DVD Spotlight of the Week: 1983 Phantom Regiment

“1812” made its way into the opener, in the first part of the segment heard in the accompanying video clip. The second part of the opener started with a drum solo based on the “Finale” from “Serenade for Strings.” This allowed the audience to get a closer look at the split shell snare drums that featured a couple-inch gap between the top and bottom of the shells, which back then was considered to help in acoustic projection. A return to the opening fanfare was combined with a short quote from the composer’s “Symphony No. 6” to bring the combination drum feature/horn reprise to a close. Many fans may have forgotten that the whimsical concert standstill of “Neapolitan Dance” from “Swan Lake Ballet” featured a juggler, four years before the featured professional in Star of Indiana’s 1987 circus show. The closer was a full-blown five-and-a-half minute production of “1812 Overture,” which was written by Tchaikovsky in 1880 to celebrate the Russian nation overcoming Napoleon’s assault by the undefeated French Allied Army. (Though Napoleon’s forces “won” the battle, they exited Russia with only about 10% of the forces with which they arrived.) Tchaikovsky also conducted the work during the dedication of Carnegie Hall in 1891. The piece commenced, as did the original, with a solemn chorale, then moved into the motif that many of us grew up knowing as the theme song for the 1960s Quaker Puffed Wheat Cereal commercials, “The cereal that’s shot from guns.” During the drum break, alternating members of two arcs of horn players caught and tossed flagpoles back to the guard members. After a couple more musical segments, the corps moved into the section where cannons are first heard in the orchestral original. Still more than 90 seconds from the end of the show, a forward push of the horns was accompanied by the ringing of an actual church bell, leading into a full horn line company front. A large concert bass drum was employed to deliver the cannon shots in the finale, with the church bell ringing away and the entire guard on rifles up front in a form sort of like a bell clapper. The horns, in the back, formed the dome of a massive bell and then unleashed every ounce of power still remaining on the final chords. But one last visual trick remained for the corps’ Finals performance. On the final chord, as the audience started to applaud after regaining part of their hearing, the guard tossed long white streamers into the air as if fireworks were exploding on the field. Then, as soon as the audience responded to that spoonful of frosting, the entire horn line added to the spectacular by tossing more streamers into the air. The audience responded with fireworks of its own, with many of the Regiment fans that had been let in on the effect tossing long streamers over the upper deck, filling the lower deck with an explosion of white. For this week only, you can save on the Legacy Collection DVD that contains this complete Phantom Regiment performance, along with all finalists from the 1983 DCI World Championships. Buy the 1983 Legacy Collection DVD. (Available this week only for $28. Regular price: $35.)