This is the first book which deals with the school of American repetitive music, also know as minimal music. The early work of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass is discussed in the context of traditional Western music. Minimal music thus emerges as the latest stage in a development leading from Schoenberg, Webern, Stockhausen and Cage. In considering the philosophical thinking of Deleuze and Lyotard, the representatives of the so-called French ' libidinal philosophy', and of Adorno, the author examines the degree to which the 'ecstatic dimension' is present in this music or is even consciously introduced to it.

Includes composer's notes, biography, black & white film photos and original compositions for solos piano from Michael Nyman: Big My Secret,The Mood That Passes Through You, Deep Sleep Playing, Silver-Fingered Fling, The Attraction of the Pedalling Ankle, Heart Asks Pleasure First.

Michael Nyman's book is a first-hand account of experimental music from 1950 to 1970. First published in 1974, it has remained the classic text on a significant form of music making and composing that developed alongside, and partly in opposition to, the postwar modernist tradition of composers such as Boulez, Berio, or Stockhausen. The experimentalist par excellence was John Cage whose legendary 4' 33'' consists of four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence to be performed on any instrument. Such pieces have a conceptual rather than purely musical starting point and radically challenge conventional notions of the musical work. Nyman's book traces the revolutionary attitudes that were developed toward concepts of time, space, sound, and composer/performer responsibility. It was within the experimental tradition that the seeds of musical minimalism were sown and the book contains reference to the early works of Reich, Riley, Young, and Glass. This second edition contains a new Foreword, an updated discography, and a historical overview by the author.

Michael Nyman's piano music has struck a chord with audiences across the world and this anthology brings together his most successful and best-loved pieces in one superb volume. All the tracks features in this work are transcribed and restored to solo piano, including previously unpublished works for Nyman's recent CD - "The Piano Sings".

(Music Sales America). Available for the first time for solo piano, here are four fabulous arrangements from the motion-picture soundtrack of The Piano plus the two favorite themes from the award-winning film by Jane Campion. This is another wonderfully presented edition with stills from the film, an origianl manuscript sketch and note from Nyman to lead actress Holly Hunter, who performs the pieces herself in the film.

Live performance and documentary featuring British composer Michael Nyman. In 'Michael Nyman in Concert' The Michael Nyman Band perform 'The Musicologist Scores' and other compositions at Studio Halle. 'Michael Nyman: Composer in Progress', directed by Silvia Beck, offers a portrait of Nyman, who shares his thoughts and opinions, offering an insight into his personal life.

California 1860 and prospector Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan) has made a fortune in gold and is now running Kingdom Come, a small town built in the heart of the Sierra mountains. He wants to turn the town into a thriving city and to this end he asks Dalglish (Wes Bentley), an engineer plotting the course of the Pacific Railroad Expedition, to survey the surrounding area. But then Dillon's wife (Nastassja Kinski) and twenty-year-old daughter (Sarah Polley), both of whom he had traded for his goldmine years before, arrive in town asking for help. Dillon is overcome with guilt, and leaves his mistress Lucia (Milla Jovovich) in order to seek his wife's forgiveness. Lucia herself then takes up with Dalglish, who tells Dillon that the railroad will not be passing through his town, thereby causing the increasingly-unhinged prospector to reach for his rifle....