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Michael Nyman
On Tour139,211 listeners (1,787,347 plays)
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soundtrack, classical, piano, minimalism, contemporary classical… see all
Michael Nyman (born March 23, 1944) is a British minimalist composer, pianist, librettist and musicologist, perhaps best known for the many scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the British filmmaker Peter Greenaway.
Nyman, who had studied with the noted Baroque music scholar Thurston Dart at King’s College london, drew frequently on early music sources in his scores for Greenaway’s films: Henry Purcell in The Draughtsman’s Contract and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber in A Zed and Two Noughts, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Drowning by Numbers, and John Dowland in Prospero’s Books.
Nyman’s popularity increased significantly after he wrote the score to Jane Campion’s award-winning 1993 film The Piano. The album (“The Piano”) became a classical music best-seller. Although Nyman’s score was central to the movie he did not receive an Academy Award nomination despite being nominated for both a British Academy Award and a Golden Globe. He has scored numerous other films, the vast majority of them art films from Europe. His few forays into Hollywood composing have been Gattaca (“Gattaca”), Ravenous (with musician Damon Albarn), and The End of the Affair (“The End of The Affair”).
Among Nyman’s better known non-film works are Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs (1987), for soprano, alto, tenor and instrumental ensemble (based on Nyman’s score for La Princesse de Milan); Ariel Songs (1990) for soprano and band; MGV (Musique à Grande Vitesse) (1993) for band; concertos for piano (based on The Piano score), harpsichord, trombone and saxophone; the opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1986), based on a case-study by Oliver Sacks; and several string quartets.
Nyman, who had studied with the noted Baroque music scholar Thurston Dart at King’s College london, drew frequently on early music sources in his scores for Greenaway’s films: Henry Purcell in The Draughtsman’s Contract and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber in A Zed and Two Noughts, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Drowning by Numbers, and John Dowland in Prospero’s Books.
Nyman’s popularity increased significantly after he wrote the score to Jane Campion’s award-winning 1993 film The Piano. The album (“The Piano”) became a classical music best-seller. Although Nyman’s score was central to the movie he did not receive an Academy Award nomination despite being nominated for both a British Academy Award and a Golden Globe. He has scored numerous other films, the vast majority of them art films from Europe. His few forays into Hollywood composing have been Gattaca (“Gattaca”), Ravenous (with musician Damon Albarn), and The End of the Affair (“The End of The Affair”).
Among Nyman’s better known non-film works are Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs (1987), for soprano, alto, tenor and instrumental ensemble (based on Nyman’s score for La Princesse de Milan); Ariel Songs (1990) for soprano and band; MGV (Musique à Grande Vitesse) (1993) for band; concertos for piano (based on The Piano score), harpsichord, trombone and saxophone; the opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1986), based on a case-study by Oliver Sacks; and several string quartets.
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See moreVideos
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Play
Michael Nyman - The Piano
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Play
Michael Nyman - The heart asks the pleasure first
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Play
The Piano
Top Albums
Shoutbox
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01010100 wrote:
@zcor : agree, but if you look at the charts, top 15 are all tracks from The Piano while some songs from Gattaca like The Arrival or The Other Side are clearly among Nyman's best works.
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XylophonePotato wrote:
Does anybody have the sheet music for The Heart Asks Pleasure First? That would be handy-dandy-notebook.
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zcor wrote:
how come? it's his second most listened album in last.fm
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01010100 wrote:
why is the Gattaca score so underrated? :(
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inaenka wrote:
Krzysztofie, który grałeś mi to tak często w 1999 roku, nie zapomniałam, dziękuję!
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pimmka wrote:
Amazing meeting with Michael Nyman and his Band yesterday in Wroclaw.. Thank you. Thank you very much, Maestro :}
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nDroae wrote:
Now that you mention it, that picture would totally fit in this Dark Knight banner.... http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aynranddarkknightposterav3.jpg
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witnessclouding wrote:
the current picture creeps me out. wait, most of his pictures creep me out.
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nDroae wrote:
To any fan of The Piano I would recommend Nyman's rearrangement of the score into a concerto (NYMAN: Piano Concerto / Where the Bee Dances). I actually find it an even more fulfilling listen than the original score.
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S_o_o_t_y wrote:
Australian Post-classical music, check it.... http://www.last.fm/music/The+Gilmour+Ensemble
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Shy-Guy wrote:
I just came here to listen to "Chasing Sheep, etc, etc"
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Epitymbidia wrote:
I highly recommend "The Claim", wich is probably my favorite Nyman score, showing him as a dramatist with a great gift for subtlety. The whole score has an impressively wonderful cumulative effect, a phantastic maine theme, combined with a most moving and hauntingly beautiful female vocal motive (the vocalist of which unfortunately is uncredited, but I think it must be Sarah Leonard as often, no?).
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umlauter wrote:
i'm just rediscovering the piano soundtrack - it is absolutely sublime. which work of his should i listen to next?
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xSynergy wrote:
the heart asks pleasure first - stunning. the gattaca soundtrack is also amazing
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SweenBabylonica wrote:
Oh please let us download the heart asks pleasure first!!
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DreamingToFly wrote:
magical, incredible!!
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SEEK333 wrote:
i need help to find the Autor of this instrumental classical Piano piece. You can listen two parts here: http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=audio&file=piano2.wav http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=audio&file=806piano1.wav May be something like win mertens or similar.. HELP
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zaebalsia wrote:
''Debbie'' <3<3<3
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AuRevoirHelen wrote:
I had listened to The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover soundtrack before I even saw the film but now that I've seen it the score has so much more meaning. I love both the movie and the music so much. I just can't stop listening to Memorial which as a song is almost as disturbing as the film but you still can't help loving it :)
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XLV wrote:
It's sad to see artists selling their songs for use in advertising. To uneducated souls like myself, it's what they become known for. I loved Deep Into the Forest but Lloyds TSB completely ruined it.
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Events
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Oct
18
UNSOUND Festival 2008
Kraków, Cracow, Poland
287 shouts
| 733 attendees -
Mar
20
Cross-Linx
Muziekcentrum Frits Philips, Eindhoven, Netherlands
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| 1 attendee
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Mar
20
Crosslinx 2009
Effenaar, Eindhoven, Netherlands
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| 5 attendees
Recent Activity
- arcadio4, PaniKy, breizh29 and 5 other people added Michael Nyman to their libraries. 5 minutes ago
- mmmhh tagged Michael Nyman with ‘20th century classical’ and ‘classical’. yesterday morning
- thesipandic connected Michael Nyman to the group Avant-music. yesterday morning
- Tatkas tagged Michael Nyman with ‘minimalism’ and ‘piano’. yesterday morning
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- Elikrotupos connected Michael Nyman to the group Soundtrack Forum. Wednesday morning
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