Foundry

John Mackey
Grade 3- 4min 20 Seconds
Middle School Band

Broad Description
Based off the Idea of Found percussion. Which features a lot of objects that are found in a variety of places that bring
certain colors and textures to the ensemble.
Dense Orchestration of Brass and Woodwind lines throughout. Brass has heavy chords whereas woodwinds have
moving lines.
Large amount of Percussionists (12 is preferred)
Commissioned in 2011

Composer Biography
John Mackey was born on October 1, 1973 in New Philadelphia, Ohio. He current holds a Master of Music
degree. John Mackey enjoys writing particularly music for dance and for symphonic winds. He has focused on
these specific mediums for the past couple of years. His works have been performed at the Sydney Opera
House; the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Carnegie Hall; the Kennedy Center; and throughout Italy, Chile, Japan,
China, Norway, Spain, Colombia, Austria, Brazil, Germany, England, Australia, New Zealand, and the United
States. As a child Mackey's parents did sign him up for music lessons. His grandfather, despite that obstacle,
taught him to read music and manipulate computer music notation. Mackey has never formally studied an
instrument though. Through experimentation for entertainment others rather than education, Mackey began
to compose his own music.To entertain himself while procrastinating on commissions, John Mackey has become photography
enthusiast.

Link to his description of his Photography hobby: http://ostimusic.com/blog/about/

Background Information
Wouldnt it be cool, as a percussionist, when you first realized that playing percussion wasnt just hitting a snare drum
or playing a glockenspiel, but it also meant finding non-traditional instruments like trash cans and brake drums? Why not
write the piece that could be the first to expose young percussionists to this concept?
This was the phrase that started it all for John Mackey. This statement was posted on facebook and because of that Mr.
Mackey wanted to write a Grade 3 piece to expose this a-typical art form within the percussion that features. The lower you
go in grade level ie, the easier the piece is to play, technically speaking the harder it is to write, at least as far as Im
concerned. Not much is worse than a piece that sounds dumbed down. -John Mackey. After His Previous attempt to write
a Grade 3 piece had not worked out, He then went to facebook and posed the thought of writing a Grade 3 piece. This is what
brought about the plans for making a consortium to commission the piece. Foundry (Or as Mackey almost called Asphalt
Virgin Cocktail) calls for 12 percussionists, playing everything from traditional instruments like tom-toms and bass drum to
found instruments like 4 piles of metal, a clang, and 4 wooden objects. Among the consortium these variety of sounds
were different.
Below is a picture of an example of a Clang sound that one of the schools decided to go with.

The composer thanks the required 1012 percussionists for allowing his ridiculous requests to continue. Clang.

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Elements of Music
Measur BIG Form Form Melody Rhythm Harmony Timbre Texture Expressio
e n

1-9 Introduction None Horns, Quarter not Flute,Oboe,Basso Dense. Polyphonic Aggressive,
Trombones,E one ons,Clarinet,Bass With a Heavy
uphonium, hundred Clarinet,Saxopho lot of
Tuba With and forty nes provide interlock
Unison four. Eighth supporting ing lines
chords and notes and sounds to and
Gliss in the dotted accompanying. ensembl
Trombones. quarter e
notes. Percussion adds moment
a lot of Steel Mill s.
like sounds.
10-18 Repeat of the None Horns, Quarter not Flute,Oboe,Basso Dense Polyphonic Aggressive,
Introduction Trombones,E one ons,Clarinet,Bass Heavy
with slight uphonium, hundred Clarinet,Saxopho
variation. Tuba With and forty nes provide
Unison four. Eighth supporting
chords and notes and sounds to
Gliss in the dotted accompanying.
Trombones. quarter
notes. Percussion adds
a lot of Steel Mill
like sounds.

