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Mason Bates Mothership (2011) MASON BATES MOTHERSHIP (2011) “The joining of horse hair and electrons seems Having raced across the world, the ship slows “The orchestra is seamless, completely complimentary - totally additive down. Electronic beeps provide a docking of the resources of the ensemble” TommyTrumpets signal, inviting a pair of soloists to come aboard the world’s greatest “Always enjoy rocking out to this piece!! Full of the mothership. A door opens with a hydraulic emotion. :-)” Jay Coles hiss and the first visitor’s musical voice takes synthesiser” Mason Bates “That Bassoon part is so badass! What a very cool over, quickly followed by another. True to the piece. Unique, and I like the electronic drums! It really Internet’s democracy, soloists are welcome to adds character.” ian2120 improvise on any instrument to make their own unique contribution. The pattern repeats, with These are just a handful of the 500+ comments the ship racing off to a new location, but the left on YouTube videos of Mothership. The second ‘docking episode’ welcomes visitors Internet has brought a new freedom of with very different personalities. Music and expression, allowing us to connect with other Internet both encompass hugely varied voices. people like never before – across continents, between age groups, and blind of education. As sci-fi as this seems, Mothership actually ‘TommyTrumpets’ could just as easily be your takes its structure from two centuries earlier. next door neighbour as Thomas Adès or Tom In his Second Symphony, Robert Schumann Hiddleston, the Internet having brought about wrote a scherzo with double trio, a form that an utterly democratic forum to consume and Bates takes and updates. The high-energy MASON BATES exchange views on the world. mothership section represents the scherzo, followed by the docking soloists in the double For composers, communication revolutions trio. The twist in the latter is that rather than always offer fertile creative opportunities. In 19th century waltz rhythms, we instead hear years past, postal services meant letters of 21st century techno. inspiration could be passed reliably over great distances; ocean-liners then jet planes enabled If you Google ‘history of the orchestra’, you’ll artists to traverse the globe, sharing their be presented with a timeline of constant music ever-wider. In turn, the Internet spawned evolution. Since the Baroque orchestra, YouTube and Spotify, disseminating all kinds of the ‘original instruments’ have evolved in music to every corner of the planet. sound and capability, while every so often an entirely new instrument makes its debut. It has also revolutionised the way orchestras From the trombones of Beethoven’s era to Born 1977 are formed. Mothership came about through the saxophones of Berlioz, composers have Richmond, Virginia the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, inviting regularly added new colours, textures and any amateur musician, anywhere in the world modernity to their works. Mothership shows to audition by uploading a video. Inspired by that evolution continuing. Electronic samples the limitless potential of the Internet to bring As both composer and DJ, Mason Bates of techno, hip hop, and drum and bass bring a people together, Mason Bates created a piece mixes classical, jazz and techno to create new percussive backbone, while vivid sound for the assembled ensemble to perform live. innovative soundworlds. After studying effects conjure new theatricality. The orchestra English literature and music composition has been empowered to tell new stories. in the Columbia-Juilliard programme, It all begins with a ship, the orchestra, firing up its engines. As it zooms off into cyberspace, he has gone on to experiment with Of course, not everyone adapts well to flinging itself through fibre-optic cables, the musical presentation, both through his change. Amongst the YouTube comments for instruments are like the 1 and 0s of binary compositions and their surroundings. Mothership are questions of why orchestras code, each communicating a tiny nugget Currently the first composer-in-residence need electronica. But as innovative as Mason of data. Individually, their precise, repeating at the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C., Bates is, he’s merely rekindling the greatest rhythms mean little, but packaged together – he also curates Mercury Soul - a nonprofit tradition that classical music can lay claim to: weaving around each other in exactly the right club/classical project taking new music to Innovation. new spaces. order – a thrilling mosaic emerges..
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