Techniques for Drawing Focus
Scott Kurtzweil
Sounds of the Desert
Music: Lawrence of Arabia, Sandstorm from Hidalgo & Caravan
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Techniques in Action
Up to this point we have been discussing common drill compositional techniques. For this installment, we will take a look at the pages of drill themselves and focus on how those elements are put together.
With page 9, we have completed our first major statement of the program. The band proper is in a block form with all voices staged square within the "power zone".
Pages 10 and 11 serve very utilitarian purposes. First, the wind section needs to be restaged to get the important voices (i.e. the euphoniums and horns) downstage and into a position of visual focus. Also, if you refer to the spreadsheet laid in part one of this series, you will notice that the color guard is moving to new equipment. To accomplish this, the guard is pushed out to pick up new equipment.
Moving to page 12 finds a very strong focus front and center on the low brass and mid-voices. This "block" floats across the front of the stage stating the "Lawrence" theme while the clarinets and saxophones support both musically from behind and visually by framing. The focus on the main melodic voices in further enhanced by wrapping the guard around the block as it moves across the stage.
Pages 13 and 14 continue with the theme of the block as center focus while the other voices and guard move in support. Most of the velocity of these pages is carried in the supporting voices through simple "follow the leader" movement and contrary motion (movement of layers in opposite directions).
The "Lawrence" theme up to this point has been stated mostly by the instrumentation within the block. The motion of page 15 to 16 will be a full tutti statement of the theme. To increase the impact of this moment, the entire wind and percussion sections are utilized in a layered "follow the leader" movement. Though this is a very simple maneuver, it appears to move very fast to the audience and as the elements are connected, it should also increase the composition score if we bring this show to competition. To further heighten this impact, the guard has been reconnected into a single unit and is pulled stage left around the ensemble offering increased contrary motion as well as a solid color hit.
As the drill moves toward page 17, the show is headed for another pause point in which the dynamic levels come down to piano. With page 17, the intent of the design is to provide a simple balanced picture that provides a solid resting point for the eye without being to strong and thereby, being incongruent with the musical moment. A second consideration for this set is also the fact that the next musical feature is found in the flutes so it is important clear some "green space" for the flute section that will allow them to assume focus quickly as they reset for their feature.
Next Time: Visual Counterpoint