17 Apr. 2010, 1:00pm
Concert 2: Gavin Bryars
€15/12 / The second concert of The Sligo New Music Festival 2010 focuses on the early seminal works of Gavin Bryars, concluding with the outstanding Jesus’ Blood Never Failed me Yet. Gavin says about this piece
In 1971, when I lived in London, I was working with a friend, Alan Power, on a film about people living rough in the area around Elephant and Castle and Waterloo Station. In the course of being filmed, some people broke into drunken song – sometimes bits of opera, sometimes sentimental ballads – and one, who in fact did not drink, sang a religious song “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet”. This was not ultimately used in the film and I was given all the unused sections of tape, including this one.
When I played it at home, I found that his singing was in tune with my piano, and I improvised a simple accompaniment. I noticed, too, that the first section of the song – 13 bars in length – formed an effective loop which repeated in a slightly unpredictable way. I took the tape loop to Leicester, where I was working in the Fine Art Department, and copied the loop onto a continuous reel of tape, thinking about perhaps adding an orchestrated accompaniment to this. The door of the recording room opened on to one of the large painting studios and I left the tape copying, with the door open, while I went to have a cup of coffee. When I came back I found the normally lively room unnaturally subdued. People were moving about much more slowly than usual and a few were sitting alone, quietly weeping.
I was puzzled until I realised that the tape was still playing and that they had been overcome by the old man’s singing. This convinced me of the emotional power of the music and of the possibilities offered by adding a simple, though gradually evolving, orchestral accompaniment that respected the tramp’s nobility and simple faith. Although he died before he could hear what I had done with his singing, the piece remains as an eloquent, but understated testimony to his spirit and optimism.
Concert Programme
Between the National and the Bristol (19’) The Smith Quartet
After the Requiem (16’) The Smith Quartet and Simon Jermyn
Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet (25’) The Smith Quartet and Morla
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Artists
Simon Jermyn, Morla, and The Smith Quartet
Curator
Composer
Part of
In This Series
- 16 Apr: Opening Concert: Bryars, Dennehy, Morla
- 17 Apr: Concert 3: Lyons, Schnittke, Morla
- 18 Apr: Concert 4: Sacred Chants
Other Events
- 17 Apr: In Conversation: Gavin Bryars & Bernard Clarke
Composer Gavin Bryars in conversation with Bernard Clarke (Lyric FM) 3:30pm
From the Blog
Featuring
Simon Jermyn (born 1981) has played guitar and bass since a young age. Throughout his teens he studied classical guitar at The Royal Irish Academy of Music, and jazz privately with teachers Mike Nielsen and Hugh Buckley. After a summer scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and completion of secondary school, Simon obtained a Guildhall School of Music and Drama performance diploma at Newpark Music Centre in Dublin, before moving to The Hague for five years and earning a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance. He has also taken private lessons with some musicians including Drew Gress, Skuli Sverrisson, Hilmar Jensson, Tim Berne and Jim Black.
He performs equally as an electric bassist and guitarist. His work very often also makes use of effects and electronics to sample and manipulate in real time, aswell as incorporating field recordings. Recently, he has added baritone and fretless guitars to some groups he works with. Simon is also an active composer, and writes new music for his own groups and others. His main compositional outlets have been Trot A Mouse and Awkward Silence. The music for the latter is often based around quarter tones and the idea of dividing the octave in to 24 equal parts, aswell as soundscapes, through composed forms and different rate of change happening simultaneously.
He has performed and recorded with musicians including Chris Speed, Loren Stillman, Hilmar Jensson, Eivind Opsvik, Jeff Williams, Ronan Guilfoyle, Mikkel Ploug, Joachim Badenhorst, Justin Carroll, Michael Buckley, Rebecca Collins, Pete Robbins, Ryan Blotnick, Peter Van Huffel, Kevin Brow, Robin Fincker, Jacob Wick, Harris Eisenstadt, Nir Felder and Sean Carpio.
His debut album as a leader, Trot A Mouse has recently been released on the Spanish label Fresh Sound New Talent.
