Alyssa Ludovice, a high school junior, member of Elgin High School’s color guard, and, from what we hear, an excellent singer and writer, died Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 5, from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident Tuesday in Lakewood. She was 16. Read more >>>
At marching band festivals, the band from Naperville North High School always scores high in the category known as “general effect.” This category, which accounts for 60 percent of a marching band’s “score” on a standard Bands of America scoresheet, basically answers the question, How effectively did the show entertain the audience?
Don’t get me wrong: North gets high scores in music execution and visuals as well; it’s just that what has made the band famous across the country is its approach to entertainment.
The Bands of America organization revised the phrasing on the scoresheets for General Effect Music and General Effect Visual in the fall season of 2000. The phrasing now better recognizes varied entertainment styles:
We have to sometimes remove ourselves from our own tastes and opinions to recognize and appreciate the approach others are attempting to use to reach the audience. ... It is important for us to realize that entertainment can take many forms. Comedy, drama, pathos ... the entire range of emotion should be considered as being valuable in programming. A show that successfully touches the audience emotionally on the deeper side of the scale should receive equal consideration with programs that consist primarily of qualities that make us feel good.
The show from North each year can best be described as a symphony, each movement having its own character, unified by its overall theme. For example, in 2011, the band presented a show titled “Civilozution,” which told the story of humans evolving as a civilization. Pictures from the different movements are shown on this page.
The band will present “Festivus” this year, focused on holiday music. The first movement, “Holiday Hassle,” is a mash-up of every public-domain holiday tune you can imagine, including the world’s loudest rendition of Silent Night. It degenerates into an original Festivus main theme composed by Dan Moore.
The second movement, “The Aluminum Pole,” starts out as a swinging carol about a Christmas tree and ends in a sadder inversion of that melody. “The Airing of Grievances" begins with We Gather Together, followed by a lot of angry aleatoric sounds and drum features. Oh, entertaining randomness!
The fourth movement, “The Feats of Strength,” starts with a retrograde inversion of an Olympics fanfare and ends in comical disaster. Last but not least, “A Festivus for the Rest of Us” is an original theme, expressing the joy of family togetherness—no, seriously.
Year after year, North brings entertainment to the football stadium, and “year after year, the kids talk about the family atmosphere of our band,” Mr Moore said. “Everyone is welcome. There are no cuts.”
Written Sept. 8
Led by drum majors Lex Samuels & Daniel Pindar, Naperville North High School, one of the nation’s top five in math, brings a marching band to the holidays, directed by Dan Moore & Brian Van Kley, assisted by Kay Moore & Alen Hinds (percussion) & Anne Turner, Viviana Stokes, & Paulette Rife (color guard).
