cor anglais and french horns
Monday, November 15th, 2010 | tags: 1997, Bristol, darned French, Ian McEwan, Michael Nyman, mumzie, music video |The opening piece of the evening was Morrow from Gattaca (re-used as a ‘theme’ in the film Atonement). Mistaking the track for Departure, within minutes tears were streaming down my face.
wendy: I first fell in love with Nyman’s music in 1983 when I saw the Draughtsman contract
mumsie: I remember, you’ve been playing Nyman’s music to me ever since
As we talk I realise how each time I purchased a Michael Nyman album I would bring it to mum and dads then play it to mumsie, insisting that she listened. I remember her continuing to do the laundry, prepare dinner, vacuum the house, never seeming to take time out to focus on just listening.
Now, watching the Bournmouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) perform pieces that I’d only previously heard. I noticed new things; how the lead Violin spoke to the lead Viola in Trysting fields, how the voices of different instruments came from different places. Listneing to music in the car, the instruments seem to be disembodied, the have no place to come from.
After the tuba’s and french horns had made some floor rocking contributions to ‘a watery death’:
mumsie: he does like his brass
wendy: which one is the Cor anglais?
mumsie: next to the Oboe’s, the tall thing that loops to the floor and back
wendy: woodwind?
mumsie: yes
Mumsie was pleased to recognise all the pieces. The closing scheduled piece, Memorial, was Nyman’s tribute to the victims of the 1985 Heysel stadium disaster. They decided to add a lightweight encore before letting us loose on the watery night streets of Bristol. Mum was pleased, evidently the BSO don’t normally do encores.
Michael Nyman wrote ‘Departure‘