Morla is the most recent creative spawning from Dublin’s Bottlenote musicians’ collective and sees established voices Seán Óg and Simon Jermyn pair up in duo format. Focusing on a pared back tonal palette, reminiscent of ancient folksong traditions and coupled with quarter tone melodies and electronic soundscapes, Morla has evolved a personal approach and sound, drawing on live processing, daring compositions and an insistence on meaningful improvisation.
In 2009, Morla represented Ireland at 12 Points! Festival in Project, Dublin and performed at The Ergodos Festival, Dublin, The Fold in St. Audeon’s Church, The Bray Jazz Festival 2009 in The Mermaid, Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (DEAF09) as well as several Bottlenote events, The Kilkenny Arts Festival with special guest Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and at the Foligno Jazz Festival opening for trumpet icon Enrico Rava.
“A surprising music whose kaleidoscopic colours, textures and original lines constantly confounded expectation.”
– The Irish Times
“Undeniably powerful and at times beautiful improvisation” – All About Jazz
“Two of the most original voices on the Dublin scene”
– Sunday Tribune
The Smith Quartet has been at the forefront of contemporary music for almost twenty years. They have built an impressive repertoire by many of the world’s most exciting composers and have established an international reputation for a dynamic style and an original approach to contemporary music. The quartet is dedicated to the commissioning of new works and to date have had over 100 works written especially for them. Kevin Volans, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, Michael Finnissy, Donnacha Dennehy and Howard Skempton are amongst many who have written for the quartet. In addition to regular broadcasts with the BBC, they have featured on numerous CDs including Karl Jenkin’s release Diamond Music, Steve Martlandʼs Patrol, and more recently Django Bates’ well received release entitled You Live and Learn…(Apparently).
In 2005 the quartet released their debut album on the Signum label, featuring Steve Reichʼs Different Trains, Triple Quartet and Duet. The album received rave reviews. Their next CD, Ghost Stories, also on Signum, featuring a new version of Sinking of the Titanic written for The Smith Quartet by Gavin Bryars received further enthusiastic critical acclaim, Andrew Clements at The Guardian commented that the release was “…superbly played…”
Spring 2008 marks the quartets latest release on Signum Classics, Complete String Quartets by Philip Glass. This release has received considerable critical acclaim and coverage in the media in a very short space of time. The Observer reports that “…Glass weaves filigree tapestries given polished, finely detailed airings by the virtuoso Brits”, while The Guardian kindly notes that the quartet are “…Britain’s answer to the Kronos”. Classic FM Magazine goes one step further proclaiming “How long before the Kronos is labelled the ‘American Smith Quartet’? …they are ahead of the curve at generating new repertoire and taking the experimental back-catalogue seriously…”
The quartet’s touring schedule has taken them as far a field as North and South America, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan as well as throughout Europe and the UK. In the last number of seasons festival appearances have included Les Jardins Musicaux Switzerland, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, The Música Viva Festival in Lisbon, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, La Biennale di Venezia,and the Flanders Festival Brussels. Highlights have included a sold out performance at the BBC’s John Adams Weekend at the Barbican and the European premiere of Steve Reich’s Triple Quartet at Cheltenham International Festival. They have collaborated with an eclectic range of artists such as Django Bates, saxophonist Andy Sheppard, John Harle, Gerard McChrystal, Mali world music singer Rokia Traore and dance companies Siobhan Davies, Shobana Jeyasingh and Ultima Vez.
The Quartet enjoys a fruitful relationship with their sound designers soundintermedia.
In 2005, the Smith Quartet appeared in BBC 2’s Holocaust – A Music Memorial Concert from Auschwitz filmed on location in Auschwitz. They performed Steve Reich’s Different Trains and Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. The film marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and was shown in many countries throughout the world. It has won numerous prestigious awards including a BAFTA and an Emmy in 2006.
The quartet enjoyed a number of prestigious residencies in their 2006/7 season including furthering their ongoing relationship with Queens University Belfast as their quartet in residence at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) as well as a series of European concerts featuring the work of celebrated Portuguese composers as part of Miso Music’s Circuits tour. As artists in residence at the 2006 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, they performed all of Morton Feldman’s works for piano and strings together with the celebrated pianist John Tilbury. These concerts were recorded live and will be released by Matchless records.
The Smith Quartet is Ian Humphries and Darragh Morgan (violins), Nic Pendlebury (viola), and Deirdre Cooper (cello).
