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When Michael Nyman published his study Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (1974, repr. 1999), he could hardly have foreseen his own contribution to that “beyond”. Disaffected with the then current orthodoxies of modernism, Nyman had abandoned composition in 1964. Having a route back to composing emerged in 1976: Harrison Birtwistle, then musical director of the National Theatre, commissioned him to provide arrangements for a production of Carlo Goldoni’s Il Campiello, for which Nyman assembled “the loudest unamplified street band” he could imagine. The band stayed together after the play’s run and evolved into the Michael Nyman band. This is the laboratory in which Nyman has formulated his compositional style around strong melodies, flexible yet assertive rhythms and precisely articulated ensemble playing.
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Nyman’s music has reached its largest audience through his film scores, most notably for Peter Greenaway, with whom he collaborated on 11 movies between 1976 and 1991(including The Draughtsman’s Contract, Drowning by Numbers). Other directors he has worked with include Jane Campion (The Piano), Volker Schlöndorff (The Ogre), Neil Jordan (The End of the Affair) and Michael Winterbottom (Wonderland, The Claim, 9 Songs, A Cock and Bull Story ).
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Recent premieres have included: I was a Total Virgin, a collaboration with Hanif Kureishi commissioned by London Sinfonietta and premiered at FuseLeeds06, and future works are to include two BBC commissions: the first to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, while the second is for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. He has written a percussion concerto for Colin Currie and is currently working on a cello concerto for Nina Kotova and a piece for orchestra and choir commissioned by BBC Symphony Orchestra that will premiere at the Barbican in March 2007.
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Michael’s latest venture is the launch of his own record label – MN Records. The label opened in spring 2005 with The Piano Sings, the composer’s debut solo piano album. This was followed by a recording of the acclaimed opera Man and Boy:Dada and the soundtrack for director Laurence Dunmore’s The Libertine. MN Records now has nine titles available.
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At every turn Nyman has proved eminently practical. Not for him the ivory tower anguish of a tormented composer grappling with abstract systems. Rather he has consistently displayed an openness to collaboration, a spry sense of humour, a literate imagination and an instinctive ability to engage a highly diverse audience.
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