The Philadelphia Percussion + Piano Project is dedicated to exploring the use of percussion in new music. Led by the Artistic Director of Percussion at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University, Phillip O’Banion, the chamber music consort draws from a pool of talent across the Philadelphia region and adjusts in size and instrumentation to maximize the range of works it performs. For No Strings Attached – the ensemble’s second album release on BCD+M Records – O’Banion chose to program works written and arranged by composer Marc Mellits, whose music has been cited by the New York Times for its “direct and accessible style, a kind of mellifluous post-minimalism with Neo-Romantic trappings” and by Gramophone for “lively and edgy process-patterned rhythmic structures.” We sat down with O’Banion and Mellits to hear how their latest collaboration came together.

Susan Spatafora: First of all, Phillip, congratulations on a fantastic new album!  I don’t honestly have a lot of experience with chamber music solely for percussion, and both Mellits’ works and your performances of it are beautiful. I also really enjoyed listening to your first album Radiant Outbursts: (In) Human Progress, which came out on the Boyer College label BCD+M in 2020. I’d be interested to hear about how and when The Philadelphia Percussion + Piano Project came into being. When programming for these albums — Radiant Outbursts and No Strings Attached — did you have the ensemble in mind first? Or do you choose repertoire and find the musicians thereafter?  

Phillip O’Banion: Thank you for listening. The Ensemble has been around a few years, although these two albums were our first studio projects (some works on Radiant were recorded as early as 2017 or 2018). The instrumentation for the Philadelphia Percussion + Piano Project is loosely flexible. I always program the repertoire first and then find artists and colleagues who can help me realize tremendous interpretations of these works. I’ve always enjoyed chamber music for percussion, but the addition of piano and occasionally other solo instrumentalists opens up a whole new world of programming possibilities. We’ve got lots more repertoire planned, including some new commissions on the horizon.

SS: Over the last five years you have commissioned and premiered over thirty new works, collaborating closely with composers such as Adam Silverman, Alejandro Vinao, Gordon Stout, Ivan Trevino, Lane Harder, Patrick Long, Russell Hartenberger, Baljinder Sekhon, Cynthia Folio, Bob Becker, and Marc Mellits. When did you first work with Mellits, and what was it that drew you to his music as the basis for this new album? 

PO: I first worked with Marc in 2013 as part of a consortium that commissioned his work for the percussion quartet Gravity. Marc’s work was new to me at the time, but the chance to help bring about a new work for the genre was exciting. Gravity turned out to be such a fantastic piece and has become a popular repertoire piece for percussionists, but there were other pieces in his oeuvre that I have always wanted to play. Several pieces of Marc’s made the shortlist, and for this album I was looking for works that we could record during the pandemic ‘in house’ with a fairly tight circle of musicians.  

SS: Marc, I have read that you don’t think about a particular style when composing, and that you focus instead on communicating with the listener. Who are some of your greatest influences as a composer and why?  

MM: I honestly think I am influenced by all sound, both musical and non-musical.  It is true that I never think of a particular style when writing music, as I believe that is the one thing a composer has no way of changing.  Your style is your own, it is just that.  To try to write in a particular style is like trying to wear someone else's clothes that do not fit.  Having said that, there is no doubt that Bach, Vivaldi, and Corelli have had a huge impact on me.  There is both a living machine inside their music combined with an external beauty that I am fascinated with.  Much later on, I discovered the music of Steve Reich, l and the early works of Philips Glass.  This also had an effect on me, not so much influential, but more confirmational; it was the first time I had heard music that sounded similar to my own, and it gave me confirmation that I was not alone in what I was doing.  Even later, I eventually heard the music of Louis Andriessen, Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolff, which I think were influential on me. 

SS: You wrote and arranged all of the works performed on the album, including the disc’s namesake, No Strings Attached. The five-movement work was originally written for the Auchincloss Piano, a modern fortepiano created by Howland Auchincloss that digitized the sound of the old instrument so it would have an 18th century flavor with echoes of 1970s synthesizers. With only three Auchincloss instruments ever constructed, how did you discover this hybrid creation? Do you have ready access to one in order for the piece to be performed? How did you go about rearranging the piece when Phillip asked for a version to be played on the new album?

