‘Wild Horses’ celebrates Americana

A herd of wild horses will be featured as Creston High School’s half-time entertainment tonight, though these might be a little tamer than the ones you’ll find out West.

The ever-popular Creston Marching Band will be focusing on wild horses and Americana with this year’s field show. Featuring an adjusted arrangement from composer Randall Standridge, “Wild Horses” incorporates music from classic folk songs and the lullaby “All the Pretty Horses” to give the audience a taste of the West.

“[Lisa] and I decided to storyboard this whole idea that we were going to tell the story of the American mustang out in the southwest part of the United States,” CHS Band Director Michael Peters said. “We decided to take that as an idea and make the guard actually the horses. The beginning is just us looking at them from afar, and as we try to get close to them. That’s kind of what Americans who moved out there and Native Americans for years have done.”

With four movements in the piece, the audience will watch as the wild horses slowly become integrated with the people of the West. However, they never get rid of their spirit.

“The first two movements is basically watching them and seeing their spirit and how they run and how they are, they gallop across the plains, that kind of stuff,” Peters said. “We see them from afar at first, it starts low, and then all of a sudden we get to see them run. Then in the third movement, we’ve kind of corralled them and calmed them down to the point where we’re becoming one with them. By the time we get to the fourth movement, we are with them and they are with us and we are working together.”

Not only did Peters and his wife and colorguard coach Lisa storyboard the whole show, they also designed the costumes.

“The band actually has their regular black pants, but they have this horse head that goes down the side of their leg that looks like a tail,” Peters said. “It goes down their leg. You’re going to see us play with that a little bit throughout the show to make them look like they’re the other horses around.”

The wild horses will be played by the guard. Rather than full costumes like in previous years, the guard will instead focus on the colors of the horses, along with a crafted mane from each guard members’ hair. The goal was to be both subtle and beautiful.

“It’s not like we’re out there in [giant] horse heads and stuff, it’s not blatant,” Peters said. “Basically, it’s the subtle idea of they’re the horses in their movements and actions.”

While the band has performed the show at previous events, tonight will be the first time in costume. Peters said they will continue to add more elements, with the final result ready by the homecoming game Friday, Sept. 26 against Atlantic.

“Eventually you’ll hear a voiceover of an older man doing the poetry behind the pretty little horses, black and gray, etc,” Peters said. “You’ll hear horse sounds in the background, you’ll hear wind blowing across the plains and different things.”

While Peters acknowledges he’s become known for the darker themes for field shows, he’s thrilled to share his love of horses this year.

“I knew how to ride a horse before I knew how to ride a bike. My grandparents had a ranch in western Nebraska and there were parts of that ranch where you could only get there by horseback,” Peters said. “I’ve never had a chance to do this type of a show and I’ve always wanted to, so this is kind of a really cool concept of childhood and everything else coming together.”

Along with halftime at home games, fans of the Creston Marching Band will have four other chances to see the show live. The afternoon of Sept. 20 during Southwest Iowa Balloon Days celebrations, the marching band will take part in an exhibition, featuring other area marching bands.

The band will compete in three competitions in October. The North Polk Marching Invitational will hold its debut competition Oct. 4 at North Polk High School. The following weekend, the band will head to Valley Stadium in West Des Moines for Valleyfest, the longest running marching band competition in Iowa. The final performance will be held Oct. 17 at Glenwood High School for the Iowa High School Music Association’s State Marching Band Festival.

“It’s going to be an awesome show,” Peters said. “You’re going to love seeing what all our visual performances are doing.”