Hello all

Well, I have been trying to decide what interesting thing should be number one in my list of interesting and odd things that Stephen tells me and decided on this one as it is such a wonderful story that moved me so much at the time he told me.

We had been listening to a radio program about experimental music and were discussing how it almost required a deep understanding of music to understand or enjoy it.  This lead to thinking about how music touches us and Stephen then told me about Gavin Bryars who is an English composer and the remarkable and totally moving piece of music he put together called Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet.   It goes for ten minutes and Stephen played it for me in it's entirety.

I have copied the story of the piece of music from Gavin Bryar's website below.  You can buy the piece from Itunes which is the best, or listen to bits of it on youtube.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbczBcz78vo

It is a beautiful piece that totally captivated me.  You can hear the pathos, the sadness but also the spirit in this old man.

I hope it is interesting for you too.

Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet

"In 1971, when I lived in London, I was working with a friend, Alan Power, on a film about people living rough in the area around Elephant and Castle and Waterloo Station. In the course of being filmed, some people broke into drunken song - sometimes bits of opera, sometimes sentimental ballads - and one, who in fact did not drink, sang a religious song "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet". This was not ultimately used in the film and I was given all the unused sections of tape, including this one.

When I played it at home, I found that his singing was in tune with my piano, and I improvised a simple accompaniment. I noticed, too, that the first section of the song - 13 bars in length - formed an effective loop which repeated in a slightly unpredictable way. I took the tape loop to Leicester, where I was working in the Fine Art Department, and copied the loop onto a continuous reel of tape, thinking about perhaps adding an orchestrated accompaniment to this. The door of the recording room opened on to one of the large painting studios and I left the tape copying, with the door open, while I went to have a cup of coffee. When I came back I found the normally lively room unnaturally subdued. People were moving about much more slowly than usual and a few were sitting alone, quietly weeping.

I was puzzled until I realised that the tape was still playing and that they had been overcome by the old man's singing. This convinced me of the emotional power of the music and of the possibilities offered by adding a simple, though gradually evolving, orchestral accompaniment that respected the tramp's nobility and simple faith. Although he died before he could hear what I had done with his singing, the piece remains as an eloquent, but understated testimony to his spirit and optimism.

The piece was originally recorded on Brian Eno's Obscure label in 1975 and a substantially revised and extended version for Point Records in 1993. The version which is played by my ensemble was specially created in 1993 to coincide with this last recording.

Gavin Bryars."

www.gavinbryars.com