Gavin Bryars
Gavin Bryars
Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in, or has produced works in, a variety of styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, experimental music, avant-garde and neoclassicism...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth16 January 1943
english-composer jazz journey moved personal philosophy student
I did that as a personal journey when I was a philosophy student and working as a jazz musician, so I moved from philosphy to music.
english-composer firing front happy
I would also like the soloist to feel happy to put it in front of the public, because in the end he's on the firing line, not me.
admiration case english-composer respect suppose
The ideal, of course, is to have the respect of professionals and the admiration of amateurs. I suppose this was the case in the past.
blur english-composer form percussion possible quite transition ways
The transition from one form of percussion to another and the ways in which it's possible to blur those distinctions is quite interesting.
acoustic english-composer mixing music sorts space travel
As much as mixing instruments, I'm also mixing acoustic space so the music will travel through some different sorts of environments.
accompany english-composer played serves support thinking versions
My thinking in this was as follows: in all the versions I had made everything that is played serves to accompany and support the old man's voice.
music beautiful running
The virtuoso element in jazz playing, all those very fast runs in the upper extremes, simply doesn't appeal to me. That's why I don't want to make my concerto "virtuosic" in the sense of a technical show-off. I want a beautiful sound and a melodic and lyrical line. I am more interested in the way someone can play musically.
years bridges
Music history has flowed under the bridges for many years.
writing thinking oboes
I remember once, when I started writing for the alto saxophone, a saxophonist told me to think of it as being like a cross between an oboe and a viola, but louder.
surface
What was once underground is now coming to the surface.
festivals academic modern
The academic area of new music or modern music festivals is not something which attracts me at all.
hard-times france composer
Still, American composers working in France have had a pretty hard time.
years assured
Over the years I have tried to develop something which is technically assured.
talking peers paper
It's rather like attending a university seminar where you are talking to a few gifted specialists who deliver a paper to an audience of their peers. That's one way of making music.