Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet G AV I N B R YA R S
WEDNESDAY 11 JANUARY 2023 ST JOHN’S CHURCH WATERLOO
Part of the
season
GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY TIOC FOUNDATION
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner supported by Aud Jebsen Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski Patron HRH The Duke of Kent KG Artistic Director Elena Dubinets Chief Executive David Burke Leader Pieter Schoeman supported by Neil Westreich
GAVIN BRYARS JESUS’ BLOOD NEVER FAILED ME YET In 1970, Bryars’s friend Alan Power made a documentary film about homeless people around Euston, Waterloo and Elephant and Castle in London. Power gave Bryars free use of the sound recordings that were unused in his film, some of which, according to the composer, included passages ‘where tramps would suddenly break into song, sometimes slightly pathetic sentimental songs, sometimes operatic excerpts.’ One discovery was of a man somewhere between Waterloo and Elephant and Castle singing a short, folk-like hymn: ‘Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet’. The man who sang this song stayed in tune with himself, also sang in tune with Bryars’s piano (and therefore, modern concert tuning). Bryars saw that he could easily augment the recording.
He made a tape loop of the homeless man’s song, ‘wrote out a simple chordal accompaniment at the piano’, and then arranged that accompaniment for chamber orchestra. The resulting piece was originally used to accompany a film by Steve Dwoskin in which an old man walked slowly towards a camera. But the music eventually took on a life of its own, Bryars publishing a definitive score in 1974 ‘in which reasonable substitution may be made for various instruments and groups.’ Thus the work has the potential to change and evolve, despite the man’s unchanging song.
The musical process is as simple as Bryars’s description of it. First we hear the man’s song on the tape loop, almost whisperingly quiet before it reaches full voice. Then, group by group, instruments are added slowly and sympathetically. ‘Eventually all the instruments are playing and the piece fades away and finishes’, writes Bryars. He asks that the instrumentalists perform ‘in a restrained way without pomp or show.’ All the better for underlining the sense of loss, hope, vulnerability and contentedness that characterise the man’s simple song.
Programme note © Andrew Mellor
Post-concert discussion with Gavin Bryars (Following the 6.30pm performance only) A panel discussion with the composer and other contributors around the topical issues brought to the fore by Jesus’ Blood, with opportunities for audience Q&As. Retiring collection There will be a retiring collection at the end of each performance, in aid of two charities with which St John’s works closely to serve the homeless, Accumulate – The Art School for Homeless People and Robes.
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Gavin Bryars studied philosophy at Sheffield University and became a professional jazz bassist and a pioneer of free improvisation. In the late 1960s he worked with John Cage, which influenced early works such as The Sinking of the Titanic (1969) and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1971). From 1969–78 he taught in departments of Fine Art at Portsmouth College of Art and Leicester Polytechnic, where he founded the department of music. Bryars’s opera Medea (1984) achieved critical success and led Bryars down a new compositional path. He has since written three further operas: Doctor Ox's Experiment (1998), G (2001–02) and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (2018). Bryars is particularly drawn to music for voice, resulting in a rich catalogue of choral and vocal works. He has also produced a large body of chamber music, much of it written for his own ensemble, and works for string orchestra, as well as concertos for violin, viola, cello, double bass (plus one for jazz bass), saxophone, bass oboe and piano.