Geoffery MungerMus 45512/7/15

John Mackey and Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-stringsA Brief Analysis

John Mackey (b. 1973) is a contemporary composer most noted for his compositions for

wind ensemble. Since 1999, John Mackey has been a self publishing composer allowing for

more freedom to write and promote his music on his own terms. Many of Mackey’s pieces for

wind ensemble have become part of the standard band repertory along with other high esteemed

composers of wind ensemble music like David Maslanka and Frank Ticheli.1 What makes

Mackey stand out among other composers is his musical upbringing, which did not include

traditional instrument or singing lessons, but instead a self-taught method of learning through

computer programs. This style of composition, combined with an interest in pop music, has

given John Mackey a unique sound blending traditional compositional method with modern

techniques. Among his most popular works are Aurora Awakes (2009), Kingfishers Catch Fire

(2007), and Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings (2009).

Mackey is an important figure in modern music because of his contribution to the wind

ensemble literature and his innovation in form and orchestration. Beyond his capabilities as a

composer, Mackey represents a generation of composers whose main method of writing music is

on a computer. By examining his life through interviews, his personal blog, notes on his scores

and by analyzing his Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings, we can

begin to understand what makes John Mackey a large name in today’s academic music world.

A Brief Background

1 David Maslanka received the National Endowment of the Arts Award numerous times. Frank Ticheli received the Arts and Letters Award in Composition in 2012.

John Mackey was born in Ohio in 1973. He is the son of two amateur musicians and the

grandson to a music store owner (who became Mackey’s first music theory teacher).2 Mackey

was a self-taught musician throughout high school and began his first musical education in 1991

at the Cleveland Institute of Art under the direction of Donald Erb. During his years at

Cleveland, Mackey was able to write two commissioned works as well as interact with his soon-

to-be teacher, John Corigliano.3

In the fall of 1995, Mackey was accepted into the composition program at Julliard where

he began studying with John Corigliano. The composer recalls that one of the most important

parts of his time at Julliard was his experience in Julliard’s Composer and Choreographers

Workshop, where Mackey learned to write for dancers, plays and the stage. This course spawned

one of Mackey’s first well recognized pieces, Damn, for amplified clarinet and four

percussionists.

After he received his Master’s in 1997 John Mackey began to work for the general

manager of the New York Philharmonic, which would eventually help in attaining one of his

most well known large-work commissions, Redline Tango. Mackey also got work at an office

job at the Lincoln Center before deciding in 2005 to compose music fulltime. Mackey’s first

work for wind ensemble, Sarsaparilla was commissioned through a consortium consisting of

several universities and spearheaded by Scott Weiss of Lamar University.4

The success of Sarsaparilla started a shift in Mackey to favor writing for wind

ensembles. His first success was followed shortly after by two also successful pieces, Turbine

2 Rebecca Leigh Phillips, “John Mackey: The Composer, His Compositional Style and A Conductor’s Analysis on Redline Tango and Turbine” (DMA diss., University of Louisiana, 2007.)3 Ibid.4 Ibid.

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and Strange Humors. Other successful wind ensemble compositions that Mackey has composed

include: Kingfishers Catch Fire (2007), Aurora Awakes (2009), and Wine Dark Sea: Symphony

for Band (2014). Along with commissions, John Mackey is an award winning composer,

receiving multiple ASCAP Concert Music Awards as well as the Morton Gould Young

Composer award twice.

Mackey’s Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings was

commissioned in 2008 through a consortium led by The West Point Military Academy Band.

The piece was written for and dedicated to New York Philharmonic’s trombone player Joseph

Alessi. The piece premiered in 2010 by the West Point Military Academy Band with Joseph

Alessi performing the solo.

