Gavin Bryars - ACE193.3

Newspaper billboard April 16, 1912, announcing the sinking of the Titanic. Photograph of the ship. Bryars on his liking for conceptual art, and the possibilities of producing a piece of conceptual music. His notebooks and manuscript. Newspaper pieces on the Titanic. Fragments of survivors’ reports. Drawings, etc. Music playing over. Bryars’ voice on his ideas for the sounds. Caption: "The Sinking of the Titanic 1969. ‘Possible materials include: stereo tapes, string ensemble, percussion, alarm-clock, cassette speech, music-box, visible sound fx.’ This is an excerpt from the recorded version made in 1975. Editions EG." Music continues. Underwater footage. "The Rare and Beautiful Music of Portsmouth Sinfonia"; photographs of participants in this orchestra which Bryars founded in 1970 while teaching at Portsmouth Art College. Bryars talks about the activities of the group. A programme of popular classics. The orchestra playing (very badly) the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Bryars on "the worst orchestra in the world". Transposing Tchaikovksy’s Piano Concerto down to make the key easier for the orchestra meant that their guest pianist found it extremely difficult, and thus meant that she played it in a way more in keeping with the rest. Bryars describing a performance of the 1812 Overture where all the explosives were set off at one time. Orchestra playing.