Michael Nyman's musical style for 'The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat'
Posted by Grace Cho at 10:57 AM |
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Nyman’s opera, ‘The Man who Mistook his wife for a Hat (1986),’ based on the book by Oliver Sacks, amply demonstrates his musical style in its use of variation and modular form. And this work also describes lyrical vocal lines over restless, chugging, repetitive phrases and doublings of tonal primary-colored chords within regularly repeated harmonic blocks. Besides, unexpected metrical shifts and harmonic angularities suggest a curious conjunction between Stravinsky and rock and roll.
Even though he expresses on his knowledge and experience of American minimalism, his distinctive elements for his musical language set it apart from those influences. He has spoken of his more’ intuitive’ approach to process, in which ‘the ear rather than the process is the initial and final arbiter.’ Moreover, the prominence of the bass in his music, as well as suggesting the influence of rock, creates a harmonic stability and rootness more characteristic of the European tonal tradition than of American minimalism. It is this often curious confluence of classical harmonic functions and rock rhythms and textures that provides Nyman’s music with a rich and effective fusion of the codes of high and popular art.
Nyman’s opera, ‘The Man who Mistook his wife for a Hat (1986),’ based on the book by Oliver Sacks, amply demonstrates his musical style in its use of variation and modular form. And this work also describes lyrical vocal lines over restless, chugging, repetitive phrases and doublings of tonal primary-colored chords within regularly repeated harmonic blocks. Besides, unexpected metrical shifts and harmonic angularities suggest a curious conjunction between Stravinsky and rock and roll.
Even though he expresses on his knowledge and experience of American minimalism, his distinctive elements for his musical language set it apart from those influences. He has spoken of his more’ intuitive’ approach to process, in which ‘the ear rather than the process is the initial and final arbiter.’ Moreover, the prominence of the bass in his music, as well as suggesting the influence of rock, creates a harmonic stability and rootness more characteristic of the European tonal tradition than of American minimalism. It is this often curious confluence of classical harmonic functions and rock rhythms and textures that provides Nyman’s music with a rich and effective fusion of the codes of high and popular art.
