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Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking of the Titanic in Tribute Concerts Worldwide

Mar. 27, 2012

Gavin Bryars’ <em>The Sinking of the Titanic</em> in Tribute Concerts Worldwide

Ensembles around the world honor the 100th anniversary of the Titanic tragedy this month with performances of Gavin Bryars’ elegiac work, The Sinking of the Titanic. Two performances in the US, by the JACK Quartet at the University of Denver, and the Wordless Music Series in New York, pay tribute to the occasion 100 years to the day on April 15. The University of Denver will host the JACK Quartet, who will perform the work with clarinetist Jeremy Reynolds at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts. In New York, the Wordless Music Series at Le Poisson Rouge presents two performances in-the-round by Ensemble LPR and the Wordless Music Orchestra.

The indeterminately scored Titanic, inspired in part by Gavin Bryars' affiliation with John Cage, was initially sketched in 1969 as a work of conceptual art for a student performance where Bryars taught at the Portsmouth College of Art. The completed concert version was premiered in London at Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1972 and was first recorded in 1975 for Brian Eno’s series of ten Obscure label releases. Combining subtly moving recordings of survivor narration along with a shimmering ambient score, The Sinking of the Titanic remains a dramatic and captivating experience.

Bryars remarks on his work:

The initial starting point for the piece was the reported fact of the band having played a hymn tune in the final moments of the ship's sinking. A number of other features of the disaster which generate musical or sounding performance material, or which 'take the mind to other regions', are also included. The final hymn played during those last five minutes of the ship's life was identified in an account by Harold Bride, the junior wireless operator… This Episcopal hymn, then, becomes the principle element of the music and is subject to a variety of treatments and it forms a base over which other material is superimposed.

JACK Quartet’s performance is presented in collaboration with the Denver Friends of Chamber Music, Historic Denver Inc., History Colorado, the Colorado Historical Society, and Young Voices of Colorado. Other performances commemorating the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking include two by the Gavin Bryars Ensemble who appear in London with experimental turntablist Philip Jeck at Birmingham Town Hall on April 13 and Barbican Hall on April 15 with live projections by Bill Morrison and Laurie Olinder. These performances are presented by Forma, the London-based creative production agency for contemporary art.

For details on the JACK Quartet performance, visit www.newmancenterpresents.com.

Information on the Wordless Music Series performance is found at lepoissonrouge.com

For more information on Gavin Bryars, visit www.schott-music.com and www.gavinbryars.com.  

Information on upcoming Titanic performances by the Gavin Bryars Ensemble can be found at www.forma.org.uk

Gavin Bryars
The Sinking of the Titanic (1969)
flexible instrumentation
possible materials include digital tapes, string ensemble, percussion, low brass, brass quartet, bcl, taped speech, keyboard, visible sound effects, music box
duration: variable

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