2014 was an eventful year in drum corps.
The 2014 summer paid witness to records shattered night in and night out by the Blue Devils. It saw Bluecoats rise to new heights with a silver medal, Blue Knights rise into the ranks of the top eight, and Crossmen return to the DCI World Championship Finals after missing out the year prior.
In that year’s Open Class ranks, Blue Devils B brought the Blue Devils organization its third-ever sweep of World and Open Class gold medals with a victory in Michigan City, Indiana.
It was that same night that Kalamazoo, Michigan’s Legends — then in their sixth year attending DCI’s championship events — reached new heights in terms of overall competitive placement, earning seventh place in the Open Class World Championship Finals.
2014 Legends | "La Cathedrale"
7th Place • 73.675
Legends’ 2014 program, ""La Cathedrale," was inspired by Ken Follett’s novel, “The Pillars of the Earth.” The historical fiction, published in 1989, based in the 12th century in a fictional town of Kingsbridge, England, and written about the development of a cathedral in town, became Follett’s best-selling work.
The book utilized historical events of its set time period — it takes place immediately following the 1120 sinking of the White Ship and murder of Thomas Becket, also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury — to provide a backdrop for the events of its characters.
Follet’s novel was written in six parts, and covered the rises and falls of its centric town, as well as the emergence of Gothic architecture. Legends’ program followed a similar thread — but it was more of a four-part story.
Claude Debussy’s “The Sunken Cathedral” served as the soundtrack for the opening movement, which was intended to introduce the 12th century church and its emergence.
In this movement, Legends opened with members scattered all throughout the field in different stances, with one lone color guard member centered near the 50-yard line in a kneeling, prayerful position. A pair of soloists — one on trumpet, and one on a military-style rope tension snare drum — provided the opening notes of a serene and classical opener.
As music built toward a strong opening impact, color guard members — clothed in hooded gothic attire, with shades of burnt orange, brown and gold — removed their hoods, seeming to symbolize an emergence or openness of the early, growing church. The same color guard performer who had held the kneeling position in the show’s opening moments was introduced during this impact as a main character, alongside the militaristic snare drummer.
The transition into the production’s second movement was immediate, its first note being sharply struck as the opener’s final chord was released. A much more driving tempo, part two featured David Gillingham’s “Stained Glass.” The section of the production was centered around the cathedral itself, as members of the Kingsbridge church community, as the story goes, began the building process.
For the corps’ ballad movement, Legends utilized the flowing tones of Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque” — a popular choral piece — to portray the emotions of the church inside its newly-built place of worship. Color guard flags, in this movement, featured the colors of a stained glass window, seeming to symbolically welcome audiences inside the cathedral itself. A strong and dynamic ballad impact brought these emotions to a head.
Finally, Legends entered a celebratory and uplifting closer, bringing the story to its resounding conclusion as the newly-erected cathedral becomes a welcomed and celebrated structure within Kingsbridge.
Driven by the third movement of John Rutter’s “Gloria,” Legends’ final movement featured uptempo music and an impressive mix of flowing melodies and syncopated rhythms that created an optimistic tone. White and gold shiny silks featured within the color guard created the feeling of a celebratory religious event or banquet to further drive the uplifting spirit of the closing section.
After an energetic push toward the finish line, and the brief use of a full-brass-section company front, Legends’ production resolved — visually-speaking — in the drill formation of the “Chi Rho,” a common religious symbol, featuring the interlocking Chi and Rho greek letters, which is often used to represent the resurrection of Jesus Christ in Christian practices.
Legends on the Rise
Beyond being Legends’ then-best competitive season to date, the corps also broke 70 points at the DCI World Championships for the first time since World and Open Class moved to the same score sheet for World Championship events.
In terms of Open Class competition, Legends’ closest competitors in 2014 were Gold and Music City. The three corps, which finished sixth (Gold), seventh (Legends) and eighth (Music City) respectively, were separated by less than two points in total at the Open Class World Championship Finals in Michigan City, Indiana.
Legends’ slim defeat of Music City, by 0.7 points, came entirely as a result of its sixth-place general effect score; Legends and Music City actually tied in both the visual and music captions. Earlier in the season, Music City actually earned four consecutive head-to-head defeats of Legends at various early- and mid-July events, but ultimately the Michigan corps made a strong push into August.
That being said, once Open Class corps made their way to Indianapolis to join their World Class counterparts at the DCI World Championships, Music City gained the edge over both Legends and Gold; the three were separated by just 0.575 points in 27th, 28th and 29th places.
Following 2014, competitively, Legends went nowhere but up — in the five competitive seasons since, the Kalamazoo corps has earned top-five Open Class finishes every summer, including four appearances among the overall Top 25 at the DCI World Championship Semifinals, and a 2019 Open Class silver medal to boot.