Gavin Bryars Quotes

• Music history has flowed under the bridges for many years.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in History

  Tags in Music

• When Philip Glass asked me if I would be interested in doing a new recording of Jesus’ Blood he assumed that I would do something similar to the first version and wanted to know what other pieces would be on the same CD.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Jesus, Blood, Recording

• I have friends who have a CD mastering plant in Hollywood and they are very sceptical about European record labels’ understanding of digital technology.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Technology

  Tags in Hollywood, Digital

• One thing I’m doing on the new Titanic recording is actually bringing in different acoustic spaces.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Titanic, Movie, Recording

• It makes sense to invest in new work. It’s almost like having a research department in a scientific laboratory. You have to try things out. You’ll make some bad mistakes. Some things will fail but at least you’ll energise the organisation.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Research, Department, Scientific, Laboratory

• Like an apparently strict musical form it breaks the five minute whole into its structural parts – a descriptive preamble, the action of taking the cards, the development of the cards’ manipulation and the revelation of what has been achieved.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Strict, Musical, Development, Manipulation

• 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.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in University, Seminar, Specialists

• People like Arvo Part would not have been taken seriously 20 years ago.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Seriously

• Over the years I have tried to develop something which is technically assured.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Self, Develop

• Somehow in the 20th Century an idea has developed that music is an activity or skill which is not comprehensible to the man in the street. This is an arrogant assertion and not necessarily a true one.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Music, Development, Century

• Similarly you can make a transition from one set of instruments to another imperceptibly.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Instruments, Imperceptibly

• There’s another way of making music, by touching the lives and feelings of ordinary people.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in People, Music, Feelings

• Still, American composers working in France have had a pretty hard time.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Work

  Tags in American, Composers

• 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.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Self, Writing, Thinking

• I currently spend a lot of time thinking about orchestration and every detail of a piece.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Orchestration

• I’ve heard though that there is a younger generation of tonal French composers who are reacting with vigour.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Younger, Generation

• I work very fast, keeping the ideas flowing but making sure they come out the way I intended.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Work

  Tags in Self, Ideas

• I know that John Adams has had a very hard time directing French ensembles.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Presidential

• I am writing something which I find satisfying and which I am prepared to put my name to as a composer.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Self, Composer

• Craft is part of the creative process.

  Gavin Bryars

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Craft, Creative, Process

Gavin Bryars (25)

Birth:	16th January, 1943
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Bassist, Composer

About

Richard Gavin Bryars was born in Goole, East Yorkshire, England. He 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. He studied philosophy at Sheffield University but became a jazz bassist during his three years as a philosophy student.

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