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World Premiere of Gavin Bryars's Wittgenstein Fragments

Jun. 24, 2022

Gavin Bryars's Wittgenstein Fragments were premiered as part of the Louth Contemporary Music Society's "Nothing Has Changed, Everything Has Changed" Festival on June 17 at the St. Nicholas Church of of Ireland in Dundalk. Performers included soprano Juliet Fraser, flutist Silvija Ščerbavičiūtė, and the Esposito Quartet. 

Gavin Bryars’s new composition follows his long-term fascination with the life and work of Austrian-born philosopher, Karl Wittgenstein. Resigning his academic position at Cambridge in 1947, Wittgenstein moved to Ireland to work alone in a remote location, much as he had done prior to the war when living alone in a self-built hut by the side of a fjord in Norway. Wittgenstein Fragments follows Wittgenstein’s Irish movements, through words by Vincent Woods, and offers an insight into the internal landscape of this legendary philosopher in his final years.

Earlier this month, on June 19, the Gavin Bryars Ensemble performed Hommage à Erik Satie, a new series of works (My first homage, Hi-Tremolo, Ponukelian Melody, and Gnossiennes) created in honor of Erik Satie at the Superspectives Fesival in Lyon, France. Bryars was so influenced by Satie that he was named "Satie Ambassador" for the UK by the French musicologist, writer, and translator, Ornella Volta.


Listen to "No. 1, The Sense of the Past" from Gavin Bryars's A Native Hill:

("No. 1, The Sense of the Past" from A Native Hill/Gavin Bryars/The Crossing/Donald Nally, conductor)


To learn more about Gavin Bryars, visit: schott-music.com.

Gavin Bryars
Wittgenstein Fragments
for soprano, flute, and string quartet
Text (Eng) by Vincent Woods
25'

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