Analysis of Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings

Harvest is divided into three sections and intended to be performed without a break

between the sections. The piece is programmatic in that Mackey used the story of the god

Dionysus as a focal point while composing this piece. In the composers own words:

Harvest: Concerto for Trombone is based on the myths and mystery rituals of the Greek

god Dionysus. As the Olympian god of the vine, Dionysus is famous for inspiring ecstasy

and creativity. But this agricultural, earth-walking god was also subjected each year to a

cycle of agonizing death before glorious rebirth, analogous to the harsh pruning and

long winter the vines endure before blooming again in the spring. The concerto's

movements attempt to represent this dual nature and the cycle of suffering and return.5

The trombone acts as the character of Dionysus throughout the concerto. Although Mackey does

not call his sections “movements”, his concerto takes a standard concerto form of fast/slow/fast.

5 John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings (Cambridge, MA: Ostimusic.com, 2009): 3A.

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The opening movement of Mackey’s concerto begins with a soundscape created by the

woodwinds. Here, the composer already gives us a modern compositional technique by having

the clarinets and a flute play in a quasi-improvisational manner.

Figure 1. John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings, mm. 3, Flute 1.

Mackey accompanies these improvisatory moments with a low tremolo in the piano, a rather

unique way of performing on the timpani using a “large cymbal, placed upside down on the

lowest drum,”6 and a rolled djembe, an almost signature percussion instrument in Mackey’s

pieces.7

The first time the soloist is heard is in an almost sigh-like gesture that resembles some

sort of chant. Mackey makes great use of the trombone’s aesthetic by incorporating many

glissandi, not only in the soloist, but in the trombone section as well. As mentioned in the

composer’s blog, the trombone section of these piece is meant to represent Dionysus’

worshipers.8 Mackey draws from the same expanding motive to develop the introduction before

we hear the first statement of the first sections theme. Stated in 7/4 meter, the main theme played

by the soloist in mm. 55 is syncopated and emphasizes the tonal center of F.

6 Ibid., 1. 7 Many of John Mackey’s compositions contain the use of a djembe or multiple djembes. See other works such as; Strange Humors () and 8 John Mackey, “Trombone Concerto concept,” Ostimusic.com, July 20, 2009, http://ostimusic.com/blog/trombone-concerto-concept/.

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Figure 2. John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings, mm. 55-57, solo Trombone.

The composer shifts the texture of the ensemble to a tutti exclamation of the opening solo

trombone theme at mm. 65. The ensemble carries the melody until it is passed off once again to

the soloist. Mackey continues to exploit the use of the glissando within the solo trombone part.

This not only adds interest to the piece aurally, but also helps the soloist produce the notes by

glissing into them. Mackey continues to develop the first thematic material through the use of

solist and ensemble before arriving to the next important motive used in the first movement of

Harvest in mm. 129.

Figure 3. John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings, mm. 129, solo Trombone.

The first section of the concerto comes to dramatic halt in mm. 191 where the texture is reduced

to a single vibraphone on a pedal Ab.

The second section of of the first movement begins with quite staggered entrances form

the woodwinds and the piano while the Ab eighth note accompaniment is heard in the

vibraphone. The soloist enters in from nothing sustaining a melody consisting of whole notes,

representing winter and Dionysus’ approach to death and the second movement of the piece.

Mackey focuses on a flowing melody line for the soloist while intensity is built by the woodwind

section in bursts of trills and unmetered moments.

The first movement of Harvest ends in a recapitulation of the beginning first thematic

material. Here, Mackey varies the return to the A section by adding a triplet figure in the high

woodwinds and piano that was not encountered before this point. This shift adds a stronger

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rhythmic pulse and pull to the ending of the first movement. The movement ends with a large

crescendo and glissandi in the trombone section marked “nasty, mocking”9 before subsiding into

silence, representing Dionysus’ death in the winter.

The second movement of Harvest is marked with a meter change to 2/2 and dramatic

decrease in tempo. The composer brings back thematic material from the B section of the first

movement in order to craft the second movement. Here the soloist sings a somber song of winter

comprised mostly of long, sustained phrases.

Figure 4. John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings, Movement II, mm. 330-36.

Mackey keeps this movement simple with the texture staying mostly the same for the entire

movement.

