The Essential Michael Nyman Band

1992 studio album by Michael Nyman

The Essential Michael Nyman Band

Cover design by Russell Warren-Fisher from a photo by Steve Pyke

Studio album by

Michael Nyman

Released| November 10, 1992 (UK)
January 19, 1993 (United States)
Recorded| 1992, JVC Victor Studios, Tokyo, Japan
Genre| Contemporary classical music, Minimalist music, film music
Length| 67:18
Language| English
Label| Argo
Michael Nyman chronology
| The Hairdresser's Husband
(1992)  | The Essential Michael Nyman Band
(1992)  | Time Will Pronounce
(1993)

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Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
Allmusic|  [1]

The Essential Michael Nyman Band is a studio album featuring a collection of music by Michael Nyman written for the films of Peter Greenaway and newly performed by the Michael Nyman Band. It is the seventeenth album release by Nyman. The album features liner notes by Annette Morreau, who describes the album as "a summation and digest of ten years of progress in the performance of music by a composer -- a composer with whom, so evidently, a group of friends and expert musicians intimately identify their total commitment, virtuosity, and joyous enthusiasm."

As the works on the album were written as concert pieces before being transmuted into film music, some of the selections, particularly "Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds" contain more material than their film versions, and some are very different in style, such as "An Eye for Optical Theory", with a tempo more than double from its original in The Draughtsman's Contract. The other films from which the music is derived are A Zed & Two Noughts (where it was originally not performed by the Michael Nyman Band), Drowning By Numbers, The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover, Making a Splash, and Prospero's Books.

Nyman created a similar album in 2005 with The Composer's Cut Series Vol. II: Nyman/Greenaway Revisited. Fan reaction has generally been that The Essential Michael Nyman Band is the superior album.[citation needed]

## Track listing

[edit]

1. Chasing sheep is best left to shepherds
2. An eye for optical theory
3. The garden is becoming a robe room
4. Prawn watching
5. Time lapse
6. Fish Beach
7. Wheelbarrow Walk
8. Knowing the Ropes
9. Miserere paraphrase
10. Memorial
11. Stroking
Synchronizing
12. Miranda

Tracks 1-3 from The Draughtsman's Contract. Tracks 4-5 from A Zed and Two Noughts. Tracks 6-8 from Drowning by Numbers. Tracks 9-10 from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Track 11 from Making a Splash. Track 12 from Prospero's Books. "Stroking" is not the same piece that was known as "Stroking" on, The Kiss and Other Movements, but rather, "Gliding."

### An Eye for Optical Theory

[edit]

Track 2, An Eye for Optical Theory, is based on a four-bar harmonic frame likely originally composed by William Croft. Nyman employs the syncopated potential of the original by adding the two saxophones to layer textures consisting of individual ‘collections’ of melodies over a constantly-changing backing track in the remaining ensemble. This gives rise to a strident melodic line in the upper strings.[2]

## Personnel

[edit]

* Alexander Balanescu, Clare Connors, Ann Morphy, violin
* Kate Musker, viola
* Tony Hinnigan, Justin Pearson, cello
* Martin Elliott, bass guitar
* John Harle, David Roach, soprano & alto saxophone
* Andrew Findon, baritone saxophone, flute, piccolo
* Steve Sidwell, trumpet
* Marjorie Dunn, horn
* Nigel Barr, bass trombone, euphonium
* John Lenehan, piano
* Michael Nyman, piano (tracks 1, 2, 3, 11, 12)
* Sarah Leonard, soprano (tracks 9, 10, 12)
* Linda Hirst, mezzo-soprano (track 12)
* Photographs courtesy of the Tokyo Globe Theatre

This recording made at the JVC Victor Studios, Tokyo

* Engineer: Michael J. Dutton
* Mixed at Kitsch Studio, Brussels
* Edited by Michael J. Dutton at Abbey Road Studios, London
* Publishers: Chester Music Ltd/Kelly Music Ltd; EG Music Ltd (track 11)
* Art direction: David Smart
* Cover design by Russell Warren-Fisher from a photo by Steve Pyke

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Allmusic review
2. ^ An Eye for Optical Theory Chester Music

* v
* t
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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

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

|

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