From Bela Lugosi’s classic 1930s portrayal of Dracula to more recent stylings the likes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Twilight,” vampires have long been infused in film, television and pop culture worldwide. It was on this theme, as a nod to supernatural beings, that The Cavaliers turned out their dark and ominous 2014 production, “Immortal.”
“We've been really interested in the idea of ‘immortal,’” Cavaliers brass arranger Drew Shanefield said about the design of the corps’ 2014 production. “It's been something that we read about. It's in pop culture, it's in art, it's in literature, it's in philosophy. We thought, let's take a Cavalier show and let's make a summer blockbuster of it.”
Adding in a front ensemble percussion section that played one of the most dizzying marimba features in DCI history to a brooding, blood-thirsty, soul-stealing color guard section, the Green Machine gave the 2014 DCI Tour one of its most memorable productions, which was a tall task in a season that featured the record-setting World Champion Blue Devils’ “Felliniesque” and other fan-favorites like the Bluecoats’ “Tilt” and the second installment of Santa Clara Vanguard’s “Scheherazade.”
2014 Cavaliers | “Immortal”
6th place, 93.675
With that summer blockbuster in mind, designers came up with a fitting costume for The Cavaliers’ color guard who played the role of the immortals. While it was never explicitly stated that the color guard portrayed vampires, they were dressed to the nines in an intricate Victorian-era look with velvet pants and red or purple paisley-patterned tailcoats. The coats were complemented underneath with silver-buttoned vests of varying loud patterns, accented with a lace cravat. Liberal use of black eye makeup gave performers a zombie-like appearance that helped to sell the supernatural nature of the characters.
Brass performers and percussionists wore a traditional uniform design. The Cavaliers’ familiar black pants and short-waisted green tops helped give the appearance of an elongated torso and leg line. A sequined-black and white sash over the right shoulder featured a mirrored buckle in the center of the chest. White gauntlets with black trim and white hats and plumes finished off the iconic look.
To set the stage, The Cavaliers’ percussion section had an interesting setup on the field. Instead of the corps’ marimba keyboards being spread in a straight line across the front sideline as is typical with most corps’ front ensembles, the five keyboards were staggered in a stair-step line of increasing depth between ten-and-a-half yards wide and reaching back about halfway between the sideline and front hash markings. Throughout the production the marimbas would be wheeled into different positions.
Thirty two color guard members started the show on their backs in an 8x4 rectangle centered on the 35-yard line. Prone brass players framed the scene while holding flag poles upright, which gave the graveyard-like setup a three-dimensional appearance as if the immortals were buried several feet underground.
Watch the 2014 Cavaliers on Blu-ray disc
Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Chamber Symphony, Op 110” kicked off the production as night fell and the immortal characters awoke from their slumber. Interplay between the color guard and several members of the corps’ horn line who danced and spun blood-red flags indicated a struggle between the two competing factions.
Nearly two minutes into the production, eight color guard members surrounded a horn line member. They menacingly raised him into the air and removed his hat. As he struggled to escape, they pushed, pulled and carried him above their heads. Finally escaping their grasp, he brandished two rifles thrusting them in front of his body in the shape of a cross, the universal vampire repellent.
The second movement of the production featured Camille Saint-Saëns’ 1874 composition “La Danse Macabre.” The lilting composition with its screeching violin lines and use of xylophone has given the French composer’s masterpiece a close association with Halloween. Additionally giving the piece its overtly spooky theme, many compare the xylophone part in “Danse Macabre” to Saint-Saëns’ bone-rattling “Fossils” movement in the popular “Carnival of the Animals.”
The Cavaliers capitalized on this unnerving feeling during this section, as the color guard toyed with their “prey” leading to their capture and earthly demise. Throughout this movement, the immortals carried white sticks with protuberances on either end giving the look of leg or arm bones. The performers utilized the implements like marionette strings, manipulating the movements of the horn line to do as they wished.
As one of the hallmarks of “Immortal,” the Saint-Saëns piece provided the opportunity for a lengthy front ensemble percussion feature. Marimbists teamed up with their vibraphone counterparts as two players per keyboard effortlessly brought the melody to life. Throughout the passage, the mallet percussionists often switched positions having to lift their mallets over the head of the other player to continue the melodic line creating an unusual opportunity to not only become the musical, but also the visual centerpiece of the movement.
According to Shanefield, the desire for the corps’ designers to prominently feature the percussionists in this way was years in the making.
“The front ensemble members have been such strong performers for so many years,” he said. “And they’re not only great musicians but great performers. So in order to use the technology, to actually get them on the field and let them take center stage in this kind of production, we think it's terrific.”
Snare drummers positioned in front of the keyboards also got in on the action with their own technical maneuvers, accompanying the selection with some fancy stick work utilizing a single drum stick and their hand on the drumhead and rim of the instrument to create a variety of different sounds.
Toward the end of the marimba passage a baritone player was caught in the grasp of a color guard member on the 50-yard line. Two lines of tubas collapsed down on the struggling duo and marched through each other. As the group expanded back into two lines, the baritone player “disappears” as a color guard member is left in the center of the form hoisting a full-sized human skeleton. It was a magical visual moment created with impeccable staging and drill design that without the benefit of rewinding the video, in-stadium audiences were left wondering where the slight of hand occurred both with the exit of the baritone player and with the appearance of the skeleton.
