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World Premiere of Gavin Bryars' The Voice of St. Columba with The Hilliard Ensemble

Dec. 03, 2012

World Premiere of Gavin Bryars' <em>The Voice of St. Columba</em> with The Hilliard Ensemble

Audiences around the world will have multiple opportunities this month to hear music by Gavin Bryars, from his earliest works to his most recent. On December 4, the Aventa Ensemble in conjunction with Redshift Music presented Bryars’ iconic 1969 masterpiece The Sinking of the Titanic at the Vancouver Aquatic Center, marking the final performance of the work in the centennial year of the historic ocean liner’s fated voyage. The Vancouver Aquatic Center’s enormous indoor pool was transformed into the stage for this multimedia event featuring video projections by Giorgio Magnanensi.  The performance also served as the CD release event for a new recording of the work performed by Aventa with saxophonist Phil Dwyer and Bryars himself on double bass.

Bryars’ newest work, The Voice of St. Columba, receives its world premiere on December 10 by The Hilliard Ensemble and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Commissioned by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and dedicated to singer Torunn Østrem Ossun, the work is a setting of texts by St. Columba for vocal quartet and string orchestra with translations by Brian Morton. Bryars introduces the work:

For this new work for The Hilliard Ensemble, with the strings of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, I have set two very beautiful texts from St. Columba, both of which deal with the power of the human voice. The first part, "Colum's Voice," describes the extraordinary physical and magical power of his voice, and the second, "On Hinba," its revelatory qualities. The piece is in two parts, following the texts, and each section has introductory material for the string orchestra.

Closing out the month of Bryars concerts, BBC Radio 3 presents the premiere broadcast of Bryars’ new radio play, Pythagorean Comma, on December 22. A unique work of music theatre based on Jules Verne’s M. Ré-Dièze et Mlle Mi-Bémol (Mr. Ray Sharp and Miss E flat), the piece creates a striking and mysterious narrative around the Pythagorean Comma phenomenon (subtle tuning variations in different instances of the same pitch). The piece uses music recorded by the Oakham School’s Jerwoods Children’s Choir with organist Thomas Chatterton, directed by Peter Davis.

For more information on Gavin Bryars, please visit his Schott profile at www.schott-music.com.

To learn more about the Aventa Ensemble’s performance and CD release of The Sinking of the Titanic, please visit www.aventa.ca.

For information regarding Pythagorean Comma, please visit www.gavinbryars.com.

Performance information for The Voice of St. Columba can be found at www.detnorskekammerorkester.no.

Gavin Bryars
The Sinking of the Titanic (1969)
for digital tapes and ensemble
flexible instrumentation – possible materials include digital tapes, string ensemble, percussion, low brass, brass quartet, bass clarinet, taped speech, keyboard, music box
duration: variable

Pythagorean Comma (2012)
A radio play with text (Eng) by Blake Morrison

The Voice of St. Columba (2012)
for countertenor, 2 tenors, bass and strings
15’

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