Michael Nyman: Music for Two Pianos
The Zoo Duet
Signum Records is proud to release its first volume of music devoted to
one of Britain's best known composers Michael Nyman. The Zoo Duet perform
music for two pianos. Nn one has played a greater role in bridging the
divide between the worlds of classical and popular music than
Michael Nyman. He has combined Purcell and Mozart, 1950s rock ‘n’ roll,
ancient Sumerian quasi-feminist texts, Queens Park Rangers Football Club
and innumerable other diverse musical and cultural sources to produce a
style of composition which is romantic, eclectic, occasionally chaotic,
but uniquely
his own. Like the best classical, jazz or pop music, Nyman’s output does
stand up to closer analysis, but the secret of its appeal lies not in the
field of academic, but rather in its ability to speak to a large and
culturally diverse audience. Taking a Line for a Second Walk began life
in 1986 as an orchestral work from the Houston Ballet. The Water Dances,
originally written for Peter Greenaway’s film Making a Splash and
appearing here in its five-movement form for the first time, is in part
derived from a chord progression taken from a Monteverdi madrigal.
Michael Nyman has demonstrated that it is possible to write progressive
and challenging new music without alienating a large part of the classical
audience while attracting an even broader rock- and pop-orientated public. |
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