The Essential Michael Nyman Band

The Essential Michael Nyman Band
Cover design by Russell Warren-Fisher from a photo by Steve Pyke
Studio album by Michael Nyman
Released	November 10, 1992 (UK) January 19, 1993 (United States)
Recorded	1992, , Tokyo, Japan
Genre	Contemporary classical music, Minimalist music, film music
Length	67:18
Language	English
Label	Argo
Michael Nyman chronology
The Hairdresser's Husband (1992) The Essential Michael Nyman Band (1992) Time Will Pronounce (1993)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

The Essential Michael Nyman Band is a studio album featuring a collection of music by Michael Nyman written for the films of Peter Greenaway and newly performed by the Michael Nyman Band. It is the seventeenth album release by Nyman. The album features liner notes by , who describes the album as "a summation and digest of ten years of progress in the performance of music by a composer -- a composer with whom, so evidently, a group of friends and expert musicians intimately identify their total commitment, virtuosity, and joyous enthusiasm."

As the works on the album were written as concert pieces before being transmuted into film music, some of the selections, particularly "Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds" contain more material than their film versions, and some are very different in style, such as "An Eye for Optical Theory", with a tempo more than double from its original in The Draughtsman's Contract. The other films from which the music is derived are A Zed & Two Noughts (where it was originally not performed by the Michael Nyman Band), Drowning By Numbers, The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover, , and Prospero's Books.

Nyman created a similar album in 2005 with The Composer's Cut Series Vol. II: Nyman/Greenaway Revisited. Fan reaction has generally been that The Essential Michael Nyman Band is the superior album.^{[citation needed]}

Track listing[]

1. Chasing sheep is best left to shepherds
2. An eye for optical theory
3. The garden is becoming a robe room
4. Prawn watching
5. Time lapse
6. Fish Beach
7. Wheelbarrow Walk
8. Knowing the Ropes
9. Miserere paraphrase
10. Memorial
11. Stroking
    Synchronizing
12. Miranda

Tracks 1-3 from The Draughtsman's Contract. Tracks 4-5 from A Zed and Two Noughts. Tracks 6-8 from Drowning by Numbers. Tracks 9-10 from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Track 11 from . Track 12 from Prospero's Books. "Stroking" is not the same piece that was known as "Stroking" on, The Kiss and Other Movements, but rather, "Gliding."

An Eye for Optical Theory[]

Track 2, An Eye for Optical Theory, is based on a four-bar harmonic frame likely originally composed by William Croft. Nyman employs the syncopated potential of the original by adding the two saxophones to layer textures consisting of individual ‘collections’ of melodies over a constantly-changing backing track in the remaining ensemble. This gives rise to a strident melodic line in the upper strings.^[2]

Personnel[]

• Alexander Balanescu, Clare Connors, Ann Morphy, violin
• , viola
• Tony Hinnigan, Justin Pearson, cello
• , bass guitar
• John Harle, David Roach, soprano & alto saxophone
• Andrew Findon, baritone saxophone, flute, piccolo
• Steve Sidwell, trumpet
• Marjorie Dunn, horn
• Nigel Barr, bass trombone, euphonium
• , piano
• Michael Nyman, piano (tracks 1, 2, 3, 11, 12)
• Sarah Leonard, soprano (tracks 9, 10, 12)
• , mezzo-soprano (track 12)
• Photographs courtesy of the

This recording made at the , Tokyo

• Engineer:
• Mixed at , Brussels
• Edited by Michael J. Dutton at Abbey Road Studios, London
• Publishers: /; (track 11)
• Art direction:
• Cover design by from a photo by Steve Pyke

References[]