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Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of the Titanic Features in Gala Event at The Union League of Philadelphia

Apr. 05, 2007

Peregrine Arts presented Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking of the Titanic as the heart of a gala event deemed “A Night to Remember” at The Union League of Philadelphia March 30 commemorating the loss of the Titanic. The Sinking of the Titanic was complemented by theatrical direction from Ridge Theatre in New York and film and still projections by Bill Morrison and Laurie Olander.

Gavin Bryars recaps:

“The Sinking of the Titanic is the earliest work in my catalogue, having survived the various purges of my first pieces. It originates in an experimental environment and ethos in which I was interested in making a work which was open in form and amenable to the addition of new material. In fact this is the essence of the piece, the only stipulation being that whatever is included has to have its origins in the Titanic story. The piece has its starting point in the behavior of the ship's musicians who continued to play music to the very end.

“The performance in the Lincoln Hall of The Union League of Philadelphia features this hymn in various guises but also focused especially on certain Philadelphia connections, chiefly the story of Harry Elkins Widener, a member of one of the richest families in America and an intelligent and perceptive book collector. He went down with the Titanic with a copy of his newly acquired 1598 edition of Bacon's Essays in his pocket. Tenor Toby Twining and Soprano Eileen Atkins portrayed Elkins and his mother, reading extracts from their diaries and from Bacon's Essays. As a coda to the performance they sang Marconi's Madrigal, a work of mine commissioned by CBC Radio for the centenary of Marconi's first transmission of a signal across the Atlantic in 1901. This was included because of the importance of Marconi's system of wireless telegraphy in the attempt to rescue survivors.

“The third performance of the piece in Philadelphia was a gala in which The Sinking of the Titanic took place in the context of a recreation of the last meal in the First Class dining room on April 14th 1912 and the hall had a striking resemblance to that location. The quite stunning theatrical direction by Ridge Theatre and the film and still projections by Bill Morrison and Laurie Olander combined to make this performance one of the best I have ever experienced. It is planned to take this performance to other locations, and the quality of this work augers well for the new theatre/opera project we are working on together.”

Gavin Bryars
The Sinking of the Titanic
for tape and orchestra (of varying instrumentation — please see here for more details)
Duration: 40’

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

For further information on Peregrine Arts, please visit www.peregrinearts.org.

For more on Ridge Theater, please visit www.ridgetheater.org.

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