Hans Morrison
As principle percussionist, Hans Morrison is one of the most noticeable members of the Boston Philharmonic, and audiences may wonder at the ever changing instruments they see surrounding him on stage. Hans finds this versatility of his art to be one of its most fascinating characteristics, and he shares how the constant challenge of learning new instruments keeps his percussion playing engaging, experimental, and even, at times, completely unconventional.
“That’s what’s kind of neat about percussion—the variety of the instruments sort of never ends.” Hans pleasantly chats away in his easy-going, unhurried manner as he recalls his discoveries on the seemingly endless array of instruments. He remembers back to when he first started playing the drums in fifth grade, “annoying my sister and banging away in the basement” where his parents set up a drum set for him “in the farthest corner of the house possible.” Since then the world of percussion has opened up to him in all its variety and it is now his two young daughters that enjoy playing the drum set, while he tries his hand at countless new percussion instruments. He feels as though he is still learning, and says, “There’s always something new you have to learn how to play, so you never get tired of it.”
With every different instrument comes a new story, and Hans has a colorful trove of tales that illustrate the different directions percussion has taken him and how it keeps him on his toes. “When we were doing Mahler 6, I had to play offstage almglocken, which are cow bells. Ben actually wanted us to walk like cows backstage because he wanted an authentic sound.” Hans laughs at the memory of his attempts at interpreting these instructions. He says “inventive” is a good word to describe the quality you must have as a percussionist. “Once at the BSO I had to play the police siren—it was this electric siren that I had to somehow get to make crescendos and decrescendos. But it’s just one volume!” He starts laughing again and says, “I study percussion technique for all these years, and then I end up just getting this big towel to jam into it to make it go softer or louder—but it worked!” His concerts with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project tend to be even more experimental. “At BMOP, they’re really into the off-the-charts stuff, like throwing beer cans into a metal tub. So the first thing to think about is, ‘How do I not get cut?’ and then I can think, ‘How do I make this sound cool?’ It’s fun. I do enjoy the challenge.”
He enjoys being in a city that he says keeps percussion performance interesting, what with the rich resources of extraordinary percussionists in the community. “What’s great about being in Boston is that there are so many great players here to learn from. So let’s say there’s a conga part and we bring in a really good conga player; what can I learn from the rehearsals, and what can I ask them about this instrument?” In this way, he explains, he learns something he can potentially apply to his own performance of the instrument in the future. There is also a practical side to learning as wide a variety of instruments as possible. “When you’re freelancing, if you have to say no to jobs too many times, people might not call you again, so sometimes you’d better say yes and then take a crash course in the instrument to make it through the piece.”
Hans pauses at the suggestion that percussionists have a very exposed role, both visually, as they stand up apart from the rest of the orchestra, and aurally, as pieces often have distinct—and loud—percussion parts that crash and boom above the entire orchestra. He seems almost not have considered that this exposure might be daunting for the performer. “It’s scary,” he concedes, though his ease of tone suggests that he is not intimidated at all, “but you’re just brought up in that environment. There are almost never two of you playing the same thing, but the more you do it, the more you see it as playing with the group—I’m playing cymbals next to the bass drum player and we’re playing together or off of each other. I never really view it as just me, even if the audience might think to themselves, ‘Oh, there’s just the one cymbal player standing up.’ To you you’re just playing your part of the percussion.” He does admit, however, that certain pieces bring with them an increased sense of pressure; thinking ahead to the upcoming season, he adds, “We’re doing this Bruckner piece, and there is no percussion at all except for two cymbal crashes. If I miss one crash I miss fifty percent of my notes!”
Amongst all the organizations with which Hans plays, he can always count on the Boston Philharmonic to have an exciting percussion part in store for him. “What I love about Ben’s programming is that it’s always big. With the economy these days a lot of orchestras say, ‘We’re going to do an all-Mozart year’--I love Mozart but there’s not a lot for percussionists there. You always know that with Ben it will be big so there will be a lot of fun stuff to play.” He points to the first concert of the season as one which calls for him to employ a range of skills, both technical and artistic. He compares the “jazzy drum set percussion” of Gershwin’s An American in Paris to what he calls “touchy sound” for Debussy’s La Mer. He elaborates on what he means by these terms, “Instead of the more technical way of playing notes fast and rigid in the Gershwin, where you are punching them out, La Mer is more atmospheric, so you’ll be playing a cymbal roll that’s not so technical but which is all about the colors you produce.” While some people may not think of percussion as being as musical as it is rhythmical, Hans describes the sensitivity and finesse needed to determine what subtleties create the best effect for a piece; his sense of artistry that comes with years of experience are evident as he speaks. “The score might call for me to play the cymbal. Okay, but who am I playing with—woodwinds or loud brass? Should I use a harder stick or a heavier cymbal?” As with all instruments, percussion playing allows for great freedom of interpretation. “It’s fun because there is not really a wrong answer. It’s like driving a red or a blue car—it still gets you from one place to another, but which do you like better? It makes you think about how it all fits into the gamut of what’s going on around you. You really have to get into the music more than just playing the notes.”
A sense of curiosity, the willingness to experiment, being open to adventure and fun: all are part of being a percussionist, and perhaps this is why Hans enjoys playing percussion with the Boston Philharmonic under Ben Zander’s direction—he feels that Ben encourages these qualities in the true spirit of music-making . “If you’re trying your hardest, even though it might not be ‘correct’, if you’re putting your heart and your effort into it, Ben will never cut that down. If you’re going for the right feeling and taking a risk to try to get there, he’ll be excited. He wants you to try to make the best music you can and not be held back. He wants you to go for it.”
Written by Pamela Feo