In the Manner of Michael Nyman
I come to praise Michael Nyman. No, really. Since the nice people at Naxos began distributing Nyman’s MN Records a couple of months ago, several of his musical adventures have come into my possession and I have to admit that I find them as light as the floating feather in Forrest Gump and as addictive as an open box of Entemann’s chocolate-covered doughnuts. I play them again and again, knowing I should move on to something meatier–like, say, the amazing new Da Capo recording of Per Norgard chamber works or Lee Hyla’s extraordinary Lives of the Saints.
But it couldn’t hurt to put on Nyman’s Mozart 252 while I’m deciding. Mozart 252 (Nyman was a couple of years late in finishing his tribute to Wolfgang’s 250th birthday) brings together two main bodies of Nyman work inspired by Mozart (whose music, by the way, I loathe). The first is the soundtrack for Peter Greenaway’s Drowning by Numbers, and the second draws from Nyman’s score for Letters, Riddles and Writs (1991), a BBC2 homage to Mozart. Like my favorite doughnuts, there’s lots of empty calories but it tastes so sweet going down.
Or maybe, I’ll go with Acts of Beauty/Exit no Exit, a couple of extended vocal works that show Nyman’s approach to word-setting, song structure, and choice of subject matter. Oooo..this is interesting. Says here that Acts of Beauty is a song cycle based on miscellaneous texts on beauty from a 1556 text of Vincenzo Cartari, which “looks at the measurements of beauty by comparing buttocks to beauty in the urban environment as viewed by Kurt Scwitters and Dzuga Vertov to Martial’s Epigrams on the weighing of a penis.” Kind of gives a new definition to the word “heavy.”
Exit no Exit began life as Beckham Crosses, Nyman Scores, a ‘homage’ to the England football team as part of a documentary on BBC Radio 3 to celebrate the end of the World Cup finals in Japan/Korea in 2002. Nyman took extracts from announcer John Motson’s commentary to the England v Argentina match and sampled, looped and ‘instrumentalized’ them…in the manner of Steve Reich’s Different Trains: translating the loops repeating rhythmic and melodic patterns played without variation.” Good cover copy that: “In the Manner of Steve Reich’s Different Trains…” Nice. In this version, Motson’s voice has been replaced with a bass clarinet.
There’s nobody here right now except me and the cat so maybe I could even go with the “Composers Cut” version of the score from Nyman’s most famous piece, The Piano. Poor Holly Hunter losing her pinky like that. That’s exactly why I prefer cats to children. Let’s see…Nyman says: “The purpose of the Composer’s Cut series is to present music from my soundtracks in a state of continuous evolution. As I transferred particular cues from film to concert hall both musical structures changed and performance styles developed, enabling the music, perhaps, to realise its true potential. So these recordings represent the Michael Nyman Band’s state-of-performance as of spring 2005.” State-of-Performance…In the Manner of Steve Reich’s Different Trains. Now, we’re getting somewhere.
Nyman’s score for Jane Campion’s 1993 film The Piano is one of the most successful film soundtracks of all time, won lots of movie music awards, and made Nyman one of the few composers who can afford to own their record labels and hire any musicians they want to play their music. The concert suite for The Piano as performed by The Michael Nyman Band is a staple of the band’s concert repertoire and has been performed all over the world with the composer acting as pianist and conductor. According to the notes: “It is this expanded form of the soundtrack that Nyman chose to record as his own definitive edition in Abbey Road studios in April 2005.”
So, let’s see what we have when we put it together: “Live from Abbey Road…a State-of-Performance performance..In the Manner of Steve Reich’s Different Trains…the definitive edition of the Composer’s Cut of…”
And, by the way, did I mention that he’s the man who gave “minimalism” its name?
So the guy’s a pompous asshole. I dare you to buy a copy of one of his CDs and not play it at least 10 times.
Seth wrote: Speaking of such “empty” music, just got the new album of Laurence Crane’s solo piano works via iTunes – performed by “New Complexity” composer Michael Finnissy. See, our musical worlds can co-exist peacefully… it’s like the Ebony and Ivory of modern classical music.
Ooo, I just got it too, a couple weeks ago via eMusic. Beautiful pieces.
“empty calories” … “light as the floating feather”
I mean, seriously, would you call Rothko empty calories?
Considering the effect his music is having on you, one might argue that Nyman’s work is not so simple as it seems on the surface, and in fact more fulfilling and “meaty” than the work of those composers who aren’t capable of sending you into an OCD tizzy. You’re not playing their CDs 10 times over, after all. So who’s the “better” composer?
While Nyman doesn’t always float my boat, I have to say that when he’s on he’s on. For me, Fish Beach (from Drowning By Numbers) is about as perfect a piece of music as has been written. I think it takes a much more mature, developed, dare I say complex sense of beauty than you’re giving credit for to pare things down rather than Fernyhough it all up.
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Speaking of such “empty” music, just got the new album of Laurence Crane’s solo piano works via iTunes – performed by “New Complexity” composer Michael Finnissy. See, our musical worlds can co-exist peacefully… it’s like the Ebony and Ivory of modern classical music.
I have to agree with Mary Jane here. I spent a entire weekend hangng and shopping with Michael here in Nashville and I must say I found him to be the genuine article. I’ve owned Nyman recordings off and on for years now (the old Argo recordings) but I don’t think I really had a true understanding of who he was as an artist until actually meeting him and talking to him about music, about art, about life. It was a very unique situation for he was as mesmerized by my art as I was by his. I too listen to these CDs on a weekly basis, hell I even have the Piano in my car! Some years ago I’d never have admitted to such a thing. Since meeting Michael he’s become a good friend and someone I dialogue with weekly about label related matters and as well as about art and life in general. The three words that come to mind when I think about Michael: RESPECT, APPRECIATION & ADMIRATION.
Brilliant assessment of these discs, Jerry, and thanks for covering a wonderful composer. I must agree with Mary Jane also. I find Nyman to be entirely honest and engaging, not at all pompous regarding his music.
I’m happy to hear that Mary Jane. I’ve never met Mr. Nyman so my impression is based solely on what seemed to me to be some absurdly heavyweight verbal posturing for music that is obviously compelling but lightweight. But then , I find Peter Maxwell Davies’ notes on his pieces to be even more fatuous and flatulent.
I’ve only met Nyman a couple of times, but pompous is about the last word I’d use to describe him. He’s one of the few composers I’ve met who’s willing to discuss his music in terms of what works or doesn’t work – not just wanting to hear praise (or feeling that he’s above talking to someone less well-known than him).
Yes Jerry! Nyman has been a favorite of mine for years.