Orchestra (Full Score)
SKU: HL.14043216
Orchestra Full
Score. Composed by
Michael Nyman. Music
Sales America. Classical,
Contemporary. Softcover.
160 pages. Chester Music
#CH60952. Published by
Chester Music
(HL.14043216).
ISBN
9781783056200.
English.
Mic
hael Nyman's
Musique A Grande
Vitesse
(MGV)
translates as ‘high
speed music’ and
was commissioned by the
Festival de Lille for the
inauguration of the TGV
North EuropeanParis-Lille
line in 1993.
This
piece of sheet music runs
continuously, but was
conceived as an abstract,
imaginary journey; or
rather five
inter-connected journeys,
each ending with a slow,
mainly stepwise melody
which isonly heard in its
'genuine' form when the
piece reaches its
destination.
Thematic
'transformation' is a key
to MGV
as a whole. Throughout
the piece ideas -
rhythmic, melodic,
harmonic, motivic,
textural -constantly
change their identity as
they pass through
different musical
'environments'.
The opening bars
establish both a
recurrent rhythmic
principle - 9, 11, or
13-beat rhythmic cycles
heard against a regular 8
- and aharmonic process -
chord sequences (mainly
over C and E) which have
the note E in common.
(Coincidentally,
MGV
begins in C and ends in
E). A later scalic,
syncopated figure (again
first heard over C, E and
A)begins the second
section, featuring Brass,
in D flat.
The
topography of
MGV
should be experienced
without reference to
planning, description or
timetables. Its tempo
changes and unpredictable
slowings downbear no
logical relation to the
high speed of the
Paris-Lille journey,
while the temptation to
treat
MGV as a
concerto grosso, with the
Michael Nyman
band as the ripeno, was
resisted: more suitably
theband (amplified in
live performance) lays
down the tracks on which
MGV
runs.