MM: The creator of this unique instrument discovered my music through the pianist Andrew Russo, who was already playing the Auchincloss Piano, and was interested in having a new piece written by me for it.  Howland Auchincloss loaned me the sound system used to drive the keyboard, so I was able to write directly for the instrument itself.  As far as the arrangement, like works of mine that I have arranged before for new instrumentation, I was more interested in creating something new than transcribing note for note.  I used the sound of the mallet quartet as a springboard to fulfill the original work and give it new life.  The only movement that was tricky was the last one, due to the fact that in the original Auchincloss Piano edition, there is a delay, therefore I had to "write out" the delay for the instruments, which proved to be great fun to do.

SS: Phillip, Marc Mellits’ works receive hundreds of performances each year. Black – a work featured on this album – has been performed nearly 3,000 times to date around the world.  Do you approach a well-known work like this differently than you would a new or newly commissioned work?

PO: Yes and no - the notes are largely the same but playing the piece with two clarinets vs. four marimbas is quite a different undertaking logistically. The goal is to make the music come alive on our instruments. There are obvious differences between the sound of clarinets and marimbas - we did try to pay attention to what worked musically in the original version and why Marc wrote what he did - but beyond that we were most interested in what was going to work best for four marimbists. 

SS: Marc, you are often inspired by the sounds of everyday life, as was the case with your Troică, inspired by the rhythmic sounds of the bells heard on a Romanian three-horse sled ride across Transylvania. How did you go about translating that into music? Do you keep a pad and notate rhythms when they strike you? Or do you simply reimagine the feeling of the moment at a later time?

MM: I do keep a digital notepad, and I often send myself singing voice mails!

SS: Is there anything else you’d like to share about the music or The Philadelphia Percussion + Piano Projects’ process of recording No Strings Attached? What do you suggest your audience listen for on the album?

PO: I’d suggest that listeners first of all just enjoy the sounds and space created by these beautiful instruments. Much of Marc’s music makes you want to move as well, and I know they will enjoy the subtle ways that he creates changes in color and texture across this collection of pieces. But most of all - it’s just incredibly energetic music from a composer with a zest for life - and I hope the fun and excitement we had on stage comes through to our listening audience. 

MM: I think it is always interesting to find a path when listening to music, and that path doesn't even need to be the same for everyone. But in general, I would suggest not to listen to anything in particular. I would invite the listener to just close your eyes and let the music figure you out; let it come to you. You understand music better when you let it speak to you rather than trying to hear certain things. You shouldn’t have to study or work hard to enjoy music. Art should work hard to enjoy you.

No Strings Attached: Percussion Music by Marc Mellits from the Philadelphia Percussion + Piano Project is available for streaming and download on all major platforms. 

No Strings Attached: Percussion music by Marc Mellits

Philadelphia Percussion + Piano Project

Phillip O’Banion, director

Recorded at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University and released on August 20, 2021

Black

Griffin Harrison, Alonzo Davis, Jake Strovel and Adam Rudisill, marimbas

No Strings Attached (recording premiere of new arrangement)

i.      Splifficated Mustard

ii.     Stiletto Crunch

iii.    This Side of Twilight

iv.    Curried Kafka

v.     Quarks & Leptons

Christopher Deviney and Phillip O’Banion, vibraphones

Angela Zator Nelson and William Wozniak, marimbas

Red

i.      Moderately Funky

ii.     Fast, Aggressive, Vicious

iii.    Moderate, with motion

iv.    Slow, with motion

v.     Moderate, with motion

vi.    Fast, Obsessive, Bombastic, Red

Phillip O’Banion and Lucas Conant, marimbas

Gravity

Myungji Kim and Caleb Breidenbaugh, vibraphones

Lucas Conant and Zach Strickland, marimba

Emilyrose Ristine, bass marimba 

Troică

Lucas Conant, vibraphone

Caleb Breidenbaugh, marimba

Emilyrose Ristine, piano

Photos courtesy of Boyer College of Music and Dance

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