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Wordless Music Series Presents Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of the Titanic

Jan. 08, 2008

New York's Wordless Music Series continues its impressive run of innovative programming this month with a production of Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of the Titanic. Dubbed by the composer as "the musical equivalent of a work of conceptual art," The Sinking of the Titanic has various performing versions which can last anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour, as a concert or sound installation, depending on the occasion and the unique environment for a given performance. Composer Bryars elaborates:

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.

All the materials used are derived from research and speculations about the sinking of the ocean liner on April 14, 1912. Bryars uses the hymn tune "Autumn" as a recurring theme, reportedly played by the string quartet while the ship was sinking. The music can travel through a number of different states, reflecting its implied slow descent to the ocean bed. Other multi-media material superimposed on the hymn tune, including fragments of interviews with survivors, crowd noise, Morse code sequences and even the sound of an iceberg impact, contribute to recreate the atmosphere of the sinking vessel making each performance a total immersion experience for the audience. Brad Lubman conducts the Wordless Music Orchestra through Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of the Titanic on January 16 and 17 at 8 pm at Manhattan's Church of St. Paul the Apostle.

For more information on the music of Gavin Bryars please visit www.schott-music.com

For information on the Wordless Music Series, visit www.wordlessmusic.org

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: indeterminate

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