John Mackey (b. 1973) once famously compared the band and the orchestra to the kind of person a composer might be attracted to at a party. The orchestra seems ideal for you, but clearly feels superior and talks a lot about a whole slew of exes (like Dvorak and Beethoven). The band, meanwhile, is loud and brash, but loves everything you do and can’t wait to play your stuff, the newer, the better! (I’ve rather poorly paraphrased Mackey – it’s best understood in his original blog post on the subject).

With this attitude and his prodigious talent, John Mackey has become a superstar composer among band directors. He has even eclipsed his former teacher, John Corigliano, by putting out dozens of new band works, including a symphony, since 2005. All are challenging, and many are innovative. Mackey’s works for wind ensemble and orchestra have been performed around the world, and have won numerous composition prizes. His Redline Tango, originally for orchestra and then transcribed by the composer for band, won him the American Bandmasters Assocation/Ostwald Award in 2005, making him, then 32, the youngest composer ever to receive that prize.  He won again in 2009 with Aurora Awakes. More recently, he was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with the 2018 Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award in Music. His compositional style is fresh and original. I once heard him state that he counted the band Tool among his musical influences.

John Mackey publishes his own music through his website. This doubles as his blog, which is very informative for anyone looking for a composer’s perspective on new music (and pictures of food). He is featured on Wikipedia and the Wind Repertory Project. He is also on Twitter and has a Facebook composer page.

Foundry (2011) came about as a commission from 8 school bands. Mackey illuminates its origins:

The idea with Foundry was to make a piece that celebrates the fact that percussionists have this ability to make just about anything into an “instrument.” Snare drums and bass drums are great, but why not write a whole piece featuring non-traditional percussion — things like salad bowls and mixing bowls and piles of wood?

In some cases, I was specific about what instrument to play (timpani, xylophone, etc.). With many of the parts, though, I only described what sound I wanted (play a “clang” — a metal instrument, probably struck with a hammer, that creates a rich “CLANG!” sound), and allowed the percussionist to be creative in finding the best “instrument” to make the sound I described.

It won’t be surprising that Foundry, for concert band with “found percussion,” much of it metallic, ends up sounding like a steel factory. The composer thanks the required 10–12 percussionists for allowing his ridiculous requests to continue. Clang.

Read this blog post about “Foundry,” or this other post, with more “found percussion” photos, including a video of a “4 metals machine.” (Scroll about half-way down that post for the part about “Foundry.”)

See so much more at Osti Music, the Wind Repertory Project, Kurrent Music, and especially at this site, which details the creation of the found percussion that Mackey asks for. Think “piles of metal.”

Here it is in performance: