The Official Michael Nyman Thread

[Jurassic Shark 12,091]

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,211]

Nyman certainly deserves his own thread. Speaking of which, does anyone know if he's still active? It's been a few years since I last heard anything new about him, and from what I remember, those were a) some ugly, confusing things related to his divorce and b) the announcement that he would compose music for washing machines (which for most other composers sounds like a ridiculous idea, but with Nyman it carries a certain fascination).

 

An interesting aspect of Nyman's music is that he's in a way quite (intentionally?) limited, with his often quite hardcore minimalism and Purcell based chord progressions, but on the other hand has at least a certain set of wildly different modi operandi. My favourites (as in the ones I enjoy most and also can listen to repeatedly without getting tired or annoyed by them) are stuff like his Greenaway scores and some of his not too dissimilar (except for instrumentation) concert music. I may post some of those later, but for now I'll drop one of my favourites from an entirely different mode (that I could *not* listen to for days on end) (I have posted it before many times, so if you know me, you probably already know what's coming):

 

[Thor 7,521]

On 09/12/2022 at 9:12 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

Nyman certainly deserves his own thread. Speaking of which, does anyone know if he's still active? It's been a few years since I last heard anything new about him, and from what I remember, those were a) some ugly, confusing things related to his divorce and b) the announcement that he would compose music for washing machines (which for most other composers sounds like a ridiculous idea, but with Nyman it carries a certain fascination).

 

Reminds me of this video that was doing the rounds several years ago:

 

 

Back to topic, I like some Nyman, but in smaller doses. Love THE PIANO, love most of the Greenaways and the occasional other thing.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,554]

Although I love a lot of Nyman (especially THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTACT), for me, GATTACA is his undisputed masterpiece.

[filmmusic 1,843]

1 minute ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Although I love a lot of Nyman (especially THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTACT), for me, GATTACA is his undisputed masterpiece.

For me THE PIANO (a boring choice I know).

Have you listened to CARRINGTON? I like that one too. And the movie itself.

[Jurassic Shark 12,091]

3 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Although I love a lot of Nyman (especially THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTACT), for me, GATTACA is his undisputed masterpiece.

 

Gatcha!

[GerateWohl 4,373]

A favourite Nyman piano piece of mine:

 

[Score 770]

As far as I'm concerned, Nyman's film music masterworks are the scores for The Piano and Gattaca. I think The Piano is one of the great scores of the 1990s, and its OST features, among many beautiful pieces, one of the best album openers ever ("To the Edge of the Earth"). 

 

His overall production is a mixed bag for me. Among the pieces that I love, I should surely mention The Piano Concerto and the 5-movement orchestral piece "Strong on Oaks, Strong on the Causes of Oaks". "Musique à Grande Vitesse", Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings, and the Saxophone Concerto are also quite interesting.