The solo trombone is accompanied by lush chords sustained by solo woodwinds, horns

and trombones while the vibraphone and harp interject with juxtaposed sixteenth notes against

the serene texture. The second movement ends with a slow sigh from the trombone section

glissing to a pianissimo dynamic.

The final movement of John Mackey’s Harvest begins with another compositional

technique the composer enjoys to employ, an ostinato. Here Mackey sets up the ostinato using

the piano in 16th notes and the harp and vibraphone in 8th notes creating a think undercurrent of

sound while undulating between meter changes.

9 John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings (Cambridge, MA: Ostimusic.com, 2009): 58.

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Figure 5. John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings, Movement III, mm. 405-08.

Before the soloist makes its entrance in mm. 427, Mackey creates a secondary texture against the

percussion ostinato using a melodic line created by the high woodwinds and muted horns. The

ostinato-like melody presented here is transformed through an additive compositional process

before the movement reaches it’s first peak at mm. 427 with the syncopated entrance of the solo

trombone.

The first thematic material Mackey introduces for the soloist is reminiscent of the melody

of the first movement, with the soloist transforming small cells of music either by an additive or

diminutive technique. The second melodic material takes the shape of a long melodic idea

mostly composed of whole notes for the soloist. The first thematic material is quickly returned to

before Mackey increase the orchestration and the dynamic to fortisisimo for a dramatic entrance

of the second thematic section.

Here the composer plays on the same idea as first thematic section, but much more

dramatically with an explosion of both sound and virtuosity from the soloist. Mackey continues

to jump between meters adding a broader mix of meters to the second thematic section.

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Figure 6. John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings, Movement III, mm. 458-59.

The composer uses a similar process as he did with the first thematic material by introducing a

rhythmically complex melody in the solo followed by a slower, more legato section creating an

internal fast/slow/fast form. Mackey returns to the second thematic material, this time combining

elements of the first theme into the second.

As the composer approaches the finale of the piece, he adds a new ascending motive to

the solo line that will return several times in the finale.

Figure 7. John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings, Movement III, mm. 497-99.

The entrance of this new motive marks the beginning a quasi-recapitulation of the entire

concerto. At this point, Mackey thickens the orchestration a creates clear signs that the concerto

is approaching its ending.

An interesting addition to the final movement of Mackey’s trombone concerto is a large

ritardando several bars before the end of the piece. The composer takes one last second to

appreciate what the trombone does best, by scoring a thick, choral-like melody. Marked “epic,

Mahlerian” the soloist is charged with leading a dramatic crescendo into the final coda of the

piece.10 The final nine bars of the Mackey’s Harvest are explosive, combining the rhythmic

material of the third movement with the multiple glissandi found in the first movement. The final

10 John Mackey, Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings (Cambridge, MA: Ostimusic.com, 2009): 105.

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F major chord is attacked by the tutti ensemble, followed by a sharp final gliss downwards from

the soloist, marking the end of the piece.

Conclusion

John Mackey’s Harvest: Concerto for Trombone is a wonderful example of what the

wind ensemble repertoire is beginning to evolve into and a great representation of what can be

done with a wind ensemble. John Mackey is able to use the force of the wind ensemble to create

interesting soundscapes and textures. The composer’s use of extended tonality, exciting pop-

related rhythms, and interesting meter changes all play a role in the success of Mackey’s music

and popularity as a wind ensemble composer. The composer himself also represents a new

generation of composers who feel more at home composing on a computer than on a piano.

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Bibliography

Mackey, John. Harvest: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra-without-strings. Cambridge, MA: Ostimusic.com, 2009.

Mackey, John. “Trombone Concerto concept.” Ostimusic.com. July 20, 2009. http://ostimusic.com/blog/trombone-concerto-concept/.

Phillips, Rebecca Leigh. “John Mackey: The Composer, His Compositional Style and A Conductor’s Analysis on Redline Tango and Turbine.” DMA diss., University of Louisiana, 2007.

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