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Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman.
Born	March 23, 1944 London, England
Occupation	Minimalist composer, pianist
Spouse	Aet Nyman
Children	Molly Nyman, Martha Nyman

Michael Laurence Nyman (born March 23, 1944 London) is an English 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.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Personal life 3 Career highlights 4 Works 5 Music for films, television, and video games 6 Nyman's music re-used 7 Selected recordings 8 External links 8.1 Listening

He studied music composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1969, he provided the libretto for Harrison Birtwistle's opera, Down by the Greenwood Side and directed the short film Love Love Love before settling into music criticism, where he is generally acknowledged to have been the first to apply the term "minimalism" to music (in a 1968 article in The Spectator magazine about the English composer Cornelius Cardew). He wrote introductions for George Frideric Handel's Concerto Grossi, Op. 6 and conducted the most important interview with George Brecht in 1976.

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, 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 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, Ravenous (with musician Damon Albarn), and The End of the Affair. He wrote settings to various texts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for "Letters, Riddles, and Writs", part of Not Mozart. He has also produced a soundtrack for the silent film Man with the Movie Camera.

Among Nyman's better known non-film works are the opera Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs (1987), for soprano, alto, tenor and instrumental ensemble (based on Nyman's score for the ballet La Princesse de Milan); Ariel Songs (1990) for soprano and band; MGV (Musique à Grande Vitesse) (1993) for band and orchestra; concertos for saxophone, piano (based on The Piano score), violin, harpsichord, trombone, and saxophone & cello recorded by John Harle and Julian Lloyd Webber; the opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1986), based on a case-study by Oliver Sacks; and four string quartets. Recently, he produced a new opera on the subject of cloning on a libretto by Victoria Hardie titled Facing Goya, an expansion of their one-act opera Vital Statistics. The lead, a widowed art banker, is written for contralto and the role was first created by Hilary Summers. His newest opera is titled Man and Boy: Dada, on a libretto by Michael Hastings.

On children's television shows, he has created the music for Katie and Orbie and Titch.

Many of Nyman's works are written for his own ensemble, the Michael Nyman Band, a group formed for a 1976 production of Carlo Goldoni's Il Campiello. Originally made up of old instruments such as rebecs and shawms alongside more modern instruments like the saxophone in order to produce as loud a sound as possible without amplification, it later switched to a fully amplified lineup of string quartet, three saxophones, trumpet, horn, bass trombone, bass guitar and piano. This line up has been variously altered and augmented for some works.

Nyman also published an influential book in 1974 on experimental music called Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond (Catalan, Spanish and French translations), which explored the influence of John Cage on classical composers. In the 1970s, Nyman was a member of the infamous Portsmouth Sinfonia — the self-described World's Worst Orchestra — playing on their recordings and in their concerts. He was the featured pianist on the orchestra's recording of Bridge Over Troubled Waters on the Martin Lewis-produced 20 Classic Rock Classics album on which the Sinfonia gave their unique interpretations to the pop and rock repertoire of the 1950s-1970s. Nyman created a similar group called Foster's Social Orchestra, which specialized in the work of Stephen Foster. One of their tracks appeared in the film Ravenous and an additional track, not used in the film, appeared on the soundtrack album.

He has also recorded pop music, with the Flying Lizards.

He is married to Aet Nyman and has two daughters, Molly and Martha. His first string quartet quotes "Unchained Melody" in homage to Aet, who appears in Greenaway's The Falls, for which he also composed music. Molly is a composer in her own right; in collaboration with Harry Escott she has written several film scores including for The Road to Guantanamo by her father's frequent collaborator, Michael Winterbottom. Martha is a development researcher for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Micheal Nyman supports Queens Park Rangers football club.

• 1961-67 - Studies at the Royal Academy of Music and King's College, London.
• 1968-78 - Works as music critic (becoming first person to apply the word "minimalist" to music).
• 1976 - Founds the Campiello Band (now the Michael Nyman Band) and embarks on eleven-film collaboration with Peter Greenaway.
• 1981 - Releases first Michael Nyman Band album.
• 1993 - Soundtrack for The Piano wins an Ivor Novello Award and goes on to sell over three million copies.
• 2002-2005 - Composer-in-Residence at Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany, who performed three Nyman operas and more tunes for his daughters.

