Gavin Bryars

The Sinking of the Titanic

Originating as the musical equivalent of a work of conceptual art, this piece has various performing versions, often arising from particular occasions and environments. All the materials used are derived from research and peculations about the sinking of the 'unsinkable' liner on 14 April 1912 after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The initial starting point was the reported fact of the band playing the hymn tune 'Autumn' in the final moments of the ship's sinking, together with other features of the disaster which generate musical or sounding performance material or which 'take the mind to other regions'. Other material is superimposed on the hymn tune, including fragments ofinterviews with survivors, Morse sequences, musical references to different possible tunes for the hymn, the sound of the iceberg's impact, and so on.