Gavin Bryars
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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).
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Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
Gavin Bryars
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Hommages
Gavin Bryars
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The Sinking Of The Titanic
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After the Requiem
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Videos
Events
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Feb
24
Off The Page
The Playhouse Theatre, Whitstable, United Kingdom
1 going
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Apr
15
The Sinking of The Titanic
Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom
25 going
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Recent Activity
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lemmycaution2, sergey-star, Othhambis and 10 other people added Gavin Bryars to their libraries. Tuesday afternoon
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gervej tagged Gavin Bryars with ‘minimalism’. last month
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gervej, Rocketzap, nweiler1 and 1 other person added Gavin Bryars to their libraries. last month
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richwhitelaw added Gavin Bryars to the lineup of Off The Page at The Playhouse Theatre. last month
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dingram1, DanielDolezal, goatlegs1 and 7 other people added Gavin Bryars to their libraries. last month
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shbadr tagged Gavin Bryars with ‘contemporary classical’. last month
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swoephowx, itLiveAlivE, plipbt and 3 other people added Gavin Bryars to their libraries. last month
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Sa6a666 tagged Gavin Bryars with minimalism and contemporary classical. December 2011
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abele tagged Gavin Bryars with awesome, seen live, experimental and one other tag. December 2011
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Hunterinvitus tagged Gavin Bryars with ‘minimalism’. December 2011
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