• 1974 - Bell Set No. 1 (multiple metal percussion)
• 1976 - 1-100 (4-6 pianos)
• 1976 - Waltz in F (variable)
• 1977 - In Re Don Giovanni (ensemble)
• 1978 - The Otherwise Very Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz (multiple pianos)
• 1979 - 'The Masterwork' Award-Winning Fish-Knife (ensemble)
• 1980 - A Neat Slice of Time (choir)
• 1981 - Think Slow, Act Fast (ensemble)
• 1981 - Five Orchestral Pieces for Opus Tree (band*) (based on Anton Webern's Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 10)
• 1981 - M-Work (band)
• 1981 - 2 Violins
• 1982 - Four Saxes (Real Slow Drag) (saxophone quartet)
• 1983 - Love is Certainly, at Least Alphabetically Speaking (soprano and band)
• 1983 - A Handsome, Smooth, Sweet, Smart, Clear Stroke: Or Else Play Not At All (orchestra)
• 1983 - Time's Up (chamber ensemble)
• 1983 - I'll Stake My Cremona to a Jew's Trump (electric violin and viola, both players also simultaneously singing)
• 1984 - The Abbess of Andouillets (choir)
• 1985 - Nose-List Song (soprano and orchestra) [this and the above two works are from an unfinished opera setting of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, which Nyman has repeatedly cited as his all-time favorite book]
• 1985 - Child's Play (2 violins; harpsichord)
• 1985 - String Quartet No. 1
• 1986 - Taking a Line for a Second Walk (for orchestra or piano duet)
• 1986 - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (opera; libretto by Christopher Rawlence; adapted from the Oliver Sacks case study by Nyman, Rawlence, and Michael Morris)
• 1986 - And Do They Do (modern dance, 1986)
• 1987 - Vital Statistics (opera; libretto by Victoria Hardie)
• 1988 - String Quartet No. 2
• 1989 - Out of the Ruins (choir)
• 1989 - La Traversée de Paris (soprano and band)
• 1989 - The Fall of Icarus (band)
• 1989 - L'Orgie Parisienne Arthur Rimbaud setting (soprano or mezzo soprano and orchestra)
• 1990 - Shaping the Curve (soprano saxophone, string quartet or piano)
• 1990 - Six Celan Songs (contralto and orchestra)
• 1990 - Polish Love Song (soprano and piano)
• 1990 - String Quartet No. 3
• 1991 - Where the Bee Dances (soprano saxophone and orchestra)
• 1991 - Fluegelhorn and Piano
• 1992 - Time Will Pronounce (violin, cello, and piano)
• 1992 - For John Cage (brass ensemble)
• 1992 - Self-Laudatory Hymn of Inanna and Her Omnipotence (alto and string orchestra or countertenor and viol consort)
• 1992 - The Convertibility of Lute Strings (solo harpsichord)
• 1992 - Anne de Lucy Songs (soprano and piano)
• 1992 - The Upside-Down Violin (orchestra/ensemble)
• 1993 - MGV: Musique à grande vitesse (band and orchestra)
• 1993 - The Piano Concerto (piano and orchestra)
• 1993 - Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs (1993; opera-ballet setting William Shakespeare's The Tempest)
• 1993 - Yamamoto Perpetuo (violin solo)
• 1993 - Songs for Tony (saxophone quartet)
• 1994 - To Morrow (soprano or soprano saxophone, organ)
• 1994 - Three Quartets (ensemble)
• 1994 - Concerto for Trombone (trombone, orchestra, and steel filing cabinets)
• 1995 - String Quartet No. 4
• 1995 - Tango for Tim (In memoriam Tom Suster) (harpsichord)
• 1995 - The Waltz Song (unison voices)
• 1995 - Viola and Piano
• 1995 - Grounded (mezzo-soprano, saxophones, violin, piano)
• 1995 - HRT [High Rise Terminal] (chamber ensemble)
• 1995 - Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings
• 1995 - Double Concerto for Saxophone and Cello (saxophone, cello, and orchestra)
• 1996 - After Extra Time (ensemble)
• 1997 - Strong on Oaks, Strong on the Causes of Oaks (orchestra)
• 1997 - The Promise (piano)
• 1998 - Cycle of Disquietude (Coisas, Vozes, Lettras) (soprano, mezzo-soprano, and band)
• 1998 - Orfeu (band)
• 1998 - De Granada A La Luna (band)
• 1999 - The Comissar Vanishes (band)
• 2000 - Facing Goya (opera; libretto by Victoria Hardie)
• 2001 - a dance he little thinks of (orchestra)
• 2003 - Violin Concerto (violin and orchestra)
• 2003 - Man and Boy: Dada (opera)
• 2007 - A Handshake in the Dark (choral piece with orchestra; text by Jamal Jumá [world premiere 8 March 2007, Barbican, London, performed by the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, John Storgards conducting])

*originally recorded by Nyman, Ned Sublette, Susan Krongold, Barbara Benary, Jon Gibson, Richard Cohen, Virgil Blackwell, Peter Zummo, and Peter Gordon at The Kitchen, and intended for Peter Greenaway's short film, The Tree.

