Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps

The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps is a highly competitive summer youth drum corps in the Drum Corps International (DCI) circuit. It was founded in 1938, is based out of Madison, Wisconsin, and is the third oldest corps in the DCI circuit (The Cadets, and The Racine Scouts were founded in 1934 and 1927, respectively). The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps currently belongs to the Madison Drum and Bugle Corps Association umbrella organization.

The corps is one of two remaining all-male corps, the other being The Cavaliers.

Being of Boy Scout origin, the corps symbol is the Fleur-de-lis. The members of the corps are registered with the Four Lakes Council of the Boy Scouts of America as Venturers.

The corps song of the Madison Scouts is "You'll Never Walk Alone".

History

The corps was founded in 1938 after a group of Madison businessmen saw the Racine Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps perform and felt that Madison should have its very own corps comprised of Boy Scouts. [http://madisonscouts.org/history/ms_history_1938-1950.asp] Clarence H. Beebe led as executive director soon after the corps was conceived and continued in that position until his death in 1968. [http://madisonscouts.org/history/ms_history_1960-1969.asp]

In 1951, the corps split into the Madison Explorer Scouts and Madison Junior Scouts. The Junior corps served as a "feeder" group for the Explorer corps. The Explorers were the first recognized musical post in the Boy Scouts of America and evolved into the current-day Madison Scouts. [http://madisonscouts.org/history/ms_history_1951-1959.asp] In 1995, the Juniors merged with the Capitolaires Drum and Bugle Corps (an all-female corps) to form the Capital Sound Drum and Bugle Corps. [http://madisonscouts.org/history/ms_history_1995.asp]

The corps is a founding member of DCI. During the 1971 season, both the Explorers and Chicago Cavaliers (now The Cavaliers) performed shows that pushed the envelope of creativity. [http://corpsreps.com/corpsreps.cfm?view=yeardet&yearqry=1971&corpstype=Junior&showboth=No] The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) circuits imposed strict rules on competition that no competing corps had a say in. To overcome this, several youth corps, including the Madison Scouts, banded together to form DCI. [http://mastersmarchingarts.com/teasers.shtml] The first DCI world championships were held in 1972 in Whitewater, Wisconsin's Perkins Stadium. [http://seasonpass.dci.org/audio/view.cfm?mode=search_year&year_id=156a0f47-5122-43f0-9b8a-92a70c7788ba] The corps has begun every summer since 2003 learning the show on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and performing its dress rehearsal in Perkins Stadium in tribute before going on its national tour.

The corps has employed the use of a single female in the color guard in 1971 and in 2005 for the roles of Alice (Alice in Wonderland) and Carmen, respectively. Neither female was admitted as a member of the corps.

The corps was DCI World Champion in 1975 and 1988. In addition, it placed second in 1974 and 1976 and third in 1981. [http://corpsreps.com/corpsreps.cfm?view=corpsdet&corps=13&corpstype=Junior]

Seasons of note

1971

The corps used a female to play the role of Alice from Alice in Wonderland in its field show. The corps placed 10th in VFW Nationals with a score of 84.85.

1975

The corps won its first DCI championship with a score of 92.50 after narrowly missing it in the 1974 season. In 2005, the 1975 Madison Scouts performance was voted as one of the shows to appear in the DCI Classic Countdown, a movie theater showing of the top twelve shows of all time, with one show for each corps.

1988

The Scouts won their second DCI championship with a score of 97.10, beating the undefeated Blue Devils and edging out the Santa Clara Vanguard by two-tenths of a point. After spending several weeks of the summer touring Europe as part of their 50th anniversary celebration, the corps entered the DCI Championships as a "darkhorse." The finals followed a unique preliminary competition that included undisclosed scores and placings. The last half of the show was Malagueña, a corps classic. This show was selected by fans for the second Classic Countdown in 2006.

1995

The corps performed one of the most entertaining and crowd-appealing shows in DCI history, titled A Drum Corps Fan's Dream: A Day in the Life of a Bull Fighter, and had the finals crowd on its feet screaming for well over a minute before the show ended. The corps placed 4th with a score of 95.40. The closer was Malaga, another corps classic.

This show was picked in the third DCI Classic Countdown

1996

The corps, following their hit performance from the last year, played a show titled A Drum Corps Fan's Dream: Part Dos.

1997

The corps performed yet another highly entertaining show. Near the end of the finals performance, "during a chord", the drum major (Bob Guinn) picked up a camera, turned around and took a picture of the audience, much to their delight. The same move was made by the Madison drum major to close out the season in 1980 in Birmingham, Alabama. The corps placed 5th with a score of 93.90. The show was titled The Pirates of Lake Mendota. Lake Mendota is one of the lakes on which the city of Madison was founded.

1999

The corps performed one of the group's most popular shows of the 90's, based on the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar. Standing ovations before the finale were common, as were jeers from the audience after the announcement of Madison's scores during contests. The corps finished in 6th place with a score of 93.40.

2002

With a program titled Conquest, the corps placed 14th in semifinals with a score of 84.85 and did not advance to finals. This was the second time since the inception of DCI that the corps did not make World Championship finals--the first time being 30 years earlier at the first DCI, when the corps also placed 14th.

2003

After a tumultuous change in administration and staff, the corps exploded back into finals with an 8th place finish and a score of 89.55. The show was titled GOLD, GREEN AND RED: The Music of Benoit Jutras.

2004

The hornline switched from G to Bb/F instruments. The corps had been one of the very few remaining holdouts on the switch since DCI rules were changed in the 2000 season. The corps placed 8th again and had a score of 91.175 with a program titled MadiSonic.

2005

The all-male corps featured a female in its field show for the second time in its history. The guest performer portrayed the role of Carmen from the opera of the same name; the show was titled The Carmen Project, and featured the music of West Side Story in addition to that of Georges Bizet . The corps climbed to 6th place and had a score of 92.625.

2007

2007 brought another sweeping staff change for the Scouts, including the second director in four years. Madison's season started out roughly, with only a single DCI Division I corps not having posted a higher score than the Scouts. In response to this, the corps had their field show completely rewritten midseason, and rebounded to eventually place 15th at semifinals, their lowest placement ever at semifinals and the third time the corps did not advance to finals. The program was entitled "Unbound." It included the music of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir, Alanis Morissette's Uninvited, the "Pie Jesu" and "Agnus Dei" movements of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem Mass, Astor Piazolla's "Libertango", and El Tango de Roxanne, from the movie Moulin Rouge!.

See also

* Scouting in Wisconsin

External links

* [http://madisonscouts.org/ Official Site]
* [http://madisoncorps.org/ Madison Drum and Bugle Corps Association]
* [http://madisonscout-volunteers.org/ Madison Scouts Volunteers]
* [http://drumcorpswiki.com/index.php/Madison_Scouts DrumCorpsWiki Article]
* [http://corpsreps.com/corpsreps.cfm?view=corpsdet&corps=13&corpstype=Junior Madison Scouts historical repertoires]
* [http://dci.org/ Drum Corps International]