From the Judges:

In the fall of 1992 I joined my high school's marching band. Having only seen marching bands in local parades, I really didn't know what I was getting into. I soon fell in love with the activity, however, and found myself unable to give it up. While to my knowledge, there are no exact figures on nationwide marching band participation, there must certainly be over 500,000 members of high school and collegiate marching bands, spending anything from thirty minutes to twenty hours (or at times even more) together per week. The large amount of time spent together, frequent contact between communities (marching bands) through weekly football game performances and marching band shows and competitions, and the common experiences and goals relating to those performances all have created a distinct marching band culture.

I initially planned to focus on "rites of passage" in college and university marching bands, particularly those traditions dealing with "initiation" of new members and celebrating departing members. I soon realized, however, that this subject would present several substantial problems. First, many "rites of passage" have probably been heavily discouraged and suppressed by band directors and college administrators. Second, band members may be reluctant to disclose details of these traditions, for fear of discovery by band directors and college administrators. Finally, discussion of this sort of tradition with anyone who has not been "initiated" is generally taboo.

I discarded the idea of studying "rites of passage," but I was (and am) still intrigued by the folklore of bands, so I immediately began to consider other similar subjects. It soon occurred to me that the one thing all bands have in common is that they are performance art. In any performance art, the actual occasion of the performance is a high-stress situation, a natural time for superstitions and traditions to arise. This is especially true just before any performance, and so I chose to study "pre-performance traditions."

It is a misnomer to refer simply to "marching band." The performance ensembles I studied included not just marching bands, but drum and bugle corps, and winter guards. Marching bands are generally associated with high schools and colleges, and consist of wind instruments (brass and woodwind), battery percussion (snare drums, bass drums, tenor drums, and cymbals), pit percussion (xylophones, timpani, bass drums, and other miscellaneous percussion), and colorguard (flags, rifles, baton twirlers, sabres, and dancers). Drum and bugle corps are usually independent organizations consisting of all component instruments of marching bands except woodwinds. Winter guards consist of various percussion and/or colorguard. What all three have in common is that they involve marching, and music, and so they are commonly referred to as "marching musical activities" or MMAs.

A major portion of my research was conducted over email. I was originally able to reach a large number of performers through several newsgroups (rec.arts.marching.band.high-school, rec.arts.marching.band.college, rec.arts.marching.band, rec.arts.marching.misc, rec.arts.marching, rec.arts.marching.colorguard, rec.arts.marching.drumcorps). Also, I am a member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary band service fraternity, and I was able to reach many more performers through several national and regional fraternity listserves. Additionally, a few days after I emailed out a request for information, I was contacted by a representative of a marching band website, who offered to communicate my request for information to his website's mailing list, in return for permission to publish my eventual findings. All told, my request was sent to well over 2000 email accounts, though many of those are most likely duplicates (many people subscribe to more than one of the above listed newsgroups, listservs, and mailing lists). As of 25 April, I have received 38 replies, and responses have continued to pour in, therefore I plan to update my findings in August to reflect more collected data.

Performer, Audience, Context:

The performers in this case are members of the MMAs who participate in the pre-performance traditions. Generally the only audience is other MMA members, who are often also performers themselves. For various reasons, including athletic demands and time requirements, the vast majority of MMA members are high school and college students between the ages of 16 and 23. These activities were historically all male, but most organizations have been co-ed for at least 20 years (though a few all-male and all-female groups do exist), and participation today is divided roughly evenly between the sexes. Because of additional time and financial requirements, drum and bugle corps participants are usually better musicians on average than marching band and winter guard participants. For purposes of performing a "pre-performance" tradition, however, instrumental skill is largely irrelevant, and most of the traditions that I discovered require little skill. Context varies from tradition to tradition.

MMAs occur primarily between late June and January, so I was unable to personally document any pre-performance traditions. Also, because of the impending MMA performance, most MMA members do not have any photos or recordings of these traditions. As a result my only data consists of personal accounts from performers.

Intent:

The exact intent varies from tradition to tradition; however, the general intent is usually to ensure a successful MMA performance. Pre-performance traditions commonly involve relaxation techniques, last-minutes motivations ("getting pumped/psyched"), and repetitive formulae to put MMA members in a "performance mindset." Another substantial motivating intent in many of the pre-performance MMA traditions simply the sense of "tradition," that doing the exact same thing that hundreds (or even thousands) of other people have done before provides a link to the past and solidifies a MMA group's identity.

