{"id":418,"date":"2024-03-18T20:08:29","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T20:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/mothership\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T19:39:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T19:39:52","slug":"mothership","status":"publish","type":"program_note","link":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/mothership\/","title":{"rendered":"Mothership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mason Bates is a young American composer known for his adroit blending of electronic resources into the traditional symphony orchestra medium. His highly acclaimed compositions for orchestra and \u201celectronica\u201d bear evocative titles such as\u00a0Omnivorous Furniture<\/em>,\u00a0Rusty Air in Carolina<\/em>,\u00a0Desert Transport<\/em>, and\u00a0Music from Underground Spaces<\/em>. Bates was graduated from both the Juilliard School and the University of California at Berkeley, and has served as the Composer in Residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n

Imaginative and innovative artists in all media can draw upon the most diverse\u2014even banal and commonplace\u2014sources to serve as fodder for their creations.\u00a0\u00a0The result, and usually the intent, is an artwork that far transcends the commonality of the original inspiration.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A great French chef can create masterpiece from a string bean and an eggshell—or something like that.\u00a0\u00a0And borrowing in musical composition seems to have been essential to the art from the beginning.\u00a0\u00a0Bach purportedly said that borrowing is fine, as long as you pay it back with interest!\u00a0\u00a0Which, of course, he manifestly did.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Mothership<\/em>, Mason Bates follows his deep interest in various aspects of\u00a0electronic sound production and manipulation to the world of EDM (that\u2019s \u201celectronic dance music\u201d for you folks over a \u201ccertain age.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Nightclubs, dance, and party venues the world over are filled with this throbbing, pulsing, almost hypnotic, dance music\u2014usually at ear-splitting sound volumes.\u00a0\u00a0The genre first was wildly popular in Europe and American large cities; it subsequently has enjoyed wider popularity.\u00a0\u00a0To its aficionados there numerous subtypes and variants:\u00a0\u00a0techno, house, dance-pop, drum and bass, and more.\u00a0\u00a0To those not young, hip, or dance enthusiasts, it can all sound much the same\u2014just an electronic throwback to the \u201cdisco\u201d of their youths.\u00a0\u00a0But it doesn\u2019t matter, basic musical elements are just that, basic, and lend themselves to an infinitude of musical styles.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It would be hard to ignore EDM, anyway, with the way it has swept the popular world.\u00a0\u00a0Given Bates\u2019 musical interests (he moonlights as a DJ), it\u2019s hard to see how he could have resisted mining EDM to compose a work to challenge a symphony orchestra to \u201cboogie down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work has an interesting genesis, having been commissioned by the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, the world\u2019s first online collaborative orchestra, established in 2008.\u00a0\u00a0Most of its organization was done online.\u00a0Mothership<\/em>was given its world premi\u00e8re in a live broadcast from the Sydney, Australia Opera House.<\/p>\n

While the piece is essentially a concert opener in the traditional manner, there is also an element of the concerto in it, as well.\u00a0\u00a0Mason relates that in riding the New York City subway he observed the passage of people entering and exiting the train and that it suggested the way that soloists could play alternatively and intermittently with the orchestra.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So, the large orchestra would serve rather like a \u201cmothership\u201d to the soloists who would \u201cdock\u201d on and off, playing \u201cvirtuosic riffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bates gives further guidance in his own notes:<\/p>\n

The piece follows the form of a scherzo with double trio (as found in, for example, the\u00a0Schumann Symphony No. 2). Symphonic scherzos historically play with dance rhythms in a high-energy and appealing manner, with the \u2018trio\u2019 sections temporarily exploring new rhythmic areas.\u00a0Mothership<\/em>\u00a0shares a formal connection with the symphonic scherzo but is brought to life by thrilling sounds of the 21st Century \u2014 the rhythms of modern-day techno in place of waltz rhythms, for example.<\/p>\n

So, you\u2019ll hear an active, thumping opening, replete with electric drum machine, followed by two traditional contrasting changes of mood. Bates takes these opportunities to feature a pair of soloists in each section. You won\u2019t leave the concert humming any main themes, for the composer creates textures of constantly changing aphoristic ideas that weave around each other in a succession of imaginative episodes. It\u2019s all good fun, and gives all the opportunity to hear the unique coupling of a symphony orchestra with an electronic drum machine.\u00a0\u00a0Now, that\u2019s something you don\u2019t hear everyday.<\/p>\n

–Wm. E. Runyan<\/p>\n

\u00a92023 William E. Runyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"program_note_tax":[10],"class_list":["post-418","program_note","type-program_note","status-publish","hentry","program_note_tax-masonbates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"program_note_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note_tax?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}