November 10, 1993

	Upon listening to marching percussion clinicians and adjudication
tapes of recent high school and corps competitions, I am compelled to raise
many serious concerns...for the future integrity of our activities...and
if there will continue to be any.
        Drum Corps International and Bands of America adjudicators continue
to issue these proclamations:  "The whole is greater than the sum of the
parts," "The individual should be sacrificed for the whole," and in
percussion, "execution and technique does not account for much anymore." 
Such thinking, or lack of it, is stupid and absurd.  These philosophies
allow the adults to compete instead of the student...sacrificing a kids
education for some untrained "visual designers" whim.  (many times written
the day before it is taught...)  The result is percussionists that cannot
effectively perform at a competitive level satiated by ridiculously
candied scoring.  (This "self esteem for non-achievement philosophy
infects our entire educational enviorment...and is the reason American
students cannot read, write, think...or compete.  Do not blame the
Japanese.  They have common sense and discipline.)
	1)  As an architect, I can tell you if the foundation is flawed,
anything built above it will be flawed...the design unstable...execution
destroyed...errors greatly magnified.
	2)  The current "make the student "feel good" instead of "think or
perform good" is politically correct but is a poor philosophy with which
to teach life skills to our young.  (America need not fear NAFTA...it
needs to fear its own unmotivated populace...)
        3)  The artistic visual comedy of modern drum corps reminds me of a
commercial for professional wrestling.  Referees look the other way. 
Everyone tries to cheat.  The winner is booed and the participants boo the
audience back.  GREAT FANFARE...LITTLE SUBSTANCE.  Unlike drum corps, the
grapplers draw huge consistent audiences.  (Who said DCI ever learned the
concept of marketing?)
	4)  All great designs are a reflection of nature.  Nature is
simple.  All great designs are simple.  We have children sacrificing
themselves for visual sporadic nonsense.
	Marching "designers" have no paintbrushes, little composition and
no perspective.  It's a primitive stick-figure art with tops of plumes and
uniformed bodies...usually contorted in odd ways to achieve some whimsical
effect.  (HINT:  Great art has controlled transition.  Attempts at
combining ballet and circadian marching...West point with the Met...are
humorous...oil and water...as one certain corps discovered at the expense
of a lot of kids.)  THIS IS NOT AN OUTDOOR GUARD CONTEST.  YOU ARE THE
SUPPORTING CAST.  And where my tax dollars are concerned, high school is
MUSIC education.  If you want to teach visual design, take the students to
someone qualified to teach composition and oil painting.
	The first comment I always hear when critizising bad art is this:
	"You don't understand!" or "you're outdated" or "it is not our
fault we are so intellectual."  Consider the following quote:
	"Most people can today no longer expect to receive consolation from
art.  The refined, the rich, the distillers of quintessence (art critics)
desire only the peculiar, the eccentric, the scandalous in today's art. 
And I myself, since the advent of cubism, have fed these fellows what they
wanted, and satisfied these critics with all the ridiculous ideas that
have passed through my head.  The less they understood them, the more they
admired me.  Through amusing myself with all these absurd farces, I became
celebrated...but when I am alone, I do not have the effrontery to consider
myself an artist at all, not in the grand old meaning of the word. 
Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt and Goya, they were great painters.  I am only a
public clown.  I have understood my time and have exploited the
imbecility, the vanity, the greed of my contemporaries.  It is a bitter
confession of mine - more painful than it may seem.  But at least and at
last, it does have the merit of being honest."--Pablo Picasso, November1951

	And to the DCI Judges who adjudicated in the state of Michigan
this fall, refusing to adhere to the philosophy and education criteria of
our percussion sheet, (not to mention ruining tolerances which we worked
years to build)...I say this:  Do it again and I will personally sue you
for breach of contract...possibly fraud.  We judge the performer's
individual achievements...not etch-a-sketch art or adult creativity.  We
put emphasis on the student and reward accordingly.  If this strains DCI's
capacity, I suggest you hire a good rudimental performer to teach you the
ropes...or stay home.
	Speaking of rudimental, in the past f10 years I have noticed
severe attacks on the rudimental community as adjudicators commit MUSICAL
GENOCIDE on rudimental performers with low rankings and scores...stating
they are "unmusical"...preferring long tacets and orchestral techniques. 
You cannot judge what you do not know.  Why penalize excellence?  To
rudimentally insecure judges who have mistakenly been hired into our arena
and spit such epithets, I say this:
	The rudimental performer is a time painter with nuances of
proportion, volume, accent pattern, duration, texture and (above all)
human symmetry.  You paint with frequency.  Therefore, if you venture into
our artform you are artistically and conceptually out of your element,
technically and musically overmatched and hopelessly lost.  What works
indoors does not in all cases work in the outdoor competitive universe 
(to reach our planet, I suggest you learn to drive the ship). Besides, we
have already assimilated all the orchestral instruments and techniques. 
You have not ours.  
	I wrote this for one reason.  It is time to take our art form back.
							Ken Mazur