Gavin Bryars double bill: Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet

Bristol Ensemble performs The Sinking of the Titanic by British minimalist composer Gavin Bryars. The work was inspired by the story that the band on the RMS Titanic continued to perform as the ship sank in 1912 and imagines how the music performed by the band would reverberate through the water some time after they ceased performing.

Composed between 1969 and 1972, the work is now considered one of the classics of British classical experimental music. It was first recorded in 1975 when it became the first release on Brian Eno’s Obscure Records.

The programme includes Bryars’ arrangement of the religious song Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet which he heard in London in 1971 whilst working 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 the song Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet.

The programme includes the world premiere of Marcus Davidson’s Felefantasi, a work inspired by the Norwegian Fele, the way it’s played (technique wise) and the music written for it.