The deep sea makes up 80% of our planet whilst land only equates to 0/5% and yet the deep sea is the least known part of the world. More people have travelled into space than into the depths of the sea. The Paper Nautilus is the result of a collaboration between Gavin Bryars and the visionary theatre director Cathie Boyd and her Theatre Cryptic. The work is based on an earlier cantata, Effarine (1984), which grew out of a collaboration with another visionary of the theatre, Robert Wilson, and which draws on material related either to the sea, or to the sense of scientific wonder. The television series Blue Planet was an inspiration to further research, and in order to take the work beyond the three extant sections of the cantata Theatre Cryptic commissioned new poems from Jackie Kay, taking ideas from these resources. The composer also added short Biblical texts in Latin and English.
The instrumentation of the work comes from that of the original cantata, which was itself conditioned by the fact that it was to be a companion piece for Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique, but with two instead of four pianos. The two voices sing alternate sections, though often coming together to form duets or with one accompanying the other. At the end they sing quietly in unison as the instrumental ensemble moves through the coda, ending with the very literal use of the water gong in the last bars. (based on the composer’s note for the world première)