Spirit of Waxahachie Indian Marching Band’s new show: Building Paris
- Charity Fitch
- Aug 3, 2023
- 3 min read
The Spirit of Waxahachie Indian Marching Band is two weeks away its their first competition with a show that includes bright colors, glamour and construction.
The competition show, “Building Paris.” focuses on the Industrial Revolution period and follows the construction of the Eiffel Tower.
“The whole idea is the show has those glamourous, beautiful moments, but at the same time, it has that construction sound, we’re building sound, where we’re layering things up to the big hit,” director Rich Armstrong said. “You’re going to hear very angular pieces of music where you’ve got a lyrical line, but it’s very accented. You’re gonna see lots of band body and choreography that accentuate that.”
The color guard uniforms highlight the “city of lights” with gold sequins and elegance, while the band uniforms highlight the construction workers “getting dirty building the Eiffel Tower.”
The set includes French flags, a small-scale base of the Eiffel Tower, heaps of broken metal and pieces of the tower, a city of lights panorama look and more.
The show is comprised of four different parts.
The first part, titled “Gymnopedie Introduction,” sets the stage and lets the audience know they are in Paris, France. It includes music from the “Ratatouille” main theme, “Gymnopedie No.1,” and “A New Satisfaction,” by Ray Chen.
“You can’t help but notice we’re in France,” Armstrong said.
Next is a movement titled “Pigalle” from “Paris Sketches,” which has a lot of vignettes and features. It includes music from “Paris Sketches” by Martin Ellerby. Soloists in this section are drum major Leah Gonzales on the oboe, Joseph Jimenez on the clarinet, drum major Owen Bartosh on the French horn and Clara Moriarty on the English horn.
The show transitions into the third movement, titled “Père Lachaise” from “Paris Sketches,” which is all about the beautiful nights in Paris. It includes music from “Paris Sketches” by Martin Ellerby. Soloists in this movement are Moriarty on the English horn, Tyler Averett on the trumpet, Josh Martin on the mellophone and Cade McKie on the trombone.
The show concludes with a movement titled “Les Halles” from “Paris Sketches,” which recaps everything. It includes music from “Paris Sketches” by Martin Ellerby and “A New Satisfaction” by Ray Chen. Soloists in this section are Jimenez on the clarinet and Moriarty on the English horn.
“The show is extremely well designed and flows really well,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong said the band is ahead of schedule with learning the show compared to past years. Their goal this year was to learn everything quickly and then go back and polish and fine tune.
Most competitions have two rounds: preliminaries and finals. The band performs its show during the prelims, then they will perform a second time during finals if they make it.
To make it to the UIL state competition, the band first competes in a regional competition. Unlike the other competitions, it has no prelims or finals. The band performs in front of three judges and receives critiques and a score from 1 to 5 with 1 being the best. If a score of 1 is received, they move onto area.
At area, there are typically 28 to 30 bands competing at prelims, and 10 make it to the final night show. For every five bands that qualify for finals, one advances to the state competition.
“So, if 25 bands qualified, then area B would be able to send five bands to the state marching contest,” Armstrong said. “So, now it’s like people are on pins and needles, who’s advancing, who’s not advancing. From there, that night, you draw and find out when you go at state.”
The state competition is split into two days with prelims on the first day and finals on the second.
“It’s really hard,” Armstrong said. “6A has a ton of really, really, good bands; there’s just so many. For us to be in that realm, we have to do what we do better than most people. We have to earn it, and we have to be really good, so that’s the plan.”
Armstrong has worked hard to emphasize clear and efficient procedures this year. By having these procedures in place, it allows the band to focus simply on the music.
The band’s competition season begins Saturday, Oct. 8; listed below are its competition dates.
Oct. 8 – Bands of America Dallas at Pennington Field
Oct. 15 – BOA Prosper
Oct. 19 – UIL Region at Duncanville HS
Oct. 22 – Duncanville Marching Invitational at Duncanville HS
Oct. 29 – UIL Area at Pennington Field
Nov. 5 – BOA San Antonio Super Regional
Nov. 8 – UIL State Marching at San Antonio
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