Ian Wilson was born in Belfast in 1964 and obtained the first DPhil in composition to be awarded by the University of Ulster which, in 1993, commissioned his orchestral work Rise in celebration of the tenth anniversary of its foundation. His music has been performed and broadcast on six continents by artists such as the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Ulster, Belgrade Philharmonic and Norwegian Radio Orchestras, the London Mozart Players and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Artis, Callino, Carducci and Vanbrugh Quartets, Argento and Avanti! ensembles, Catherine Leonard and Hugh Tinney. Works have been performed at many festivals including the BBC Proms, Venice Biennale, ISCM World Music Days, the Brighton, Cheltenham, Spitalfields and Bath Festivals and the Ultima Festival in Oslo, where Running, Thinking, Finding for orchestra received the composition prize in 1991.
He has written over eighty pieces including two chamber operas, concertos for organ, cello, alto saxophone, violin (three), marimba and piano, orchestral pieces, eight string quartets and many other chamber, vocal and multi-media works.
In 1992 Ian Wilson was awarded the Macaulay Fellowship administered by the Arts Council of Ireland, and in 1998 he was elected to Aosdána, Ireland’s State-sponsored body of creative artists. From 2000 to 2003 Ian Wilson was AHRB Research Fellow in Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Ulster. Since 2002 he has been director of the Sligo New Music Festival, and from 2006-2009 he is Composer-in-Association with California’s Camerata Pacifica ensemble.
His music is published by Ricordi London and Universal Edition.
Richard Gavin Bryars (born 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in many varied styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism experimental music, avant-garde, neoclassicism, and ambient.
Born in Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, Bryars initially studied philosophy at Sheffield University before studying music for three years. The first musical work for which is he remembered was his role as bassist in the trio Joseph Holbrooke, alongside guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer Tony Oxley. The trio began by playing relatively traditional jazz before moving into free improvisation. However, Bryars became dissatisfied with this when he saw a young bassist (later revealed to be Johnny Dyani) play in a manner which seemed to him to be artificial, and he became interested in composition instead.
Bryars’s first works as a composer owe much to the so-called New York School of John Cage (with whom he briefly studied), Morton Feldman, Earle Brown and minimalism. His first known work as a composer, The Sinking of the Titanic (1969), is quite an indeterministic work which allows the performers to take a number of sound sources related to the sinking of the RMS Titanic and make them into a piece of music. The 1994 recording of this piece was made famous to a whole new audience via its promo single featuring the Aphex Twin remix “Raising the Titanic” (later collected on his 26 Mixes for Cash album).
A well known early work is Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet(1971), which has as its basis a recorded loop of a tramp improvising a hymn of that name. On top of that loop, rich harmonies played by a live ensemble are built, always increasing in density, before the whole thing gradually fades out. A new recording of this work was made in the 1990s with Tom Waits singing along with the original recording of the tramp during the final section.
Bryars was a founding member of the Portsmouth Sinfonia, an orchestra whose membership consisted of performers who “embrace the full range of musical competence” – and who played (or attempted to play) popular classical works. Its members included Brian Eno, whose Obscure Records label would subsequently release works by Bryars. In one of the first three releases from the label, Brian Eno’s album Discreet Music, Bryars conducted and co-arranged the three pieces Three Variations on the Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel which constitute the second half of the album.
Bryars’s later works have included A Man In A Room, Gambling (1997), which was written on commission from BBC Radio 3 and Artangel. Bryars’s music is heard beneath monologues spoken by the Spanish artist Juan Muñoz, who talks about methods of cheating at card games. The ten short works were played on Radio 3 without any introductory announcements, and Bryars is quoted as saying that he hoped they would appear to the listener in a similar way to the shipping forecast, both mysterious and accepted without question.
Bryars has written a large number of other works, including three operas, and a number of instrumental pieces, among them three string quartets and several concertos. He has written several pieces for choreographers, including Biped (2001) for Merce Cunningham. Between 1981-1984 he participated in the CIVIL warS, a vast, never-completed multimedia project by Robert Wilson.
Bryars founded the music department at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University), and taught there for a number of years. He lives in England, and, in the summer months, on the west coast of Canada.
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