Michael Nyman (1981 album)

1981 studio album by Michael Nyman

Michael Nyman

Photo by Marcia Resnick

Studio album by

Michael Nyman

Released| November 21, 1981 on Victor Records VIP6798 (Japan)
1982 (UK)
Recorded| 1981
Genre| Contemporary classical music, minimalism, film score
Length| 42:05
Label| Piano Records
Producer| David Cunningham
Michael Nyman chronology
| "The Masterwork" Award Winning Fish-Knife
(1979)  | Michael Nyman
(1981)  | The Draughtsman's Contract
(1982)

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Singles from  Michael Nyman

1. "Mozart/Webern"
Released: 1982

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
Allmusic| [1]

Michael Nyman is the third album release by Michael Nyman and the second with the Michael Nyman Band, having previously contributed tracks to new music compilations. Most of the music was material from early films by Peter Greenaway such as "Bird List Song" from The Falls, sung by Lucie Skeaping, and music from Act of God and Tree.

It also includes his first concert work for the band, "In Re Don Giovanni", which is built around a brief 15-bar phrase in the accompaniment of Leporello's catalog aria in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni, which was also released as a single under the title Mozart. Nyman says he discovered the piece playing the aria on his piano in the style of Jerry Lee Lewis, which "dictated the dynamic, articulation and texture of everything I've subsequently done."[2]

The album should not be confused with Criterion's 1995 promo CD (CRIT CD002), Michael Nyman, which featured previously released material, none of which was from this album, which was released as Piano Records Sheet 005, and which has yet to be issued on CD. It was announced for release in 2009, in connection with Nyman's 65th birthday.[3] This was missed, and it has been announced again for release on November 21, 2011.[4] The CD was released in January 2012, including both the UK and Japanese cover art but not including the "Last But One Of The Last But One" non-LP b-side from the "In Re Don Giovanni" single.

It was published by Chester Music/Michael Nyman Ltd, and produced by David Cunningham.

## Band members

[edit]

* Rory Allam \- clarinet
* Alexander Balanescu \- violin
* Anne Barnard \- french horn
* Ben Grove \- guitar, bass guitar
* John Harle \- saxophone
* Nick Hayley \- rebec, violin
* Ian Mitchell \- clarinet
* Michael Nyman \- piano
* Elisabeth Perry \- violin
* Steve Saunders \- trombone
* Roderick Skeaping \- rebec, violin
* Keith Thompson \- flute, piccolo, recorder, saxophone
* Doug Wootton \- banjo

## Guest musicians

[edit]

* Peter Brötzmann \- bass clarinet, tenor saxophone
* Evan Parker \- soprano saxophone
* Lucie Skeaping - soprano

## Track listing

[edit]

1. "Bird Anthem" (from Act of God) 2:37
2. "Initial Treat" (from Tree) 2:50
3. "Secondary Treat" (from Tree) 1:27
4. "In Re Don Giovanni" 2:48
5. "Waltz in F" 5:55
6. "Bird List Song" (from The Falls) 4:19
7. "M-Work" 21:09

"Waltz in F" was reissued on the compilation, Century XXI UK: N-Z It is the only track to be issued on CD in its album performance. The main waltz theme, without the jazz improvisations, was the basis of "Waltzing the Bird" on À la folie. "In Re Don Giovanni" and the instrumental "Bird List" appeared on Live in new, live versions. A new recording of In Re appears on the 2008 album Mozart 252. "Initial Treat", the opening titles from Tree, is part of Five Orchestral Pieces for Opus Tree, which can be heard in its complete form by Jon Gibson and other artists at The Kitchen on the 1979 edition of From the Kitchen Archives.

The single Mozart/Webern was released on Les Disques du Crépuscule. On that single, "Mozart" is "In Re Don Giovanni"; "Webern" is "Secondary Treat". A third track, "Untitled", is "Initial Treat".

