by Ashlee Woods
Nearly everything in nature requires the blending of opposing forces. Whether it’s logic and emotions or science and spirituality, the beauty in nature lies in the merging of these factors.
The expansive worlds of mathematics and nature will aim to coexist within Blue Devils B’s 2024 production, “Sacred Geometry.”
“We’re exploring the general concept of this dichotomy of math and nature or logic and beauty and how we can marry those two ideas together,” program and visual designer Chris Carrasco said.
The California-based Open Class corps is taking a few artistic leaps in a season that will see the ensemble make a return to the DCI World Championships in Indiana for the first time since 2022. One of its most notable creative risks lies within the music. This season’s repertoire features selections ranging from Gregorian chants, to Michael Daugherty’s 2015 rendition of “Once Upon a Castle.”
The themes presented in “Sacred Geometry” — like the Fibonacci sequence — have helped the corps’ staff make this contrast because these are concepts the performers are learning in school.
“They’re all band nerds like us, so they were really excited about it,” Carrasco said. “It was cool to dive deeper into all the little things like, ‘Here’s this piece of music you may have heard in music history class. We’re going to combine it with metal music you may listen to.’”
SACRED GEOMETRY REPERTOIRE
Ordo Virtutum
by Hildegard von Bingen
O Magnum Mysterium
by Tomas Luis de Victoria
Geometry
by Sean Clark, Chavadith Tantavirojn
Primacy of Number
by Philip Glass
Stabat Mater
by Jean-Charles Gandrille
The Laws of Nature
by Sean Clark, Chavadith Tantavirojn
Once Upon a Castle
by Michael Daugherty
Divided into six segments, Carrasco says the production will look to connect the worlds of science and beauty to the overarching human experience. The first two movements will present the show’s titular ideas. The production’s third movement, “Truth and Beauty,” will combine those thematic elements. Further, its fourth segment will tether the aforementioned motifs to the human experience.
From there, “Sacred Geometry” dives into the “Laws of Nature,” the show’s fifth section. Drum corps fans will be transported back to a world of rigidity during this movement, as the corps plans to blend sounds inspired by math or progressive metal with percussive music.
The show closes with what Carrasco describes as “a celebration of how all these things fit together.” The ending pulls inspiration from a Galileo Galilei quote.
“The laws of nature are written by the hand of God in the language of mathematics,” the quote reads.
Visually, Blue Devils B is working to incorporate several mathematical concepts, including the Fibonacci sequence, into its drill movements. With this comes the challenge of combining pronounced geometric figures with elements of modern, less-structured drum corps staging and visual design.
“There’s a style and a standard that we want to fit into the design to make sure that we’re giving our members a version of the Blue Devil experience that doesn’t feel different,” Carrasco said.
However, the challenge of piecing together these design elements has felt less like a tricky puzzle and more of an organic design process among staff members that could yield some impactful moments for drum corps audiences.
“I can send some of the mathy stuff to our team and say, ‘Hey, mess with this! (The drill design software) doesn’t do this, but make this work on the field,’ and they’re able to do that,” Carrasco said.
Blue Devils B will welcome the laws of nature into the world of drum corps when it embarks on the 2024 DCI Tour, June 28 & 29 in Walnut, California.
