Mason Bates' Mothership (2010) is an energetic work that 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, Schumann's Symphony No. 2). Symphonic scherzos historically 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. Mothership received its world premiere at the Sydney Opera House by the YouTube Symphony on March 20, 2011, and was viewed by almost two million people live on YouTube. See that premiere performance of Mason Bates' Mothership conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Frederic Rzewski is among the major figures of the American musical avant-garde to emerge in the 1960s, and he has been highly influential as a composer and performer. He first came to public attention as a performer of new piano music, having participated in the premieres of such monumental works as Stockhausen's Klavierstück X (1962). In 1966, he founded, with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum, the famous ensemble Musica Electronica Viva (MEV). MEV combined free improvisation with written music and electronics. These experimentations directly led to the creation of Rzewski's first important compositions, pieces such as Les moutons de Panurge, a so-called "process piece," which also combines elements of spontaneous improvisation with notated material and instructions. Rzewski's improv-classical hybrids are some of the most successful of the kind ever produced thanks to the fervent energy at the core of his music. During the 1970s, his music continued to develop along these lines, but as his socialist proclivities began to direct his artistic course, he developed new structures for instrumental music that used text elements and musical style as structuring features. During the 1980s, Rzewski produced a number of surprising twelve tone compositions that (happily) provided fresh ideas of what could be done with serial systems. The 1990s saw him revisiting, via scored music, some highly spontaneous approaches to composition that recall his inspired experiments of the late 1960s. Rzewski's music is among that which defines postwar American new music. He has consistently given the exuberant boyish pleasures of a composer like Copland within the rigorously experimental framework of a composer like Cage. Listen to Frederic Rzewski talk about his life and music in Rzewski Visits America . . . it's our COMPOSER PORTRAIT for the week.

Based on seven grossly sardonic - yes, macabre - poems by Howard Nemerov, each of Tina Davidson's Seven Macabre Songs (1979) is intended to be a poem as well, created, as Davidson says, with a "tightness, a scarceness of development and the intensity of line inherent in a poem." But tightness gives a false impression of the extroverted spirit of these unique songs. Sound effects such as forearm rolls, harmonics, and the lucking and strumming of the inner strings create weird and wonderful images - a lot of haunting, fun exhibitionism" [notes thanks to Fanfare Magazine]. Listen to a performance of Tina Davidson's Seven Macabre Songs . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS for the week.

The extraordinary religious feeling of Alfred Schnittke's Symphony No. 8 (1994) is no doubt a product of the decade of illness that preceded its composition. Schnittke had a series of strokes beginning in 1985 and refused to surrender to them, continuing his career and producing a notable quantity of excellent new music until his death in 1999. The composer acknowledged that this led him into contemplation of subjects beyond this world, and brought to the surface both his Christian faith and his Jewish heritage [notes thanks to Joseph Stevenson/All Music Guide]. Listen to a performance of Schnittke's Symphony No. 8 . . . it's this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.