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Allmusic review
2. ^ Andrew Ford. "Jerry Lee Lewis Plays Mozart." Composer to Composer London: Quartet Books, 1993. pp 192-195, p 194
3. ^ "Modern master | The St. Petersburg Times | The leading English-language newspaper in St. Petersburg". Times.spb.ru. 31 October 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
4. ^ "Bird Anthem / Michael Nyman". YouTube. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2012.

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Michael Nyman

Michael Nyman Band members|

| Current|

* Gabrielle Lester
* Catherine Thompson
* Kate Musker
* David Roach
* Simon Haram
* Andrew Findon
* Nigel Barr
* Dave Lee
* Steve Sidwell
* Martin Elliott
* Sarah Leonard

|

Former|

* Alexander Bălănescu
* John Harle
* Chris Laurence
* Ann Morfee
* Jonathan Carney
* Madeleine Mitchell
* Jamie Talbot
* Georgina Born
* Marjorie Dunn
* Beverley Davison
* Barry Guy
* John Greaves
* Andrew Shulman
* Michael Thompson
* Richard Watkins
* John Metcalfe
* Christian Forshaw
* Ute Lemper
* Marie Angel
* Hilary Summers
* Omar Ebrahim
* David Cunningham
* Molly Nyman

Nyman-produced
albums|

* Decay Music
* 'The Masterwork' Award Winning Fish-Knife
* Michael Nyman
* The Draughtsman's Contract
* The Cold Room
* The Kiss and Other Movements
* A Zed & Two Noughts
* And Do They Do/Zoo Caprices
* The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
* Drowning by Numbers
* La Traversée de Paris
* The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover
* Out of the Ruins
* La Sept
* String Quartets 1–3
* Prospero's Books
* The Michael Nyman Songbook
* The Hairdresser's Husband
* The Essential Michael Nyman Band
* Time Will Pronounce
* The Piano
* Michael Nyman for Yohji Yamamoto
* The Piano Concerto/MGV
* À la folie
* Live
* Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs
* Carrington
* The Diary of Anne Frank
* After Extra Time
* The Ogre
* Enemy Zero
* Concertos
* Gattaca
* The Suit and the Photograph
* Strong on Oaks, Strong on the Causes of Oaks
* Practical Magic
* Ravenous
* Wonderland
* The Commissar Vanishes
* Nabbie's Love
* The End of the Affair
* The Claim
* String Quartets 2, 3 & 4/If & Why
* Facing Goya
* 24 Heures de la vie d'une femme
* Sangam: Michael Nyman Meets Indian Masters
* The Actors
* Man and Boy: Dada
* The Piano Sings
* The Libertine
* The Composer's Cut Series Vol. I: The Draughtsman's Contract
* The Composer's Cut Series Vol. II: Nyman/Greenaway Revisited
* The Composer's Cut Series Vol. III: The Piano
* Six Celan Songs • The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi
* Acts of Beauty • Exit no Exit
* Nyman Brass
* Love Counts
* Mozart 252
* 8 Lust Songs: I Sonetti Lussuriosi
* The Glare
* Acoustic Accordions

Nyman-contributed albums|

* The Pavilion of Dreams
* The Sensual World
* Piano Circus
* Taking a Line for a Second Walk
* Twentieth-Century Blues: The Songs of Noël Coward
* Generation Sex

Compilations|

* Pure Moods
* The Very Best of Michael Nyman: Film Music 1980–2001
* Man on Wire

Additional operas|

* Tristram Shandy
* Letters, Riddles and Writs
* Vital Statistics
* La Princesse de Milan

Unreleased
film scores|

* Vertical Features Remake
* The Falls
* Brimstone and Treacle
* Ballet Mécanique
* Monsieur Hire
* Mesmer
* Katie and Orbie
* Titch
* Act Without Words I
* Man with a Movie Camera
* Nathalie...
* À propos de Nice
* A Cock and Bull Story

Major individual
compositions|

* Memorial
* MGV

Family|

* Molly Nyman (daughter)

Category

* Les Disques du Crépuscule
* Minimalist music
* Systems music

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