• 5 Postcards from Capital Cities (1967)
• Goole by Numbers (1976)
• Keep It Up Downstairs (1976)
• Tom Phillips (1977)
• A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist (1978)
• Vertical Features Remake (1978)
• 1-100 (1978)
• The Falls (1980)
• Act of God (1980)
• Terence Conran (1981)
• The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
• Brimstone & Treacle (1982) (collaboration with Sting)
• Nelly's Version (1983)
• The Coastline (1983)
• Making a Splash (1984)
• The Cold Room (1984)
• Fairly Secret Army (1984)
• A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)
• The Kiss (1985)
• Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London & Oxfordshire, 1985 (1985)
• L'Ange frénétique (1985)
• Ballet mécanique (1986 score; 1921 film)
• I'll Stake My Cremona to a Jew's Trump (1986)
• The Disputation (1986)
• Le Miraculé (1987)
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1987)
• Fear of Drowning (1988)
• Death in the Seine (1988)
• Drowning by Numbers (1988)
• Out of the Ruins (1989)
• Hubert Bals Handshake (1989)
• Monsieur Hire (1989)
• The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
• Men of Steel (1990)
• Les Enfants volants (1990)
• The Hairdresser's Husband (1990)
• Ich war ein glücklicher Mensch (1991)
• Prospero's Books (1991)
• Not Mozart: Letters, Riddles and Writs (1991)
• The Fall of Icarus (1992)
• The Final Score (1992)
• The Piano (1993)
• Mesmer (1994)
• À la folie (1994)
• The Diary of Anne Frank (1995)
• Carrington (1995)
• The Ogre (1996)
• Enemy Zero (1996)
• Anzar (1997)
• Gattaca (1997)
• Titch (1998)
• Practical Magic (1998) (unused score; 2 cuts made it onto early soundtrack pressings)
• Ravenous (1999) (collaboration with Damon Albarn)
• Wonderland (1999)
• Nabbie's Love (1999)
• The End of the Affair (1999)
• Act Without Words I (2000)
• The Claim (2000)
• Man with a Movie Camera (1929 film; 2001 score)
• Subterrain (2001)
• Haute fidélité (2001)
• 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman (2001)
• The Actors (2003)
• Nathalie... (2003)
• Luminal (2004)
• The Libertine (2004)
• Jestem (2005)
• A Cock and Bull Story (2006) (original arrangement of George Frideric Handel's "Sarabande"; re-used recordings from The Draughtsman's Contract)

• Nyman's "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" (from The Piano) was used as backing music for one of the bank advertisements for Lloyds TSB broadcast on television. It has also been featured in episodes of 20/20.
• "Sheep & Tides" (from Drowning by Numbers) was featured in a commercial in which a woman smashes a man's car.
• Music from Ravenous has been used at least once on WFYI's Across Indiana, in a segment titled "On the Trail of John Hunt Morgan", produced by Scott Andrew Hutchins.
• Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story contains music from The Draughtsman's Contract, as well as Nyman's arrangements of classical music used in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (it does not use any music from Nyman's Tristram Shandy opera).
• Nyman's music for Peter Greenaway's films has been used in the Japanese television program Iron Chef.
• Popular "Chasing Sheep is Best Left to Shepherds" (from The Draughtsman's Contract) constituted the main theme of Spanish TV program Queremos Saber, presented by Mercedes Milà in the nineties.
• Nyman features in 'Nine Songs' (Michaeil Winterbottom, 2004) playing at the Royal Albert Hall.
• Nyman's MGV: Music a grande vitesse was used in Novermber 2006 for a new 1-act ballet for the Royal Ballet in London, DGV (dance a grande vitesse) by Christopher Wheeldon.

• Man and Boy: Dada - MN Records 102
• The Very Best of Michael Nyman Film Music 1980-2001 - Virgin EMI CDVED957
• String Quartets Nos 1-3 - Decca 4730912

• Michael Nyman official site
• Do You Like Me Now?
• Michael Nyman's homepage at Chester Music
• Michael Nyman at the Internet Movie Database
• The Power of the Cadence: Michael Nyman in conversation with Robert Davidson

• Michael Nyman audio at Internet Archive