Michael Nyman

• Genre: Twenty-First Century
• Hometown: London
• Michael Nyman Website

About

Michael Nyman is one of those rare composers whose scholarly and musical accomplishments have both brought him considerable fame. A film composer of the finest caliber, Nyman has contributed scores to several Peter Greenway films, including The Cook, The Thief, Her Wife and His Lover, and Prospero's Books, his modular style providing the perfect complement to director's beautifully composed images. His non-film music falls on the lighter side of the Avant-Garde, abandoning the bold, abstract statements of Stockhausen in favor the more accessible ethnic sound of "The Michael Nyman Band." But just as important as his musical work is his scholarly work. His 1974 book Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond has become an essential text for both casual connoisseurs of the genre to well-versed academics. And, lest we forget, Nyman coined the universally accepted musical term which many use to classify some of his own work: minimalism.

- Doug Russell