From: gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical,rec.music.misc
Subject: Pointer/Reviewish thing-"The Essential Michael Nyman Band"
Date: 27 Jan 93 02:24:56 GMT
Reply-To: gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor)
Organization: Heurikon Corporation, Madison, WI

I just thought I'd take a minute to briefly mention a new release on
Argo that some of you might find of interest: "The Essential Michael
Nyman Band" [Argo 436 820-2]. It's either a disk which highlights the
band or seeks to provided an overview of Nyman's writing for them, or
maybe both. This is Nyman's "band" - his core set of musicians who've
been with him for ages. It includes no small portion of the Balenescu
quartet, Saxophonist John Harle (who also has a recent disc on EMI of
"hommages" to Duke Ellington that some of you might find interesting),
and the whole gang, with Michael clobbering the piano as needed. We got
re-recordings of music that those of you who are longtime Nyman collectors
will have in your collections from the years that MN and the band did
their work for Virgin. There are two new pieces from the "Water Dances"
(Stroking and Synchronizing) that were not heretofore in my collection.
The works themselves stay close to the sequence of Peter Greenaway
films with which they are identified (3 from "The Draughtsman's Contract",
2 from "A Zed and Two Noughts", 2 from "The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and
her Lover", 2 of the "Water Dances" and a single piece from "Prospero's
Books). While I might not have specifically chosen the same pieces,
the single thing about this disk that positively grabs you by the 
throat is that sense of togetherness that can only come with years of
serious work together; beyond the fact that I much prefer the acoustic
space of this recording (particularly when it comes to the older 
material), the extraordinay thing about this set of recordings is the
combination of breakneck tempi, joyous abandon, and the tight turns
and "stop on a dime" playing of the MNB. Compared the this disk, the
playing on the "Draughtsman's Contract" merely clatters, and the
version of "Knowing the Ropes" from "Drowning by Numbers" is positively
turgid. When they have a chance to actually slow down to draw breath,
the production values of these sessions really shine (timbrally, this
seems a much richer set of performances than David Cunningham ever got
out of them. Although there's no producer listed, I cannot imagine that
he did these recordings - the sound and mix is just too different). 
The "Miserere Paraphrase" loses that lovely voice that *sounded* like
a boy (perhaps a woman with NO vibrato on the original recordings?)
in favor of soprano Sara Leonard and mezzo-soprano Linda Hirst. I'm
personally not quite as won over by this performance, although the
more ah.....classically inclined in your midst may really prefer it.
The two "new pieces" - the first of the "Water Dances" seems quite 
different in form and spirit to the rest of the disk. "Stroking's" 
opening chordal clusters give way to some of the best "throb over the 
ostinato" that I've ever heard from MN. It's almost.........Romantic 
(though not tonally). "Synchronizing" is a somewhat more predictable
Nyman blowfest at that dizzying tempo which dumps on Prospero's 
doorstep; a kind of jump-cut juxtaposition which opens with its high 
single-note "melody" giving way to John Harle blowing his lungs out on 
sax behind, which parts for some wordless female vocalizing, only to turn 
on yet another dime and pick up speed before dumping one on Prospero's 
doorstep.

I've of course said little about Nyman's style. His particular brand of
minimalism (if that's even what it is now) is here in spades, and I
guess this disk might provide a good (if rambunctious and "in your face")
introduction to his work. Many of you already familiar with his work
will, I suspect, find few surprises here (except perhaps for the way
that "Stroking" and "The Garden is Becoming a Robe Room" handle a little
good, old-fashioned *build*) beyond just how tight and confident the
band has become, and how *wonderful* they can sound with just a little
change in recorded ambience. As ever, your mileage may vary, but this
will certainly make it into my "classical ensembles in your face" bin
right alongside Steve Martland's arrangements of Mozart arias for his
own Nyman-like wind-driven band.



 

In article <1jstvlINNbe5@calvin.usc.edu> alves@calvin.usc.edu (William Alves) writes:
>In article <20k3!jq@rpi.edu> mccomt@aix.rpi.edu (Todd Michel McComb) writes:
>
>>Indeed.  Many well-tempered usages in modern early music recordings have
>>concentrated on versions in which thirds are given preference; as this
>>relates to specific intervals in a large group of keys, would you say
>>that this fits into your definition of well temperament or perhaps as a
>>variation on your definition of circle temperament?
>
>Most composers in the baroque seem to have preferred very consonant thirds,
>especially major thirds. (Note that the major and minor thirds in equal
>temperament are pretty far away from just thirds, while fourths and fifths
>are pretty close). This is why probably the most popular tuning system of
>the time was 1/4-comma meantone.
>
>Meantone is a type of temperament in which the tuner progresses by fifths
>or fourths, but "tempers" the fifth by a certain amount. The 1/4-comma
>refers to the amount of temperament - 1/4 of the syntonic comma or the
>difference between 4 consecutive 3/2's (fifths) and a 5/4 (major third).
>If you start at C and add just fifths until you get to E, your E will be
>about 21.5 cents sharp of a just major third C-E. If instead you subtract
>about 5 cents every time you tune a fifth, you will end up with slightly
>flat fifths, but a near-perfect third. Thus in 1/4-comma meantone, the
>thirds of the most commonly used keys are really sweet. However, by the
>time you get around the circle of fifths, you have to pay the piper. You
>will have a severely out of tune fifth - the so-called "wolf" - usually
>put between C# and Gb. Keys which use that fifth are thus pretty unusable.
>
>Well, circular, and meantone temperaments as classes don't say anything
>about the preference for certain intervals. Instead, well simply means
>all keys playable, but some the more common more playable. Circular means
>all keys playable, but the differences are spread throughout the circle
>of fifths.
>
>>Perhaps you can go on to explain enharmonicty as it relates to practical
>>tuning?  I am still not entirely clear on this.
>
>Inharmonicity is the tendency for the harmonics of stretched strings to
>get gradually more sharp due to the stiffness of the material. Because
>our ear determines pitch both through the pitch of the fundamental and
>the rest of the partials, inharmonicity can make a difference to the
>perceived pitch, depending on the relative loudness of the partials.
>
>If the fundamental is relatively weak and higher partials are relatively
>strong, the string will have to be tuned slightly sharp of the fundamental
>pitch in order to sound in tune with other strings. On the piano this
>means that the higher pitches are tuned increasingly sharp of true equal
>temperament relative to the fundamental as one moves up the keyboard. The
>effect exists but is far less noticeable on the harpsichord and other
>string instruments.
>
>Because tuning systems are normally defined in the way that pitches relate
>to one another within the octave, the piano is spoken of as having equal
>temperament. Indeed, to our ears it does. However, if one defines equal
>temperament in a much narrower, more acoustical way, then the piano is
>not precisely equally tempered. That doesn't mean that it has any other
>kind of named temperament, because they, too, are defined within a single
>octave. Nor does it mean that there is more than one kind of equal tempera-
>ment. It simply means that the piano has equal temperament with some
>adjustments across the range of the keyboard.
>
>Bill Alves


--
In the desert I prayed only for mercy, not happiness, not vindication, 
willing to settle. No price can be too high, no cruelty excessive if the 
end finds cruelty exhausted and mercy audible as a hammer's sound in rain.
Gregory Taylor/Heurikon Corporation/8310 Excelsior Drive/Madison WI 52717
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical