Ten years ago, Glassmen celebrated its 40th anniversary in grand style, placing 5th at the DCI World Championships for the third time in four years, (including 1998 and 1999). At the 2001 Finals, the corps scored just 3.05 points under first place with a 94.30, the corps' highest Finals score ever.
"IMAGO" took us south of the border, and south of that border, all the way to Brazil and Argentina, with a return stopover in Cuba. The music represented novel sounds that were still novel and unexpected in mid-Century North America.
Delightful in its quirky South American melodies and bombastic in its passionate, hammering Latin rhythms, the show commenced with an extended primal drum solo leading into violent brass attacks that shook one's composure, culminating in a glorious standstill hit.
2001 Glassmen
The first couple selections were by Argentine composer Alberto Ginestera, whose creative output essentially spanned the mid 20th Century. His "Invocation to the Powerful Spirits" from "Panambi" and "Impetuosamente" from "Pameana No. 3" highlighted the composer's enchantment with unpredictable outbursts of rhythm and melody.
The heart and soul of the show was without a doubt the first movement, "Meditation," from Brenno Blauth's "Concertino for Oboe and Strings." Blauth, a Brazilian composer who lived into the 1990s, arguably created the most memorable melody to hit the drum corps field in 2001. (It is the excerpt in the accompanying video clip.) Transferred from oboe to a flugel solo, the corps' rendition was possibly the bravest commitment any DCI corps has ever made to depending on a single soloist. (The solo itself goes well beyond the 70 seconds excerpted here.) It offered a pleasurable respite from the intensity that bookened each side of it in the show.
Michael Boo was a member of the Cavaliers from 1975-1977. He has written about the drum corps activity for more than a quarter century 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, Ind.