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Author Topic: Michael Nyman - what do you think?  (Read 2374 times)
martle
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« Reply #15 on: 22:39:46, 12-03-2007 »

rm

No. Agree in toto.
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Green. Always green.
Bryn
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« Reply #16 on: 23:43:18, 12-03-2007 »

There are a couple of decidedly pro messages over on the BBC's boards. One who found the work inspiring was Anna, the other is a newish contributor who, it seems, is a big Tavener fan. I was not taken with it, but will give it another try, having now normalized it, resampled it to 44.1ksps (I saved it originally as an mp2 from DAB), and burned it to a CD-R. At least I have the Butterworth and Schoenberg on the same CD-R.
« Last Edit: 08:48:52, 13-03-2007 by Bryn » Logged
reiner_torheit
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« Reply #17 on: 01:06:45, 13-03-2007 »

I can't say I actively disliked it, but I expected considerably more than this.  The choral writing is up the creek, and there was too much undigested Spem In Alium in it.  I couldn't hear any of the words at all (except the unpitched chanting), which rendered it impotent and without meaning - a rather wasted opportunity.  There's a crib from Ferd Grofe's "Grand Canyon" Suite.  The scoring for the organ was severely over-prominent, and I found the textures too unremitting.  I fear that if there is any great work to arise from the tragedy of this war, this is not it.   I wish he had not used the orchestra at all, and written an unaccompanied choral work that brought the text to the fore.
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They say travel broadens the mind - but in many cases travel has made the mind not exactly broader, but thicker.
DracoM
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« Reply #18 on: 10:57:49, 13-03-2007 »

Look, the guy is a living contravention of the Trade Descriptions Act, let's get the gloves off.

Why / How on earth he has managed to get a scruff hold on the musical establishment completely defeats me. The 'world premiere' of ...what? Derivative, uncotroversial, run of the mill, could have been written ( if that is the word I am looking for) by almost any competent comnpsition student at the RCM, yet it is hailed as if ground-breaking. It wasn't.

I weep for  composers round the country who will have listened, are turning out stuff better than this, and cannot explain to themselves how Nyman has got where he is.
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richard barrett
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« Reply #19 on: 11:12:47, 13-03-2007 »

When I first came across Michael Nyman's music in 1981 or so I thought he was on to something quite interesting, although his piano playing seemed a bit duff. Already by the time of Draughtsman's Contract I had the feeling that he was leaning too heavily on a limited repertoire of techniques. The music suited the film very well, of course, but again that was the last Peter Greenaway film I really appreciated. Since then it seems to me that the wit of his earlier work has given way to an attempt to look like a Serious Composer while still permutating the same few comfortable (and, yes, derivative) ideas which to my ear can't handle the Serious Thoughts he tries to articulate with them, and his piano playing seems to have remained at the same Les Dawsonesque level.

As for DracoM's comment, I'm sure (I hope) most composers can see very well how Nyman has got where he is, and some of us would have no wish to be there anyway!
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autoharp
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« Reply #20 on: 20:07:28, 14-03-2007 »

Michael Nyman's band in the 1970s (the Campiello Band) had an instrumentation which included rebecs, banjo, euphonium, Chinese flute - a far more abrasive and engaging sound than c.1980 onwards. There's some real winners from this period - and some dross. He's still able to come out with the odd winner, but the dross has become more objectionable perhaps. I was pleasantly surprised, though, by his opera "Love counts" (at the Almeida Theatre last summer) - anybody else get to hear it ?
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #21 on: 20:42:32, 14-03-2007 »

No, but he had a new opera back in about 1984-85,  which was staged at the Royal Court,  which was something about political intrigues with one of the medieval popes?    It involved Opera Factory London and a lot of running around in the nude.  It died a death and I don't think has been seen or heard of again...  I believe MN no longer even mentions having composed it?
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They say travel broadens the mind - but in many cases travel has made the mind not exactly broader, but thicker.
Bryn
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« Reply #22 on: 23:03:06, 19-03-2007 »

Picked up a copy of Nyman's "Music for Tow Pianos", (The Zoo Duet) in the Windsor Oxfam shop yesterday. About to give it a spin. Also got Fleischmann's "Rothschild's Violin" (completed Shostakovich) at the same time. Need something lightweight right now though.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #23 on: 00:34:12, 20-03-2007 »

Picked up a copy of Nyman's "Music for Tow Pianos",
And now I have the mental image of an Ian Pace (who looks nothing like my imagination says he should) and A.N. Other leaning forward at approximately 45 degrees each, dragging Steinway Grands behind them....
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #24 on: 04:26:38, 20-03-2007 »

Let me know what you make of the Fleischmann when you've had a chance to hear it, Bryn?

The libretto has some very interesting parallels with Jonny Spielt Auf
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They say travel broadens the mind - but in many cases travel has made the mind not exactly broader, but thicker.
oliver sudden
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« Reply #25 on: 09:12:25, 20-03-2007 »

And now I have the mental image of an Ian Pace (who looks nothing like my imagination says he should) and A.N. Other leaning forward at approximately 45 degrees each, dragging Steinway Grands behind them....
Are there dead donkeys on the pianos? Wink

(Shades of Un chien andalou, I mean, in case anyone thinks I've gone a bit odd.)
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Bryn
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« Reply #26 on: 09:56:22, 20-03-2007 »

( ... in case anyone thinks I've gone a bit odd.)

Ollie, you are forgetting the company you keep here. Who could possibly have missed your reference? But who are "The Zoo Duet"?
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #27 on: 10:08:34, 20-03-2007 »

I'd guessed that the "Zoo Duet" was something from "A Zed & Two Noughts", but obviously I've got the wrong end of the stick (or piano).
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They say travel broadens the mind - but in many cases travel has made the mind not exactly broader, but thicker.
Bryn
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« Reply #28 on: 10:40:53, 20-03-2007 »

R_T, my understanding is that "The Zoo Duet" are the performers. No other indication of who they might be is given either in the accompanying documetation, or anywhere else have been able to find.
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reiner_torheit
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« Reply #29 on: 17:40:40, 20-03-2007 »

Do you think "the Zoo Duet" might be a coy (or not-so-coy) refererence to the film anyhow...  considering that the film is about a pair of twins?  Some kind of nom-de-plume adopted for the recording?  The film isn't maybe considered one of Greenaway's major successes,  but I remember liking the score at the time.   You wouldn't want a dish of snails for supper after, though.
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They say travel broadens the mind - but in many cases travel has made the mind not exactly broader, but thicker.
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