Program Notes 77 Mothership Mason Bates Born 1977 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mason Bates this work in 2011, and it was first performed by the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House the same year. The work is scored for 3 flutes, piccolo, 3 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, E-flat clarinet, 2 bass clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, laptop computer for electronic sounds, and strings. Mason Bates grew up in Virginia, where he studied piano with Hope Armstrong Erb and composition with Dika Newlin. He earned degrees in composition and English literature in the Columbia-Julliard program, where he studied with John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, and Samuel Adler. He is currently working on his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley, studying with Edmund Campion, David Wessel, and Jorge Liderman. He has been the recipient of an American Academy in Berlin Fellowship, the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, a Charles Ives Scholarship and Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Jacob Druckman Memorial Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, ASCAP and BMI awards, and a fellowship from the Tanglewood Music Center. Bates composes music for electronica, acoustic instruments, and very often an eclectic combination of the two; his works have been performed by orchestras and ensembles across America and all over the world. Mason Bates writes the following about Mothership: “This energetic opener imagines the orchestra as a mothership that is ‘docked’ by several visiting soloists, who offer brief but virtuosic riffs on the work’s thematic material over action-packed electro-acoustic orchestral figuration. “The piece follows the form of a scherzo with double trio (as found in, for example, the Schumann Symphony No. 2). Historically, symphonic scherzos play with dance rhythms in a high-energy and appealing manner, with the trio sections temporarily exploring new rhythmic areas. Mothership shares a formal connection with the symphonic scherzo but is brought to life by thrilling sounds of the 21st century—the rhythms of modern-day techno in place of waltz rhythms, for example.” ©2016 Mark Rohr | Questions or comments? markrohrprogramnotes@gmail.com
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