Gavin Bryars

Richard Gavin Bryars ( born January 16 1943 in Goole, Yorkshire ) is an English composer and double bassist.

Life

Bryars initially studied philosophy at the University of Sheffield, before spending three years studying music.

His first known musical work was the bassist in the trio Joseph Holbrooke, which included beside him Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley. First Modern Jazz playing, they soon discovered free improvisation. Here, Bryars became interested in composition.

Bryars had contact with John Cage and his New York School ( what is his early works it sounds ). He also came up with Morton Feldman, Earle Brown and minimalism in contact. His first known work, The Sinking of the Titanic ( The Sinking of the Titanic ) in 1969, allowing the musicians to use a number of different sound and other sources associated with the sinking of the Titanic. Another early work is Jesus ' Blood Never Failed Me Yet by 1971, building on some vocal lines of a homeless person, both conceptually as well as acoustically. Here, the slightly crooked sung verse from the same hymn

"Jesus' blood never failed me yet Never failed me yet Jesus ' blood never failed me yet This one thing I know For He loves me so "

Repeated in an endless loop. On this loop several, increasingly complex orchestral rates are used, which were recorded live. First created in 1975 as an LP and published in 1993 a CD version was created, which contains additional sentences and repeated over the entire 74 minutes of the song, in the final minutes in the apparent duet with Tom Waits.

Even in popular performances played with Bryars, so with the Portsmouth Sinfonia. Later, independent works include A Man In A Room, Gambling ( commissioned work for the BBC Radio 3 ), three string quartets, a series of concerts as well as some operas. In 1982, he wrote for the Opéra de Lyon, a Medea by Euripides, which he revised in 1984 and 1995 respectively. He has also created choreography for Merce Cunningham ( Biped ).

Bryars was a founding member of the Institute of Music at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) and taught there for several years. He lives in England, and at times on the west coast of Canada.