The Michael Nyman Songbook

Infobox Album
Name = Songbook
Songs to Texts by Celan, Shakespeare, Mozart, Rimbaud
Type = Studio
Longtype =
Artist = Michael Nyman and Ute Lemper


Released = March 10, 1992
Recorded = 1991
Genre = art song
Length = 53:48
Label = London, Argo
Producer = David Cunningham
Reviews =
Chronology = Michael Nyman
Last album = "Prospero's Books" (1991)
This album = "Songbook" (1992)
Next album = "The Hairdresser's Husband" (1992)
Misc = Extra chronology 2
Artist = Ute Lemper
Type = Studio
Last album = "Ute Lemper Sings Kurt Weill" (1990)
This album = "The Michael Nyman Songbook" (1992)
Next album = "Illusions" (1993)

The Michael Nyman Songbook is a collection of art songs by Michael Nyman based on texts by Paul Celan, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, William Shakespeare and Arthur Rimbaud. It was recorded as an album with Ute Lemper in 1991, and again as a concert film in 1992, under the direction of Volker Schlöndorff, again with Ute Lemper, though many of the musicians had changed. The songs have been recorded by others and as instrumentals, and are published by Chester Music. The album has been issued by both London Records and Argo Records, though the covers are the same except for the logo.

The Texts

The texts are the poetry of Paul Celan in German, from the collections, "Mohn und Gedäachtnis" (1952), "Von Schwelle zu Scwelle" (1955), and "Sprachgitter" (1959), two letters and a 1787 Carnival riddle by Mozart in English for the segment by Jeremy Newsom of Artifax/BBC's "Not Mozart" titled "Letters, Riddles and Writs", Ariel songs from "The Tempest" composed for "Prospero's Books", and "L'Orgie Parisienne, ou Paris se Repeuple" by Rimbaud. All save the Mozart are performed in their original language.

The Music

The songs are officially written for "low female voice". For "Six Celan Songs", Nyman specifically wrote the pieces for Lemper. "Corona" and "Blume" "introduce an eight-bar chord sequence derived from Chopin's "Mazurka in A minor, op. 17 no. 4" (the introduction to which was used by Gorecki in his Symphony No. 3)." It was composed between May and July 1990. Nyman's mother passed on June 7, while he was writing "Blume", and he dedicated the cycle to her memory. [Nyman's own liner notes, p. 4] "I Am an Unusual Thing" "is based entirely on extracts from two of "Haydn" quartets" [ibid] and is from the opera, "Letters, Riddles and Writs". "L'Orgie parisienne" is an extract from "La Traversée de Paris".

The Album

Performed by Michael Nyman, Ute Lemper, and the Michael Nyman Band.

Track listing

Six Celan Songs (Paul Celan)
*1. Chanson einer Dame in Schatten – 6.18
*2. Es war Erde om ohnen – 4.12
*3. Psalm – 3.35
*4. Corona – 6.08
*5. Nächtlich gerzchürt – 6.27
*6. Blume – 5.44

Ariel Songs (Shakespeare)
*7. Come and go – 3.15
*8. While you here do snoring lie – 1.06
*9. Full fathom five – 4.18

10. I am an unusual thing (Mozart) – 5.18

L'Orgie Parisienne (Rimbaud)
*11. Allez! on préviendra les reflux d'incendie – 3.18
*12. Quand tes pieds ont dansé – 3.24

Credits

*Ute Lemper, vocals
*Alexander Balanescu, violin
*Elisabeth Perry, violin
*Clare Connors, violin
*Michael McMenemy, violin
*Kate Musker, viola
*Tony Hinnigan, cello
*Ruth Phillips, cello
*Tim Amherst, double bass
*Martin Elliott, bass guitar
*David Rix, clarinet, bass clarinet
*John Harle, soprano, alto saxophone
*David Roach, soprano, alto, tenor saxophone
*Andrew Findon, baritone saxophone, flute
*Graham Ashton trumpet, flugelhorn
*Marjorie Dunn, horn
*Nigel Barr, bass trombone, euphonium
*Michael Nyman, piano

*David Cunnigham, producer
*Michael J. Dutton, engineer
*Chris Brown, assistant engineer
*Philippe Garcia, assistant engineer
*Ann Bradbeer, art director
*David Smart, art director
*Don Mousseau, executive producer; artist representative for Michael Nyman

*Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London
*Mixed at Kitsch Studios, Brussels
*Mastering and editing at Transfermation and at Abbey Road

The album contains only one letter by Mozart, which is musically contiguous with the riddle after the song.

The Film

Infobox Film
name = The Michael Nyman Songbook


caption =
director = Volker Schlöndorff
producer = Eberhard Junkersdorf
writer =
narrator =
starring = Ute Lemper
Michael Nyman
John Harle
Nigel Barr
music = Michael Nyman
cinematography = Igor Luther
editing = Gisela Grischow
distributor = London Records
released = May 30, 1992
runtime = 55 minutes
country = Germany
language = German
English
French
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:81416
imdb_id = 0104862

The film was shot at the Musikhalle, Hamburg, February 4, 1992, before a live audience nearly filling the room to capacity. It includes scenes from such films as Alain Resnais's "Night and Fog" and Alexander Dovzhenko's "Earth".

*Ute Lemper
*Michael Nyman cpnductor, piano
*Beverley Davidson, violin
*Madeleine Mitchell, violn
*Ann Morfee, violin
*Catherine Musker, viola
*Tony Hinnigan, cello
*Justin Pearson, cello
*Martin Elliott, bass guitar
*David Rix, clarinet and bass clarinet
*John Harle, soprano and alto saxophone
*David Roach, soprano and alto saxophone
*Andrew Findon tenor and baritone saxophone, flute, piccolo
*Steve Sidwell, trumpet
*Marjory Dunn, horn
*Nigel Barr, bass trombone and euphonium

The film does not contain the "Ariel Songs", but includes an instrumental prelude, which is "Miranda" from "Prospero's Books". It also includes a letter from "Letters, Riddles and Writs".

The only cast credits on the film itself are to Ute Lemper and the Michael Nyman Band. The band members are credited (with Marjorie Dunn and Beverley Davison's names misspelled as above) in the order above in a booklet packaged with the videocasette and DVD. The DVD edition is coupled with "Ute Lemper Chante Kurt Weill".

References

ee also

*Six Celan Songs • The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi

External links

* [http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0104862/ The Michael Nyman Songbook] on IMDb