Blue Devils won the 2009 Drum Corps International World Championship and the corps’ 13th title by finishing the season undefeated.
The California corps’ “1930” production topped Carolina Crown’s “The Grass is Always Greener” by 1.55 points to become the first show to win it all at Lucas Oil Stadium, which welcomed DCI fans less than a year after the venue opened.
The Cavaliers slipped to fourth place, falling out of receiving a medal at the Finals competition for the first time since 1999. Phantom Regiment, after winning it all in 2008, slipped to ninth place. But for many, the biggest competitive news of the season was the 12th-place Troopers, who earned a spot in the Finals for the first time since 1986.
2009 Holy Name Cadets
Finishing just three tenths of a point under Crown was Holy Name Cadets, celebrating the corps’ 75th anniversary by going back to the corps’ original name and performing “West Side Story: Conflict and Resolution,” a production that offered up music and drill formations from the corps’ storied past.
Watch The Cadets' 2009 production on DVD.
Founded in 1934, the Holy Name Cadets designation came about as a result of the Garfield, New Jersey Catholic parish that sponsored the unit. The corps’ name change to simply the Garfield Cadets occurred in 1958 after the parish withdrew financial sponsorship. A further name change occurred in 1989 when the corps moved out of Garfield and became known as the Cadets of Bergen County. And yet another name change happened in 2003 when the corps moved to Allentown and became simply, The Cadets.
The 2009-only name change was designed to celebrate the corps’ milestone anniversary, complete with “Holy Name Cadets” patches on the corps’ iconic maroon uniforms.
2009 Holy Name Cadets
Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” hit Broadway in 1957, inspired by “Romeo and Juliet,” the Shakespearean tragedy of two ill-fated lovers that was written before the turn of the 17th Century. Garfield Cadets first played music from the popular work in 1961 by performing the “Somewhere” and “Tonight” movements.
The corps continued to play selections from the musical at least once every decade up through 2009, and twice before, in 1984 and 1994 (the corps’ 50th and 60th anniversaries), the corps also performed a show comprised exclusively of music from the Bernstein masterpiece. It was nearly impossible to watch the production without thinking back on the visual and musical innovations brought forth by the corps over the years, especially as a number of iconic drill formations returned for another go.
The Cadets did not treat “West Side Story: Celebration and Conflict” as a theatrical staging, but rather explored the conflict inherent in the musical as well as in Bernstein’s professional and personal life, struggles that ultimately provided him with a bottomless fount of creative inspiration.
2009 Holy Name Cadets
The visual production featured much of the high-velocity marching for which the corps had become famous, starting with the corps’ DCI Championship three-peat (1983-1985) that brought us some of the most memorable offerings of DCI Hall of Fame member George Zingali. Additionally, the modernistic color guard costumes featured references to the traditional maroon piping, sash and buckle, and cummerbund of the uniforms worn by the brass and percussionists.
The evocatively eerie whistling and finger snapping that opened the musical also opened the Cadets’ 2009 show. All elements of the corps were split side-to-side to represent the two competing gangs in the musical, the Jets and Sharks.
After a short opening of music from “Rumble,” the production moved into “Prologue,” a centerpiece of the corps’ 1984 production. Most prevalent musically was a recreation of a xylophone feature from 1984, but instead of featuring the three marching xylophones from that earlier production, the 2009 version was performed largely on the less sonically-piercing marimbas. After a brief invasion by a police siren, the opener ended with a brief quotation from the musical’s “America.”
An introduction of “Maria” in the front ensemble percussion section led into “A Boy Like That.” The brass and percussion sections were split in an arc across the 50-yard line, the arc protruded upon by a giant circle, half of orange flags and half of greenish-yellow flags representing the two gangs at odds with each other.
The music instantly segued into “I Have a Love,” featuring a brief mellophone solo that reminded longtime fans of the remarkable extended mellophone solo from 1984 that made Barbara Mahoney a household name among drum corps fans.
A small ensemble of trumpets and mellophones came to the front of the field for the introduction of “Cool,” which also brought dancers to the fore to convey the carefreeness of youth. The closer’s chorale-like opening of “Tonight” started with a drill formation of the letters “HNC” (for Holy Name Cadets), leading into the iconic Garfield “G,” with the end of the bottom arc of the letter tipped with an upward arrow. This was the iconic signature form for the corps through the 1980s, designed by George Zingali, and was seen in shows and emblazoned on souvenir T-shirts and other promotional items.
The drill led into a brief “CB” form for “Cadets of Bergen County” and the number “75” for the corps’ diamond anniversary, followed by a nod to Zingali’s quick evolution to a company front that was so surprising when it premiered in 1984, being that it seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Not content with just one company front, the drill formations proceeded through numerous quick evolutions to finish the show with a final advancing line, as if to be sure the corps’ first 75 years were put to bed with an exclamation mark that couldn’t be missed.
Michael Boo was a member of the Cavaliers from 1975-1977. He has written about the drum corps activity for more than 35 years and serves as a staff writer for various Drum Corps International projects. Boo has written for numerous other publications and has published an honors-winning book on the history of figure skating. As an accomplished composer, Boo holds a bachelor's degree in music education and a master's degree in music theory and composition. He resides in Chesterton, Indiana.