QUOTATION AS A STRUCTURAL ELEMENT IN MUSIC BY MICHAEL NYMAN

Extract

One of the most striking features in the music of the British composer Michael Nyman (born 1944) is the emphatic presence of musical quotations. This may be all the more remarkable because the main influence on Nyman's compositional style is minimal music. Generally, American minimal music is characterized by a large degree of abstraction, focussing on absolute music, clear abstract structures and the gradual unfolding of systematic musical processes. The almost provocatively objective appearance of the titles of works by Steve Reich (Violin Phase, Four Organs, Music for 18 Musicians) may be seen as emblematic for a music in which the transparent, process-like transformation of limited musical material calls for an equally objective type of material. Although American minimalists such as Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Philip Glass take recourse to diatonic material and tonal or modal harmonies, any reference to specific historical models is almost unconceivable in their early work, as the associations that come with the quoted material would only distract the listener from the systematic processes that the material is being subjected to, which forms the essence of this style. In that respect, Michael Nyman's fusion of minimalist strictness with openly acknowledged borrowings of pre-existing music sets him apart from his American contemporaries. This article investigates how Nyman applies different aspects of his quotation technique, how he incorporates the musical and extra-musical characteristics and associations that come with the quoted material into a solid musical statement, and how all this is combined with the strictness of his minimalism-related composition technique.