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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. If works for the Michael Nyman Band have dominated his output, the composer has written for a wide variety of ensembles, including symphony orchestra, a cappella chorus and string quartet. He has written several stage works, notably The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat (1986), derived from a case study by Oliver Sacks; and has provided music for such distinguished choreographers as Siobhan Davies, Shobana Jeyasingh, Lucinda Childs, Karine Saporta and Stephen Petronio. His music has reached its largest audience by way of his film scores, most famously for Peter Greenaway, with whom he collaborated on eleven movies between 1976 and 1991. Other directors with whom he has worked include Jane Campion (The Piano, 1992), Volker Schlöndorff (The Orga, 1996), Neil Jordan (The End of the Affair, 1999) and Michael Winterbottom (Wonderland, 1999). He also collaborated with Damon Albarn on the music for Antonia Bird's Ravenous (1998). Nyman has provided music for a fashion show (Yamamoto Perpetuo for designer Yohji Yamamoto, (1993), the opening of a high-speed rail lin (MGV, 1993) and a computer game (Enemy Zero, 1996), That sensitivity to occasion is enriched by a talent, shared with baroque composers, for refiguration: the Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings develops ideas encountered in The Convertibility of Lute Strings and Tango for Tim; the Third String Quartet lies behind the score for Christopher Hamton's 1996 movie Carrington. The music multi-video event The Commissar Vanishes, based on David King's book about Stalinist manipulation of photographic documents, received its first performance in London in December 1999, and the opera facing Goya will be premiered

in Spain in August 2000. Nyman is now at work on The Only Witness an opera based on a neurological study of a painter with Tourette's Syndrome and, like The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, with a libretto by Christopher Rawlence, 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. Iz razgovora M. N. sa Nikolom Šuicom na Radio Beogradu "Kada sam pročitao Sacksov tekst odvojio sam da u delove: pregled, cipela, šešir, epizoda s rukavicom ill dogadaj s ružom, kao kod performansa grupe Fluxus i Georga Brechta. To su bili događaji s šeširom ili partijom šaha i svi su se kao muzičke epizode nizaii i sami dovršavali. Sakupio sam ih tako da u ukupnom muzičkom, ali i dramskom, toku mogu da budu u medusobnom odnosu. Nastaia je zbirka varijacija koje su u osnovi sledile Sacksovu priču, a na drugim nivoima predstavljaie muziku kroz sve nedostatke junakove percepcije. Želeo sam, a bio je to i konceptualni zadatak, postepeno da potisnem muziku i tako stvorim prazninu, koja predstavlja odraz junakovog sveta. Napravio sam nešto nalik obrnutoj muzičkoj analizi: počeo sam bogatom i intenzivnom muzikom, da bi kroz seriju varijacija muzika nestala, a sve se završava ogoljenom strukturom. Želeo sam da izdvojim junakov muzički svet, što sam učinio koristeći Šumanove pesme, kao je i sam Sacks opisao u studiji. Pouzdanje, vedrina i osobenost Dr P. ispoljavaju se kroz Šumanovu muziku. Koristio sam nekad celu pesmu iz zbirke Dichterliebe, nekad fragment ili nadogradnju koju sam komponovao”