Mason Bates: 6 things… to teach children about the orchestra

Leading from his work as a dance music DJ, Bates has long incorporated technology and electronic sounds into his classical compositions. His works have been performed the world over by, among others, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Spanish National Orchestra and the Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France, and he’s also been commissioned to produce work for the BBC Proms.

One of Bates’ latest creations is Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra for animated film and live orchestra. Developed in collaboration with multi-Oscar-winning Gary Rydstrom of Lucasfilm and Jim Capobianco of Aerial Contrivance, the work, with the help of a magical sprite, explores the connection between creativity and technology. One of the aims of this work – which comes to the Southbank Centre in April – is to encourage children to experience and understand classical music, and it is on this subject that Bates kindly put together for us these six things to teach children about the orchestra.

It’s a giant synthesiser

Next time you see a rock band on YouTube, pause the video when a synthesiser comes on screen. Look at all the beautiful keys, knobs, and buttons. In an orchestra, those sonic controls are the people and their instruments. Each musician’s instrument changes the overall sound of an orchestra. There can be as many as 90 musicians playing at exactly the same moment to create the ‘super instrument’ that is a symphony orchestra. There’s no better example of humans working together in real time.

Conducting is harder than it looks

Why do musicians need a conductor if they have music in front of them? Because the conductor is like the pilot of a ship; the conductor controls when ‘now’ is – and in an orchestra, milliseconds matter. So the ‘master of time’ is hugely important. Musicians are experts at reading music and managing to make glances at the conductor. If a conductor stepped away, every single person at the concert – audience members young and old, the ushers – would instantly hear the difference. 

The musicians are the first audience

While the conductor can be seen as being the Prime Minister, the musicians are like Parliament – and in many ways they can overrule the conductor. It’s like a lion trainer with a dozen lions; they’ll only play along if they believe in their master. So the conductor has to use the art of persuasion to win the confidence of the musicians. This is also true for the music they play. An orchestral composer must convince the musicians that his or her music deserves to be played. Unlike painters, whose paintings don’t talk back to them, composers create in a medium made of real people, so orchestras are about community.

Musical instruments were the iPads of their time

The piano is the result of hundreds of years of musical engineering, beginning with the harpsichord and continuing through many proto-pianos. Each of these technological advances were made with the goal of giving musicians more colours and textures to work with – such as loud or soft – and to help project the music into the larger concert halls that were being built. Every single instrument has an evolution as complex as the piano. With no TVs or radios, let alone computers or smartphones, musical instruments were the leading interactive technology of the time, and hugely successful companies competed to build the best instruments to sell to the public.

Never been? Try the first half of a concert, then get ice cream

When my kids were about eight, I took them to the first half of a symphony concert – not a family or education concert, but an evening concert with a star pianist and a fast piece at the beginning. The first half of a symphony concert is always exciting, featuring shorter pieces and soloists. The second half is often mind-blowing, featuring one longer piece, but it can be overwhelming for a young listener. You’ll get to the second half of the concert with time and exposure, but for the first few trips, get ice cream instead. People do this with museums all the time so why not classical music? There’s no need to dive into the deep end first.

The orchestra is still evolving

The technological developments of instruments continue to this day. While many instruments have reached their apex development, the symphony as a whole is still introducing new elements. One of these is digital sounds, such as the techno and spaceship samples in my piece Mothership. Another development is projected imagery, with the orchestra playing live underneath, and every orchestra now plays blockbuster movies in this way. Seeing the development of this new orchestral format, I decided to create specifically for it – and that became Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra.