Gavin Bryars

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Richard Gavin Bryars (born 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in (or has produced works 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).

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Popular tags: contemporary classical, minimalism, ambient, experimental, classical  See more

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• Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
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• Hommages
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• The Sinking Of The Titanic
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• Season of Mists: Music for the Film by Anna…
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1		The Vespertine Park			108
2		Raising the Titanic (Big Drum mix)			93
3		Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet			38
4		The Sinking of the Titanic			37
5		My First Homage			19
6		Tramp with Orchestra I (string quartet)			17
7		The English Mail-Coach			16
7		Raising The Titanic [Big Drum Mix]			16
9		Tramp and Tom Waits with Full Orchestra			15
10		A Little Drop Of Poison			13
11		Coda: Tom Waits with High Strings			12
11		Tramp with Orchestra II (low strings)			12
11		White's S.S.			12
14		Titanic Hymn (Autumn) All Strings			11
15		'The Vespertine Park'			10

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