On the heels of the market crash of 1929 and standing at the gateway of the Great depression - 1930 was a year of complexity and contradiction. The contrast of an economic storm-front and the beauty of American optimism present a collage of the cultural unknown.

With an undeniable foot in the present, the 2009 Blue Devils take a look back at a year when faith and uncertainty were suddenly in a dance of the indefinite. To stand in the face of a tempest or take a seat in the dream of diversion, the artist and innovators of 1930 generated a broad emotional landscape. From the buoyancy of Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" to the multifarious "Piano Variations" of Aaron Copland, the Blue Devils offer a modern exploration of one single year. A year that would herald its number one popular song "Happy Days Are Here Again" and produced the future Judy Garland classic "Get Happy".

With the 2009 program "1930", the present and the past convene in a theatrical conversation of passion and exhilaration. Through unique visual and musical composition, the Blue Devils continue to showcase the world's most accomplished young performers as they travel the US offering a distinctive approach to contemporary drum and bugle corps.

Albert Einstein said, "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science". The year he made this profound statement? 1930.

• Mosaic
  "Get Happy" Harold Arlen
  "Happy Days Are Here Again" Jack Yellen and Milton Ager
  "Playing Love" Ennio Morricone
• Depression
  "Piano Variations" Aaron Copland
• King of Jazz
  "Rialto Ripples" George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin
  "I Got Rhythm" George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin