Nyman Says... 'Repeat'!

[Ken B]

I love The Piano Concerto, up there with Noises and MGV, but regarding film scores he did better than The Piano. His Peter Greenaway scores are great, and outside of those I've always found some brilliance in Six Days, Six Nights. Also, there are sections from The Claim that are breathtakingly gorgeous.

There's that section in The Claim where he moves from one big climax to another with the fifes. Astonishing. Nothing like that can possibly work, but it does! He's doing something there he does in a few pieces, like MGV. I cannot explain it but I can recognize it.

Maybe someone like Nate could bury himself in the score and figure just how it's done ... 

[Ken B]

A 20 minute documentary about a student orchestra learning two Nyman symphonies.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A25PCwPkZac

[TheGSMoeller]

A page from this months Gramophone magazine, some info on already released albums, reissues and announcement of a few future releases...

[7/4]

I've been enjoying Balanescu Quartet - String Quartets 1 - 3 and Michael Nyman for Yohji Yamamoto. I've had the Kiss on vinyl for years.

Not too impressed with the Piano. 

[TheGSMoeller]

Not too impressed with the Piano. 

The soundtrack? Have you listen to The Piano Concerto, based on the music? I actually don't listen to the soundtrack often, but rather The Piano Concerto, uses the best parts of the score and combines them into a seamless 4 movement piece. The piano acts more as an extension of the orchestra rather than a featured soloist, it's a fascinating work.

[7/4]

The soundtrack? Have you listen to The Piano Concerto, based on the music? I actually don't listen to the soundtrack often, but rather The Piano Concerto, uses the best parts of the score and combines them into a seamless 4 movement piece. The piano acts more as an extension of the orchestra rather than a featured soloist, it's a fascinating work.

I'll get there soon, probably sometime this weekend.

[torut]

Decay Music is excellent. 1-100 is played at half the speed of the original, and this issue includes the original speed version. It reminds me of Bryn Harrison's Vessels (faster, and of course 1-100 is much earlier.) I only have few Nyman albums: The Piano, the string quartets, The Kiss. I will check the albums recommended in this thread. Are there Nyman's compositions like 1-100 or Bell Set No.1?

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[torut]

I listened to some of the early 1980s albums and loved them all, although I didn't find anything similar to Decay Music. I like the way catchy and sentimental melodies are presented harshly.

Michael Nyman (1981)
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The Kiss and Other Movements (1985)
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A Zed And Two Noughts (1985)
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MGV (1993), highly recommended here and on other threads, is a little softer but really good. The finale is very moving.

[Ken B]

I listened to some of the early 1980s albums and loved them all, although I didn't find anything similar to Decay Music. I like the way catchy and sentimental melodies are presented harshly.

Michael Nyman (1981)
[asin]B0064X1G46[/asin]

The Kiss and Other Movements (1985)
[asin]B000003S2Y[/asin]

A Zed And Two Noughts (1985)
[asin]B0001HQ2LI[/asin]

MGV (1993), highly recommended here and on other threads, is a little softer but really good. The finale is very moving.

These are all good!

[torut]

A page from this months Gramophone magazine, some info on already released albums, reissues and announcement of a few future releases...

I didn't know that Nyman composed symphonies. (Have No. 1-10 ever been recorded?) I just downloaded FLAC of Symphony No. 11 from mn records and listened to it once. The music is tragic and superbly beautiful, lacking of the violent intensity that was characteristic in the early works. Except for the mezzo soprano (only in the 1st movement) whose heavy vibrato I didn't particularly like, I think the orchestra and the choir are very fine. It grasped me from the beginning to the end, however, it is kind of depressing, after reading about the incident (Hillsborough disaster) to which the work is dedicated to.

[TheGSMoeller]

I didn't know that Nyman composed symphonies. (Have No. 1-10 ever been recorded?) I just downloaded FLAC of Symphony No. 11 from mn records and listened to it once. The music is tragic and superbly beautiful, lacking of the violent intensity that was characteristic in the early works. Except for the mezzo soprano (only in the 1st movement) whose heavy vibrato I didn't particularly like, I think the orchestra and the choir are very fine. It grasped me from the beginning to the end, however, it is kind of depressing, after reading about the incident (Hillsborough disaster) to which the work is dedicated to.

Yes! Thank you for posting, torut, I've wanted to hear this.

[torut]

Yes! Thank you for posting, torut, I've wanted to hear this.

Thank you for the Gramophone info, I had never heard of Nyman's symphonies. I am looking forward to No. 2 & 5 release. Since it was No. 11, I thought he has been composing symphonies for a long time, but according to the work list, No. 2-12 were published during just two years! (No info about No. 1.)

Symphony No 12 (2014) - 20 Minutes
Symphony No 2 (2013) - 26 Minutes
Symphony No 3 "Symphony of sexual songs" (2014) - 24 Minutes
Symphony No 5 (2013) - 20 Minutes
Symphony No 6 (2013) - 32 Minutes

[TheGSMoeller]

Thank you for the Gramophone info, I had never heard of Nyman's symphonies. I am looking forward to No. 2 & 5 release. Since it was No. 11, I thought he has been composing symphonies for a long time, but according to the work list, No. 2-12 were published during just two years! (No info about No. 1.)

Symphony No 12 (2014) - 20 Minutes
Symphony No 2 (2013) - 26 Minutes
Symphony No 3 "Symphony of sexual songs" (2014) - 24 Minutes
Symphony No 5 (2013) - 20 Minutes
Symphony No 6 (2013) - 32 Minutes

The symphonies are really the only genre from Nyman I haven't heard, which is a shame because I feel they would be fantastic.

I wonder if his No. 3 has anything to do with his 8 Lust Songs?

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[torut]

The symphonies are really the only genre from Nyman I haven't heard, which is a shame because I feel they would be fantastic.

I wonder if his No. 3 has anything to so with his 8 Lust Songs?

[asin]B001AE4PLK[/asin]

I don't have that album (will get soon!), but you are right according to Chester Music. An interesting relationship with Górecki is mentioned. (He was interested in The Kiss. )

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/work/1149/49698
Symphony No.3: Of Sexual Songs

As is evident from the title, this symphony was composed as a homage to Henryk Mikołaj Górecki.

Górecki's 'Symphony No.3. Of Sorrowful Songs' adds a soprano voice to slow orchestral music while my slow 3rd symphony removes a soprano voice from my 'I sonetti lussuriosi' for soprano and orchestra (2007), re-edits 5 of the 8 songs and repositions the vocal part orchestrally.
The texts were taken from a collection of erotic poetry by Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) and I really enjoy the irony of Górecki allowing a symphony as 'sacred' as No.3 to be constantly used as a film soundtrack, he stipulated that it could never be used in sex scenes. As a film composer myself, working with directors like Peter Greenaway, Patrice Leconte, Neil Jordan and Jane Campion it was always inevitable that my music would have to accompany sexual acts.

I first met Górecki at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1985 and after he had heard the Arditti Quartet play my 'String Quartet No.1'. I gave him a copy of my most recently-released album - 'The Kiss and Other Movements' - and some weeks later he wrote asking me to send him the score of 'The Kiss'. I have no idea what he did with it, but I do know that in the 38 years I have been writing music, no other composer has had the curiosity to want to look at any of my scores. And Chopin also brought us close together musically: 'Corona', the fourth of my 'Six Celan Songs' (1991) is based harmonically on the sequence from Chopin's 'Mazurka Op.17 No.4' that follows the passage that Górecki used in his 3rd Symphony.

My film 'The Art of Fugue' which consists of a single 28 minute sequence shot in May 2012 in Plaza Luis Cabrera, a square near my house in Colonia Roma, Mexico City, will be screened simultaneously with the symphony. Interestingly, the soundtrack for that film is taken from the recording that Marie Angel and the Michael Nyman Band made of 'I sonetti lussuriosi'.

Michael Nyman

[TheGSMoeller]

I don't have that album (will get soon!), but you are right according to Chester Music. An interesting relationship with Górecki is mentioned. (He was interested in The Kiss. )

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/work/1149/49698
Symphony No.3: Of Sexual Songs

As is evident from the title, this symphony was composed as a homage to Henryk Mikołaj Górecki.

Górecki's 'Symphony No.3. Of Sorrowful Songs' adds a soprano voice to slow orchestral music while my slow 3rd symphony removes a soprano voice from my 'I sonetti lussuriosi' for soprano and orchestra (2007), re-edits 5 of the 8 songs and repositions the vocal part orchestrally.
The texts were taken from a collection of erotic poetry by Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) and I really enjoy the irony of Górecki allowing a symphony as 'sacred' as No.3 to be constantly used as a film soundtrack, he stipulated that it could never be used in sex scenes. As a film composer myself, working with directors like Peter Greenaway, Patrice Leconte, Neil Jordan and Jane Campion it was always inevitable that my music would have to accompany sexual acts.

I first met Górecki at the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 1985 and after he had heard the Arditti Quartet play my 'String Quartet No.1'. I gave him a copy of my most recently-released album - 'The Kiss and Other Movements' - and some weeks later he wrote asking me to send him the score of 'The Kiss'. I have no idea what he did with it, but I do know that in the 38 years I have been writing music, no other composer has had the curiosity to want to look at any of my scores. And Chopin also brought us close together musically: 'Corona', the fourth of my 'Six Celan Songs' (1991) is based harmonically on the sequence from Chopin's 'Mazurka Op.17 No.4' that follows the passage that Górecki used in his 3rd Symphony.

My film 'The Art of Fugue' which consists of a single 28 minute sequence shot in May 2012 in Plaza Luis Cabrera, a square near my house in Colonia Roma, Mexico City, will be screened simultaneously with the symphony. Interestingly, the soundtrack for that film is taken from the recording that Marie Angel and the Michael Nyman Band made of 'I sonetti lussuriosi'.

Michael Nyman

Great investigative reporting, torut! Some very interesting stuff.
Also, Six Celan Songs and 8 Lust Songs are both excellent pieces. With Celan there are two available recordings, one with Ute Lemper and the other with Hilary Summers, two very different voice stylings offering a great contrast between them. It's worth checking out both, but I first heard the work with Lemper performing so I've always been more keen on that one. 

[TheGSMoeller]

I didn't know that Nyman composed symphonies. (Have No. 1-10 ever been recorded?) I just downloaded FLAC of Symphony No. 11 from mn records and listened to it once. The music is tragic and superbly beautiful, lacking of the violent intensity that was characteristic in the early works. Except for the mezzo soprano (only in the 1st movement) whose heavy vibrato I didn't particularly like, I think the orchestra and the choir are very fine. It grasped me from the beginning to the end, however, it is kind of depressing, after reading about the incident (Hillsborough disaster) to which the work is dedicated to.

So I finally got around to listening to the samples of No. 11, and it seems like Nyman included Memorial, a piece that he composed back in the 80s that was dedicated to another FC tragedy, the Heysel Stadium disaster. The work was also used brilliantly in the film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.

[torut]

Also, Six Celan Songs and 8 Lust Songs are both excellent pieces. With Celan there are two available recordings, one with Ute Lemper and the other with Hilary Summers, two very different voice stylings offering a great contrast between them. It's worth checking out both, but I first heard the work with Lemper performing so I've always been more keen on that one.

Thank you TheGSMoeller, Songbook by Lemper is wonderful! I liked Nyman's eccentric (even hysteric) songs (Bird List Song, Nose-List Song) in the early 1980s, but these songs are very different: more sentimental and listenable. And I like Lemper's voice very much. It reminded me of Holly Cole's a little husky voice. Gavin Bryars's I Have Heard It Said That A Spirit Enters... (3 songs performed by Cole) came to my mind. (That's also excellent.) I am looking forward to listening to other Nyman's songs.

[TheGSMoeller]

New soundtrack from a movie I've never heard of. Listening to samples, it's sounds like a mix of newer material and previously composed material.

[TheGSMoeller]

Attn: Mr. Ken B.

Nymanissimo!

https://twitter.com/michaelnyman/status/867735375334309888

[SymphonicAddict]

He's a tasty minimalistic guy!