors, visual and musical references, and subtle nods — paid homage to the Concord corps’ 60th anniversary, “Metamorph,” may not have appeared simplifiable on its surface. But it was. In short, “Metamorph” was about life’s one great constant — change. “‘Metamorph’ was intended to be a way to acknowledge the 60th anniversary of the Blue Devils and the organization,” program coordinator Scott Chandler said. “It was all about evolution — things that grow, things that change.” On its simplest level, Blue Devils’ 2017 program utilized natural imagery to signify the cyclical act of change — caterpillars turning to butterflies, coal being forged into diamonds, things of that nature. But “Metamorph” dug deeper. It ventured across a timeline of six decades, and for audiences across the DCI Tour, artistically outlined a journey from the earliest days of Blue Devils — and drum corps itself — through the corps’ and activity’s present, and to its yet-to-come. “‘Metamorph’ is a journey from past to future,” music director and arranger Dave Glyde said. In an opening segment which Glyde described as a “mosaic,” a handful of soloists, a brooding passage of front ensemble music, and an add-on snare feature — performed by Blue Devils’ entire snare and tenor drum sections, for a total of 16 players — opened the show as brass and color guard members continued to make their way toward center stage. The snares’ music and motion was rigid in nature, but morphed over the passage of measures, making its way to a more modern style of percussion writing. Similarly, the visual “off-the-line” taking place wasn’t fully true-to-history either; with dance-oriented movement, it broke apart, stitched back together, expanded, compressed, and eventually disintegrated into a follow-the-leader movement and scattered jazz running. Before their eyes, in one opening movement, audiences were watching decades of drum corps history evolve, musically and visually. Simultaneously, in some of the subtlest and least subtle of ways, Blue Devils’ concept had been introduced. “Part one of the show was definitely intended to reflect on where drum corps has been in the past,” Chandler said. “And where the Blue Devils have been in the past.”

When the horn line introduced itself, though — with Peter Graham’s “The Triumph of Time” — it wasn’t nearly as subtle. “Metamorph” was off and running on a powerful brass impact, with horn line members positioned at the field’s center in the shape of a diamond. At the release of their opening statement, marching performers scattered, leaving the front ensemble to introduce movement No. 2’s soundtrack, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee.” This movement’s analogies may have been more underlying than others. According to designers, the use of “Flight of the Bumblebee” — and other visual references to the bumblebee itself — was intended to recognize the hive-like nature of Blue Devils as an organization. “Every bee that’s come through that hive over time has had a part in where we are today and where we were in the past,” Meehan said. In the corps’ third movement, Blue Devils embodied an increasingly modern form of drum corps, largely in its visual package. The corps moved into flowing choreography, increased its integration of prop pieces, and most notably, changed its uniform; for the remaining half of “Metamorph,” Blue Devils removed their shakos and shed their blue outer jackets for a sleek, sleeveless, light blue and pink sparkling top. The middle segment of the production, Blue Devils’ ballad movement, served as the emotional core of the corps’ 2017 production. Featuring “Everything Must Change” by Bernard Ighner, it was undeniably “Blue Devils” — laidback, groovy, in the pocket, and littered with soloists. Amidst a sea of scattered props, members slowly danced their way toward the front sideline, just to the right side of the 50-yard-line, culminating in a unified, powerful brass chorus that lit audiences ablaze throughout the entire summer of 2017.