New music discoveries can be particularly potent while traveling. Case in point: I recently picked up a small stack of obscurities from Chee Shimizu’s revered Physical Store that […]
Portsmouth Sinfonia: Gavin Bryars, Brian Eno, and the “Worst Orchestra in the World”
Avant-comedy with Gavin Bryars, Brian Eno, Michael Nyman, and the Portsmouth Sinfonia.
As record collectors, we’re often digging through the bins for the best in music. Who performed the best version of this jazz standard? What’s the best sounding pressing of this album? Rarely do we think about the worst version… In 1970, British avant-garde composer Gavin Bryars formed the self-proclaimed “worst orchestra in the world.” Taking classical music out of the hands of the ‘tuxedo-Nazis’, the group explored how amateurism might produce more interesting results than the conventional and often trite attempts at musical perfection.
Instead of picking the most competent musicians, the Portsmouth Sinfonia encouraged anyone to join, regardless of talent, ability or experience. The only rules were that everyone had to come for rehearsals and that people should try their best to get it right and not intentionally try to play badly. The Sinfonia quickly blossomed into an 82-member band comprised of students at the Portsmouth College of Arts alongside a young Brian Eno on clarinet (an instrument he had never played), composer Michael Nyman, and experimentalist Steve Beresford.
“I just fell in love with them. They had something rare and beautiful. They were uninhibited by the stuffy rules and all the things I hated about classical music.”
Martin Lewis (Transatlantic records)
The Portsmouth Sinfonia would go on to perform at venues ranging from avant-garde music festivals to the Royal Albert Hall. Their debut release Plays The Popular Classics landed in 1973 and included renditions of familiar favorites from The Nutcracker Suite, William Tell Overture, Gustav Holt’s The Planets, and more. Promo copies of the vinyl fetch high prices these days and often include handwritten notes from radio station DJs like “this is the worst music I’ve ever heard.”
Brian Eno: “My own involvement in the Sinfonia is on two levels – I am a non-musician in the sense of never having “studied music”, yet at the same time, I notice that many of the more significant contributions to rock music and, to a lesser extent, avant-garde music have been made by enthusiastic amateurs and dabblers. Their strength is that they are able to approach the task of music-making without previously acquired solutions and without a too firm concept of what is and what is not musically possible. Coupled with this, and consequent to it, is a current fascination with the role of ‘the accident’ in structured activities.”
Listen to the group gloriously butcher Christmas classic “Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy.” Thanks to Brendan from Folk Arts Rare Records for playing this at our Holiday Market the other week in San Diego <3
