Talk:Michael Nyman Band

Recent English Experimental Music, Audio Arts Cassette Vol. 3, No. 2 - "The Otherwise Very Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz"

I removed this . I included it based on the claim on the 1995 Michael Nyman compilation discography. It took me a little bit to find this, as my casettes are not well organized. The crefits say nothing of the band, which is not surprising, since it's purly a piano work. For the record, the musician credits are the following: "Orlando Gough, John Lewis, Ben Mason, Michael Nyman, Dave Smith: Pianos". This album is from 1976, reprinted in 1983. The 1995 Michael Nyman album also refers to The Cold Room as being performed by the Michael Nyman Band, but the album itself is credited to the Wembley Studio Chamber Orchestra. --Scottandrewhutchins 05:37, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs

From the liner notes (online at http://www.michaelnyman.com/disco/34): ...since Saporta chose to make another Tempest-based work, I chose not to use any of the Prospero's Books material but to start a new score from scratch. I had always wondered if his unused PB material got turned into the opera. It's a plausible theory. But the "Noises" liner notes disprove it. Lontano 12:58, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Much of the music in the opera is La Traversée de Paris with vocal lines. For example, "There's Nothing Ill Can Dwell" is based on "De l'Hôtel de la Ville à la Concorde". The unused PB material is apparently what is on the album. I have seen the film only once, and only before I got the album, so I haven't been able to compare. --Scottandrewhutchins 14:15, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Now that's interesting. I suppose we should always take Nyman saying he "started from scratch" with a grain of salt -- since he's so often recycling something in some way. I don't know what to make of this now. Possibly Nyman's "rejected" PB material was a vocal-based interpretation of Traversée material as well...? Bloody postmodernists. Officially, we should go with what Nyman stated in his liner notes -- but if there's inaccuracy there... I'm going to have a listen to the opera and try to figure it out. Lontano 23:13, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Like I said, compare those two sections and it's unmistakable. I don't have the Traversée album, but I do have An Eye for a Difference, which has two cuts, including "De l'Hôtel de Ville à la Concorde". Someone posted on the Nyman mailing list a number of years back advising people to save their eBay money on Traversée, because much of it was reussed in Noises. --Scottandrewhutchins 05:42, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

That's bad advice. I advocate piracy when a disc this wonderful is no longer being sold. All the best pieces from PB with different titles, and twice as many of them. I'm thinking of creating an article for Traversée, listing which of its 17 tracks are used in PB and listing the original titles, track lengths, etc. It appears to be considered a "dismantled" work by Nyman, like the full-length Memorial: its individual movements recycled under different names in different works. So listing where and how both of those "dismantled" works were recycled might be interesting. Neither of those works have articles at all yet, anyway. I don't know if this is all too "trivial" or esoteric for Wikipedia, though. (And in the case of Memorial anyway, there seems to be no way of knowing very much about its original form.) What do you think? Lontano 13:15, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs is definitely worht of its own article because it's an opera and all operas are, from what I understand. I think a page on Traversée is definitely worth a shot. I'd love to know more about "Memorial" but I'm not sure the material in the AET, Essential, The Kiss, and Cook the Thief provide enough info to warrant an encyclopedia article. My favorite rentiditon of "Miranda" is the one with the vocal lines. Is that on Traversée? I know it has a soprano line according to michaelnyman.com.

The version of Miranda in Traversée (under the title Théâtre des ombres chinoises) has no vocals (there are two other movements in Traversée that do have a soprano part, however), is slightly slower, and has twice as much material in it. I think the version of Miranda in The Essential MNB (with the 4 sopranos) is by far the best; it just seems to be a one-off arrangement, though, unfortunately. Pretty much all I know about the original Memorial is that it was 4 or 5 movements; the fourth (?) movement was what we now know as Memorial; and one of the other movements was re-titled Images Were Introduced. You're right; not enough for its own article. I might start work on Traversée though. Lontano 00:32, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

It's not four sopranos. It's Sarah Leonard (soprano) and Linda Hirst (mezzo soprano). The rendition that is the overture to The Michael Nyman Songbook film is really good. You can see Nigel Barr really get into it.

I can definitely hear four vocal parts; maybe he "looped" Leonard & Hirst singing the sustained harmonies first, then had them sing the rhythmic "doo dah" bits live over the top. (I am curious to see the Songbook on DVD actually.) Lontano 11:01, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

By the way, does the vinyl of The Kiss and Other Movements have liner notes? The album was released in 1985, yet the liner notes mention The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover, which was still four years away. --Scottandrewhutchins 06:03, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

I never noticed that before. Lontano 11:01, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

"Ye elves" contains variations on "Miranda" --Scottandrewhutchins 22:03, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Band photo

Does anyone know who the Helen Mirren lookalike in the picture is? I'm guessing it's Cathy Thompson or Kathy Shave, though I can't find pictures of either. It might be Clare Connors, but I have access to only one good headshot of her, and if it is, she has visibiliy aged a great deal. --Scottandrewhutchins 18:17, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

La Traversée de Paris (album)

I've finished (for now) an article for La Traversée de Paris and I'm feeling very proud of myself. It's a masterpiece constructed from online translation tools, deductive logic, and pure academic pretension. There's more that might be added, especially the "Other Recordings" section, but: a) I'm not familar with Noises, Sounds; and b) I can't be bothered right now. Lontano 04:45, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

If you have the album, perhaps you can add the lineup on this page. If no lineup is given, it means I don't have the album in question. If I have it and there are no musician credits, it says "no musician credits". --Scottandrewhutchins 22:57, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't physically have the album, just the music from it, but I found the liner notes in the comprehensive discography at http://www.michaelnyman.com -- I've added the band lineup as listed there for Traversée. Lontano 02:08, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Uncredited Singers in the Essential Miranda?

From Michael Nyman's official work list on his website (http://www.michaelnyman.com/work/4):

Miranda (from Prospero's Books) -- [4'] [1990] -- Soloist(s) 2-3 Female Voices -- 2ssx(2asx).barsx:(fl:picc)/hn.tpt.btbn(euph)/pf/3vn.va.2vc/ebgtr -- First performance 127, Royal Festival Hall, London -- Sarah Leonard, Linda Hirst, Miranda Sex Garden, Michael Nyman Band.

Interesting. So Miranda Sex Garden might have been the ones responsible for the "rhythmic", scat-like vocals in the Essential Miranda. I don't know why they weren't credited in the liner notes -- maybe because MSG are signed to another record company (Warp) they were refused permission, and so couldn't be credited without their record company suing them.

Regardless, it does suggest there were other vocalists heard in that recording of "Miranda" despite only Leonard & Hirst being credited. Lontano 09:04, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

I found Kate Musker's e-mail address when working on her entry, which she asked me to remove, so it is no longer there. I asked her about this. She confirmed that there were additional singers at the session, but said that she did not know if it was MSG, and that we would have to ask them, and expect a very long time to get a response. --Scottandrewhutchins 16:41, 23 January 2007 (UTC)