19-34 Melody Sentenc Flutes,Oboes, Eighth The Rest of the Dense Polyphonic Aggressive
becomes e Tenor notes, band continues , Tense and
introduced. Saxophones, Dotted with similar Shrill
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 Clarinets,Tru Eighth harmonic and
mpet 1 and 2 Notes, rhythmic styles
Long as before.
extending
half notes
and dotted
half notes
with
descending
sixteenth
notes.
35-47 Second Sentenc All of the Half Notes Percussion Thick. Polyphonic Large,
Element or e Sections quarter Provides similar Very Grand
Theme of the Share Some notes and a rhythmic wind
Piece is sort of small accompaniment heavy
Introduced. Polyphonic mixture of In previous parts
line. Except staccato of the Piece.
for eighth
Percussions. notes.
48- 55 Re-state Sentenc Horns, Quarter not Woodwinds play Dense Polyphonic Aggressive
beginning e Trombones,E one similar rhythmic
melody uphonium, hundred accompaniment
Tuba With and forty as the beginning.
Unison four. Eighth
chords and notes and
Gliss in the dotted
Trombones. quarter
Trumpets notes.
have a
Melodic Solo

56-72 Everything Sentenc Flutes play Eighth Xylophone and Warmer Homophoni Leading

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 drops out e melody Notes in Marimba play with a c somewhere
and the Accompani constant Eighth Sharper but is Still
Wooden ment. notes sound. Distant
Sounds get Flute Has throughout the Very
introduced. Identical section. thin and
rhythm as Clarinets, Exposed
the Melody Saxophones,
that was Bassoon
Introduced
at m. 19.
Harmonic
Accompani
ment has
Whole
notes with
quarter not
build.
73- 83 Texture Sentenc Woodwinds Eighth Note Xylophone and Warmer Polyphonic Leading,Ye
drops again. e have the rhythmic Marimba play with a arnful
Eighth Note staccato ideas. constant Eighth Sharper
Melodic idea eighth note Constant notes sound.
gets melodic idea. eighth in throughout the
Introduce percussion. section.
Quarter Clarinets,
notes in Saxophones,
Brass. Bassoon

84- 92 Transitionar Transiti Woodwinds Half notes Percussion acts Sparse Polyphonic Driving
y Section on start the with a few as the main but
build based instances of supporting Builds
off of half broken harmony. The
notes ideas eighth Rest of the band

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 with a few notes. layers to build.
phrases of Broken
Eighth notes. Eighth note
syncopatio
n in the
percussion.
92-99 Homophonic Sentenc Large Dotted Percussion Dense Homophoni Aggressive,
Rhythmic e Unisons eighth note provides a c Grand
Amongst the with short driving force for
whole band articulation the rest of the
except for band.
percussion.
100-114 Melody Sentenc Flutes,Oboes, Eighth The Rest of the Dense Polyphonic Aggressive
becomes e Tenor notes, band continues , Tense and
introduced. Saxophones, Dotted with similar Shrill
Clarinets,Tru Eighth harmonic and
mpet 1 and 2 Notes, rhythmic styles
Long as before.
extending
half notes
and dotted
half notes
with
descending
sixteenth
notes.
115- 127 Second Sentenc All of the Half Notes Percussion Thick. Polyphonic Large,
Element or e Sections quarter Provides similar Very Grand
Theme of the Share Some notes and a rhythmic wind
Piece is sort of small accompaniment heavy
Introduced. Polyphonic mixture of In previous parts
line. Except staccato of the Piece.

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 for eighth
Percussions. notes.
128- 137 Re-state Sentenc Horns, Quarter not Woodwinds play Dense Polyphonic Aggressive
beginning e Trombones,E one similar rhythmic
melody. uphonium, hundred accompaniment
Tuba With and forty as the beginning.
Unison four. Eighth
chords and notes and
Gliss in the dotted
Trombones. quarter
Trumpets notes.
have a
Melodic Solo

138-149 Re-introducti Sentenc Horns, Quarter not Flute,Oboe,Basso Dense. Polyphonic Aggressive,
on of the e Trombones,E one ons,Clarinet,Bass With a Conclusion
Melodic uphonium, hundred Clarinet,Saxopho lot of ary.
Content from Tuba With and forty nes provide interlock
the Unison four. Eighth supporting ing lines
beginning. chords and notes and sounds to and
Gliss in the dotted accompanying. ensembl
Trombones. quarter e
notes. Percussion adds moment
a lot of Steel Mill s.
like sounds.

