BOA Grand Nationals: Owasso, Okla.

INDIANAPOLIS (Nov. 14, 2009)—With the semi-finals performance of the marching band from Owasso High School in Owasso, Okla., we take a trip to Paris, and one of the nicknames of that city, perhaps its most famous, is “La Ville-Lumière,” which is most often translated as “The City of Light.”

Sources differ on where the nickname came from, but the most plausible theory is that Paris was the center of education and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment, which took place during the 18th century, known as Le Siècle des Lumières, the “century of lights.”

Others say the nickname came to Paris in 1828, when city officials started introducing gas streetlamps to light the Champs-Elysées, with its Arc de Triomphe, which honors French veterans, especially those who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. To keep this theory going, lights stay on at the Eiffel Tower every night until 1 a.m.

So, volts or Voltaire? What do you think is the source of the nickname?

We will not attempt to resolve the debate here, and we also note that Owasso’s show, though it is obviously a reference to Paris, and to France in general, is entitled “La Ville des Lumière,” which looks ungrammatical, sure, but sounds perfectly fine. It refers to the city of lights, plural.

Above, at the beginning of the show, we see the straightest lines on the field, with flags that might be viewed as small lights—they’re yellow in color, anyway. Already we can see the lamps along the avenue that holds the most expensive real estate in Europe.

We move, a few minutes after a woodwind quartet, to the entire woodwind section in a power parallelogram formation. This yields, in the music and the drill, to the dominant flourishes of the brass, with bells toward the sky.

After the Icons movement, we get into one called The River. This, of course, refers to the River Seine, which courses through Paris.

With so much of Paris to see and so little time, the band segues into a movement called Night Lights, which culminates in a sweeping crescendo in the brass and a little bit of knee-shaking shimmying from everybody while standing at parade rest. Did I just see that?

The final movement, La Lumière, refers once again to the light. Still not sure which light that is, but French flags make it clear the band is depicting Paris.

The marching band from Owasso High School is directed by David Gorham; drum majors are Mark Johnson, Nathanael Rake, Stratton Ahlborn, and Amanda Davis.