Steel Regiment

Show Staff

Show Description

"Scaffolding"
Steel Regiment's inaugural show reflects their developing and building nature, and their aspirations to reach the heavens. It features no props of field as a cost-saving measure, allowing the corps to showcase its marchers fully.

The first movement begins with a corps in disarray, featuring music from "Hymn to the Sun" by Kevin Puts. Beginning with scattered drill sets, irregular choreography, and intensely dissonant music that continues to build. Soon, though the Steel Regiment finds its sense of cohesion and begin to move as one towards their first true drill set, which coincides with a soaring chord erupting from the musical calamity seen so far. Like a bird flying above a storm, it invokes ideas of sun and joy; it is representative of the birth of the Steel Regiment. The dissonance remains in some places, but it feels intentional and artistic now, as curvolinear shapes begin to dominate the drill. Tying the movement up is a powerful low brass line with high brass embellishment and voicing, echoed in the drill by a full-field spread line.

The second movement takes the newly-oiled marching machine the Steel regiment has come for a spin. Featuring music from "A Short Ride in a Fast Machine" by John Adams, there is some very technical playing both in the front ensemble and the brass. Musically, it is essentially a slightly truncated revoicing of the original except for the end of the movement. Visually, it begins directly from the full-field line, which quickly collapses into a tighter form that seems to intricately weave among itself with innovative pass-throughs while the larger form flows across the field. It is a juxtaposition to the very rhythmic- and tempo- controlled music, showing off both the precision and artistry of the Steel Regiment throughout. However, near the end of the piece, a reharmonization occurs. The machine seems to break apart at the last moment, culminating in the final brass stabs of "Short Ride" not in a triumphant major, but in a complex and dissonant extended chord progression. Visually, the corps has a carefully designed "fall apart", resulting in a corps scattered across the field in individual pieces; the cohesion has been lost.

Movement III, the ballad, begins with a chord that has lost the structure it built in the first movement. In desperation, they turn back to their solar theme with music from "Re(new)al Mvt. III- Solar" by Viet Cuong. It embodies the detached and dream-like feeling of a corps that has lost its structure. Visually, the ensemble is once again in disarray- but it is different than in the beginning. Individual groups move together well on occasion, but this isn't achieved any longer by the full ensemble. Clearly, the ensemble has grown and learned how to properly move together—it simply has lost the spark that allows them to unit. The closer builds slowly until a guard visual soloist in the center of the field begins to dance. Slow at first, but increasing in intensity and difficulty. The corps gravitates inwards in ripples, flowing like water while playing softly backfield. Finally, as the music reaches what feels like the brink of a climax, the visual soloist stops and falls, causing the brassline to collapse inwards into a once-again structured form for a beautiful impact, fueled by trumpet solo's descant line as in Cuong's music. There is still echoes of dissonance, but it feels wonderfully artistic. No longer is the corps is disarray or confined to the precision and perfection of the Adams; they can flow in and out of dissonance and harmony, rythmic precision and artistic nuance. They are at peak performance.

Movement IV is a culmination of the scaffolding the Steel Regiment constructed. It is not a new piece, but rather a combination of the first three woven together, mixing their styles to show that the corps has found its identity as a whole. Featuring both precise drill moves and flowing, artistic choreo, it is a true representation of how the first journey of the Steel Regiment culminates: the Corps is no longer discovering who it is, but demonstrating who they have become.