From there, the low brass performers took over the main melody and the featured color guard member had a waltz with the skeleton.
An abrupt tempo change sent the brass section into a full-out run as the marimbists repositioned their instruments into a pentagon on the 45-yard line. From within the five-sided formation, duos of mallet players on each keyboard leapt over each other to keep up with the complex passage as the tempo reached a fever pitch. The moment culminated with all 10 percussionists running in a counterclockwise motion, chasing each other and each note around what they referred to as the “Circle of Death,” without missing a single beat.
Putting a punctuation mark on the feature, one percussionist climbed atop the keyboards to catch a flag tossed by a color guard member. Other color guard performers pulled out the same fluorescent-colored flags emblazoned with a black “ribcage” design as the brass section took over the melody with an almost hip-hop like twist. To the end of the movement the front ensemble percussionists, still on their marimbas, kept things moving with utmost velocity.
Things finally slowed down for a breather in the third movement featuring Henry Purcell’s “Dido's Lament (When I Am Laid in Earth),” which is the closing aria from the composer’s opera “Dido and Aeneas.” In a chilling emotional moment at the top of the movement, the color guard performers pulled long black silks out of the chests of the brass players, representing the hearts and souls that the immortals devour to help sustain their immortality.
Following, a concert euphonium was removed from within an upright coffin prop positioned on the front hashmark of the 40-yard line and handed off to a soloist. For this section the Cavaliers chose to take advantage of a rule change instituted for the start of the 2014 DCI season that allowed the use of non-bell-front brass instruments like French horns and trombones for the very first time.
That the Cavaliers introduced the instrument from inside a coffin was perhaps fitting commentary for the time period, as many detractors to the rule change called the addition of these non-traditional brass instruments — at least in a drum corps sense — to be the death of the activity as they knew it.
“I did initially have mixed feelings about it,” The Cavaliers' Joey Chen said about learning he’d have the opportunity to utilize a concert euphonium for his solo. “It’s not ordinary, and unusual, and a change. But I like to think of this as a step forward in a new direction.”
Chen’s haunting solo represented a character in the production who had realized the cost of immortality. The text from the Purcell opera segment’s recitative and aria reads:
Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me,
On thy bosom let me rest,
More I would, but Death invades me;
Death is now a welcome guest.When I am laid, am laid in earth, May my wrongs create
No trouble, no trouble in thy breast;
Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate.
Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.
His soul was anguished as he grappled with all of his loved ones who had perished, leaving the audience to contemplate, “Is immortality worth it?”
At the conclusion of the solo, the lifeless euphonium player was hoisted into the air by the color guard as the brass section took over with a loud and soaring statement. As done to many of his brethren before him, a red silk was pulled from his chest, as an immortal menacingly noshed on his latest victim’s soul.
Stephen Melillo’s “A Walk on the Water” made up “Immortal’s” fourth movement and the only contemporary musical selection in the show’s repertoire. As the vanquished euphonium soloist was shocked back to life into the immortal realm, the piece provided for plenty of technical brass passages and high-velocity drill formations to usher the production into its conclusion.
A final powerful statement from the horn line led to an uptick in tempo and one last chance for the immortals to pull the souls of the remaining brass performers who had yet to be converted. The color guard section congregated around the prop coffin, still in its place on the 40-yard line. As they laid down to rest, one closed himself in the coffin perhaps to shield himself from the bright lights of Lucas Oil Stadium, at least until darkness fell again and the immortals could rise to feed another day.
On an “Immortal” Island
The Cavaliers opened the 2014 season wrestling for positioning with Phantom Regiment, the Green Machine scored behind its in-state rival at four June events, by margins as wide as 1.25 points.
By the end of June, though, The Cavaliers had jumped ahead of Phantom Regiment and never looked back. Blue Knights, at times, also posed a threat to what evolved into a top-six status for The Cavaliers — an improvement after taking eighth in 2012 and seventh in 2013 — but only got as close as 1.25 points in an early-August meeting.
By the time the DCI World Championships rolled around, there wasn’t much of a competitive race for The Cavaliers.
The Rosemont, Illinois corps had firmly solidified itself in sixth, but was a noticeable distance away from any corps in the top five, scoring 1.35 points ahead of the seventh-place Phantom Regiment and 1.75 points behind the fifth-place Carolina Crown in the Prelims competition. Both of those margins grew over the two days that followed.
For The Cavaliers, percussion was a noticeable scoring strength. The Green Machine, at the DCI World Championship Finals, took fifth place from both percussion judges, two placements above Carolina Crown.
With a final score of 93.675, the corps improved its placement by one spot year over year.
"Whether cruddy rehearsals or great performances like this, it's always the memories that will stick out the most," Cavaliers assistant drum major Nick Hansberry said after coming off the field at the 2014 DCI Finals. “Performing for thousands of people feels wonderful, and I'm glad I get to do it with the guys."