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150- 157 Ending None Full Band Eighth Percussion adds Dense Homophoni Conclusive
Phrase Except for notes on 1 more driving and c
Percussion and 4 for forces and Closing.
the Winds noises.
and Brass.
Half notes
and eighth
notes
towards
the End
that Swell

The Heart Statement:

The piece will encourage the little scientist within the students if you give them the option to explore sounds in a constructive and
musical way. This will reignite a (possibly dormant or neutralized) passion for creating and exploring noises and different timbres that
can be potentially created among the ensemble.

Introducing the Piece:

The piece could be introduced by having all of the students participate in a structured activity and finding the sound
Clang amongst a variety of objects. The Students can then find and explore the different timbres amongst the wooden
objects. The Teacher can then introduce the heart of the piece by either showing them a recording or by having them start out
by playing the individual sections and exploring the stylistic differences amongst those certain excerpts in the beginning. Make
sure to approach the process the same as the beggining activity.

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Affective Outcome:
Students will evaluate the natural world around them and develop a system for exploring it sonically.

Strategies:

1. I will have the students explore the classroom in search for particular sounds like Clank or Ting and have them pair and
share until we as a class find what we think is the most appropriate noise. Then we will use that noise for the piece. This also
connects to any articulations that could be found within the piece as well. (Kinesthetic)
2. As the teacher I would demonstrate how one could find a variety of these noises by using personal experiences and a
presentation to show my process for discovering these noises. (Visual)

Assessment:

Journal Prompt
The purpose behind this journal response is to assess the response of the student to a higher level thinking question. If the process
they describe is thorough and rationally makes sense to find the specific sounds they are describing then that is a good example. The
Journal is purely a personal reflective statement that can be incorporated into a larger portfolio and personal growth and development
as they develop throughout their Middle School and/or High School experience.
Example:
If you had to create a new way to produce a the sound clank, Ting, or Thud how would you go about finding and creating these
sounds? Explain your process for finding these sounds and how you would explore to find them? Is it possible to achieve or execute
the perfect sound? Be thorough and Complete with your response, Pretend like you are explaining this process someone in person.

Skill Outcome: Students will learn the terms and the notation for each articulation and how it is used within this piece.
Strategies:
1. Have a handout filled with all of the articulations that are relevant within the piece and properly explain and demonstrate all of
the articulations for the students. (Visual)
2. As an ensemble have them play all of the articulations after listening to me play those articulations. It would be like call and
response. Then have the more advance students come up and do something similar. (Auditory)

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Assessment:
Paper and Pencil Test
The test will be designed around the different terms for articulations and dynamics it is purely a data collection to see if they retain the
information or not. For example if they can describe the right sound a certain articulation makes but cannot remember the name for it
then they will get half credit on that particular question. Then after the asking about isolated articulation, I will ask them to identify the
articulations in a broader concept by having them analyzing an excerpt with articulations.

Example Question:
What is this articulation and how is it performed on your particular instrument?

Correct Answer: Staccato. It is performed a variety of ways across instrument lines.

Knowledge Outcome: Students will develop a system for timbre exploration.

Knowledge Outcome: Students will be able to see an articulation and have the knowledge and skill to execute it properly.
Assessment:
Playing test:
The purpose of this assessment is to show the ability level of the student to execute all of the articulations that were
assigned beforehand. The playing test would be structured on the students randomly picking 4-5 various different types of
articulations by random. Then they are asked to play them along with explaining how they achieved those articulations on

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their instrument. The student would also sight read a short excerpt that has a few different articulations in it. If the students
get the articulation correct (Along the somewhat right note Then they receive points for that question.

5 4 3 2 1 0

Student could Student showed a Student showed a Student showed Student showed Student could not
achieve and strong knowledge moderate basic almost no play or articulate
read of articulations but understanding of understanding of knowledge of how to play most
articulations could not fully most articulations. execution but Articulation.Knew articulations.
with ease and execute each one Needed reminders lacked the means the basics of Needed strong
effortlessness with and/or on execution of to do so. Needed executing guidance and help
without context. more than one explanation of articulation. for a majority of the
Need help with at articulation. execution a articulations.
minimum one majority of the time.
articulation.

References
Mackey, John. (n.d.). John Mackey. Biography. 1.

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