DVD Spotlight of the Week: 1983 Cavaliers

“Rendezvous” was the show’s percussion feature, based on Di Meola’s “Electric Rendezvous” from the 1982 album of the same name. The snare line broke out vibrant reddish drumsticks for the second half, which led into spinning rifles tossed over the heads of the flag twirlers, a distance of 20 yards. Ottorino Respighi’s four-movement work, “Pines of Rome,” was written in 1924 as the middle symphonic poem in his famed “Roman Trilogy,” which also included “Fountains of Rome” and “Roman Festivals.” Each of the four movements portrays pine trees in different Roman locations. The Cavaliers started the show’s closer with the third movement, “Pines of the Janiculum,” a delicate homage to the arrival of night upon a hill outside the western boundaries of the ancient city. The corps worked in a warbling bird whistle, just as Respighi had instructed in his original score. Respighi had the sound of a nightingale recorded upon a phonographic record, to be played at the end of the movement. The resulting shock was classical music’s equivalent to drum corps’ incursion into electronics, as no noted composer had ever before worked a recorded track into an otherwise totally live symphonic orchestra performance. Vibrant red flags came out for “Pines of the Appian Way,” inspired by the most important road in the ancient Roman republic that was built to support the vast Roman army legions. It is said to contain the longest stretch of straight road in all of Europe and was the site of the 71 BC crucifixion of some 6,000 revolting slaves who fought alongside Spartacus in the storied revolt against the Roman Empire. The soldiers can be heard advancing in the music as the day breaks upon the long stretches of road. The movement is one continuous crescendo that starts almost imperceptibly. On the field, it culminated in a triumphant blast of brass and the unraveling of the flags to reveal a much larger silk than what appeared earlier. The front flags advanced to the front sideline, set the silks on the ground, and very quickly manipulated the material into the shape of a triangle. Upon standing up, each adjacent flag bearer held on to a bottom corner of the adjacent flag, maintaining the triangular appearance until the final push. The final spinning of all the massive silks seemed to blur out the back stands of the stadium. At a rehearsal, I heard Jeff Fiedler proclaim during this segment, “It’s like Flag Day on Red Square.” Perhaps one had to be there, but it was a hysterical observation at the time.