Work of the Week - Gavin Bryars: Cadman Requiem

This years Stavanger International Music will feature the Norwegian premiere of the original version of Gavin Bryars touching Cadman Requiem by renowned vocal group The Hilliard Ensemble. The work was composed in spring 1989 in memory of the composer’s sound engineer and friend Bill Cadman who was killed in the Lockerbie air crash in December 1988.

The listener is placed into a dark, medieval atmosphere surrounded by a vast sound pallet with chromatic and minor-saturated harmonies. The music’s slow tempo and uncomfortably bare dissonances express the composer’s grief of loosing a friend.

Cadman Requiem’s history is long and still developing. Originally composed in 1989 after it was commissioned by the Hilliard Ensemble and first performed by them with Bryars playing the double bass part, a new version arranged in 1998 for voices and viol consort was performed by The Hilliards and Fretwork at the commemoration ceremony for the 10th anniversary of the bombing at Westminster Cathedral. More recently, the composer has reworked the piece for mixed choir and organ, male choir and organ and in February 2009 for mixed choir and ensemble.

• Gavin Bryars - Profile
• Stavanger International Music Festival 2009
• Hilliad Ensemble Website
• Different Versions of the Cadman Requiem