Bates: Mass Transmission

Commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony for their 2012 Mavericks Festival, Mass Transmission piece brings to life the true story of a distantly-separated mother and daughter speaking over the first long-distance radio transmissions between Holland and Java. Ethereal choral sonorities processed through a haze of radio static unfold into virtuosic organ toccatas. The texts for outer movements of the work – from the eyes of the mother – are adapted from an obscure 1928 government publication about the technological advances made by the Dutch in communicating with their colonists. The text for the central portion of the work – from the eyes of the daughter – is adapted from the diary of a Dutch girl growing up in Java.