Text Analysis:

Most verbal traditions are strongly rhythmic, and frequently sung, which should come as no surprise, given that most performers are musicians! Several of the most common chants have been disseminated through prominent "leadership camps," such as the George Parks Drum Major Academy, and so are only marginally folklore (they were disseminated in an elite context, but have since been passed down informally). Frequently high school traditions focus on personal preparation for the MMA performance, while college and university traditions emphasize school rivalries more. This is a reflection of different functions of the MMA groups; high school groups tend to be highly competetive, while college and univerisity groups simply cheer for the athletic teams (especially football).

"Breakfasts":

Breakfasts are worthy of a special note. This is a tradition found mostly in college and university MMA groups, but also in many high school groups. In high school groups, the breakfast is just that, a very early breakfast before an early morning rehearsal. Often the breakfast is always held in the same place (a specific restaurant, for example). Usually each section has its own breakfast tradition, although multiple sections may meet at the same restaurant (either simultaneously or in succession). Sometimes this can involve pranks by one or more sections (instruments), such as playing loudly just outside the restaurant. This has developed largely out of necessity. Since many groups schedule a long morning rehearsal before an early afternoon performance, the members would not have another chance to eat for quite some time (as much as eight hours). In college and university groups, while some breakfasts are largely the same as the high school breakfasts, most tend to consist of alcohol, and nothing else. This is probably a combination of the high school breakfast tradition, and many college students' insatiable thirst for alcohol (speaking from experience!). This breakfast usually occurs at an upperclassman's apartment (since alcohol could be made available to everyone there), and, even more often than the high school breakfast, is limited to a single section. This seems to be most common in the tuba and percussion sections.

The functions of MMA pre-performance traditions largely match their intents. As mentioned in the "background" section, the time just before any performance is frequently a high-stress situation, and one of the most common functions of the pre-performance traditions is to alleviate stress and relax the MMA performers. Another function is to put MMA participants in a "performance mindset," which is generally accomplished through chants (often call-and-response), singing, and other repetitive formulae. Yet another function is to bind the MMA group (and subgroups within the MMA) together psychologically. By the perceived assistance of peers in removing the stress, the group becomes emotionally closer. Finally, these traditions are one of the keys that differentiate between MMAs. Since members may move from one group to another, it is in fact these traditions that are the identity of the groups.

Proxemics and Kinesics:

Proxemics and kinesics are very important in pre-performance traditions. Most traditions involve some sort of direct personal contact (back rubs, "pinkie sex," hugs, holding hands, huddles, shoulder taps, linking arms, etc.), or at least personal interaction. As with any visual art, spatial orientation is very important in MMAs. Because of the size of the performance area (often a football field), participants rarely come within three feet of each other during the MMA performance, so pre-performance traditions are a "last chance" for any physical contact. In a sense this is not just the last chance for interpersonal interaction, but for any interaction. During an MMA, performers focus on the exact repetition of a routine, and even a performer's best friend becomes simply a guidepost to determine the desired spatial orientation.

Scholarly Secondary Material:

As far as I have been able to discover, no scholarly work has been done in this field. This area has probably been studied by folklore students at some time, but has never been published (that I can find). None of the MMA participants were aware of any previous studies of this topic.

I really enjoyed studying pre-performance traditions in MMAs, and I look forward to continued work in this subject. Particularly, I hope to collect more multiple perspectives on the same MMA groups. For example, I had several sources for information regarding The Ohio State University's marching band, California Polytech's marching band, and the Boston Crusaders drum and bugle corps, and I found these multiple sources far more enlightening than a single source could have been.

I also hope to continue to collect data from several particular groups which seem to have the strongest and oldest traditions, particularly The Ohio State University's marching band, Georgia Tech's marching band, the Colts drum and bugle corps, and the Boston Crusaders drum and bugle corps. I would also like to add to this information on traditions here at the University of Kentucky, where, through interviews with band alumni, I will gain a perspective on how traditions can change within a single MMA group.

If I were to do this project over again from the beginning, I would make two changes. I would conduct my research during the summer and fall, when MMA groups tend to be most active, and I would try to focus more on just a few groups of interest. Without having conducted any research, however, there was no way to know which groups would have strong traditions and which would not.

Carter M. Adler is a student at the University of Kentucky

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