Michael Nyman

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Michael Nyman, uh-

Yeah

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But, uh, yes, in my music I don't try to emulate this kind of, uh, of a, uh, of a experience because it's really difficult to do it.

But for sure the repetition, so the, the minimalist, uh, repetition, you, you speak about Philip Glass.

I love a lot Steve Reich, for example, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, all these minimalist people that, uh, um, make this music that, that is incredible repetitive.

I love a lot Robert Fripp, for example-

Yeah.

For music, we had, uh, Michael Nyman and David Albarn.

Um, prior to this film, uh, Michael did one of my all-time favorites, and uh, if my brother is listening, I know this is his, his, one of his favorites of all time as well, Gattaca in 1997.

Uh, a film that we probably have to talk about sometime.

I should check it out again.

I think it's in my pile of books.

Uh, fourth fact, the haunting, erratic musical score composed by Blur frontman, uh, Damon Albarn, and composed by Michael Nyman, they deliberately used traditional 19th century folk and period instruments to create the unsettling, um, and modern-sounding clash of everything.

And so really, as the characters descend, the music is more and more sort of, like, eerie, and, uh, I don't know how to explain it, but, like, it, uh, it's almost, like, non-functional.

Ja, if you wouldn't mind first taking this on, could you explain what music we're going to be listening to and how it first came into your mind that this might be the kind of thing that a Jekyll and Hyde ballet might be born from?

So the music is by Michael Nyman, who is a composer that I have been enamored by and kind of immersed into since I was a kid.

Lots of choreographers have used his work for different ballets throughout my life, some that I've had the honor of being in, some that I've had the honor of seeing.

So his music has always been a part of my life.

It's been a part of my life for a long time.

And so in creating the season, I came to Richard and I said, what do you think about Jekyll and Hyde? And Richard was on board for it.

And so when I thought about the music, I immediately thought about the Michael Nyman score for the McQueen movie, because like I said, it gives you so much vibe of London and Scotland.

And that's where this whole story is taking place.

One thing I will say, though, is the music is very, very good.

In the next hour and a bit, you're going to hear works by Arthur Bliss, William Walton, Arnold Bax, Virgil Thompson, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Maurice Jarre, Toru Takemitsu, Michael Nyman, and John Corigliano.

But I am going to start with a composer whose name you might not associate with film music, Camille Saint-Saëns.

In the early 1900s, some stage productions were starting to blend live performers with magic lantern slides and projected film, all accompanied by live music.

Fortunately, Rick started speaking to me again some years later.

But for all that, the music for the film was and remains wonderful.

Michael Nyman, who worked with Greenaway on most of his movies and is also a composer of operas, chamber music, and symphonic works, used some material from the English Renaissance composer John Dowland for Prospero's Books.

But if you know his music, I think you will agree.

Hold On from Elysium is based entirely on Handel's eternal source of light divine.

Love is a Bourgeois Construct interpolates Michael Nyman's Chasing Sheep is Best Left to Shepherds.

which itself is based on Purcell and all over the world does the same with Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker.

Yeah, Chris used to tell journalists in the early days that he sometimes used to try and channel the spirit of Tchaikovsky whenever he was composing and that it worked.

oh

yeah um and then when we lived together you also had the score on on cd the score by michael nyman and damon albarn is that right um and then i think i might have bought the dvd first i don't remember yeah um and yeah that's been a a touchstone and that's

uh

Natalie and I were, you know, we were on a road trip, you know, not a long one, but we were driving out to the desert and we were listening to podcasts as we sometimes do.

Oscar-nominated score for The Mission in 1986, they became frequent collaborators with composer James Horner, breathing life into soundtracks for Willow in 1988, Field of Dreams in 1989, Patriot Games in 1992, Clear and Present Danger in 1994, and Legends of the Fall in 1994 as well.

Tony Hinnigan additionally lent his wind instrument expertise to the compositions of Michael Nyman.

The core duo of Taylor and Hinnigan parted ways in 1996, ending a musical partnership that had lasted nearly 25 years.

Because this is our only entry for Incantation on the podcast, we salute them for bringing llama toenails, Bolivian instrument craft and the haunting beauty of the Andes directly into the British Top 20 and briefly into our homes.

And the first one, we had new commissions by the likes of Ryoji Akita, Gina Sanecki, Karsten Nicolai.

We got Michael Nyman to come in and direct kind of a live action version of his Gattaca soundtrack with the Northern Sinfonia.

You know, we were doing work in the public realm there.

In the second edition, that was where I was able to kind of deepen my fascination with broadcasting as a curatorial topic.