Gavin Bryars: The Fifth Century (2016)

Gavin Bryars has written a good deal of music in minimalist styles, but he makes room for a good deal of expressivity. He has not written much choral music, but this ECM release may make his fans wish he had written more. He emerges here as a kind of British counterpart to Arvo Pärt, with similarly spiritual and mystical leanings. The title The Fifth Century refers to the texts used in the seven-section work, which come from a series of prose poems entitled Centuries of Meditations by the 17th century English mystical ... Read More

Gavin Bryars has written a good deal of music in minimalist styles, but he makes room for a good deal of expressivity. He has not written much choral music, but this ECM release may make his fans wish he had written more. He emerges here as a kind of British counterpart to Arvo Pärt, with similarly spiritual and mystical leanings. The title The Fifth Century refers to the texts used in the seven-section work, which come from a series of prose poems entitled Centuries of Meditations by the 17th century English mystical poet Thomas Traherne; the texts here are drawn from the fifth volume. Many of the texts suggest a contemplation of eternity, and they're quite compelling ("Like the sun we dart our rays before us, and occupy those spaces with light and contemplation which we move towards, but possess not with our bodies"). Around the peaceful, a cappella settings of these words a saxophone quartet winds counterpoint and preludes. The work was commissioned by the small choir heard here, called The... Read Less