Michael Nyman (born 23rd March 1944, Stratford, London) ARIES!
Famous minimalist composer, pianist, librettist, writer, musicologist, photographer and film-maker .(what a talented Man, So proud to be an Aries too.)
Erm ok.. i was wondering what a minimalist composer is, i finally understand the term after searching the web.
There you go...
The word "minimalism" was first used in relation to music in 1968 by Michael Nyman in a review of Cornelius Cardew's piece The Great Digest.
The idea of minimalism is much larger than most people realize. It includes, by definition, any music that works with limited or minimal materials: pieces that use only a few notes, pieces that use only a few words of text, or pieces written for very limited instruments, such as antique cymbals, bicycle wheels, or whiskey glasses. It includes pieces that sustain one basic electronic rumble for a long time. It includes pieces made exclusively from recordings of rivers and streams. It includes pieces that move in endless circles. It includes pieces that set up an unmoving wall of saxophone sound. It includes pieces that take a very long time to move gradually from one kind of music to another kind. It includes pieces that permit all possible pitches, as long as they fall between C and D. It includes pieces that slow the tempo down to two or three notes per minute.
I fell in love with this song (The Heart Ask pleasure first, Theme from The Piano) and was totally captivated by the melody. Knowing myself that i'm a Grade Zero player and i'm really bad at reading scores, It is really way out of my depth to master this song. For 5 mins, I was staring at the music sheet in despair, ("shake head, why sooo difficult!" ) well there's always a way out, i could just memorize the keys and fingerings and stored it in my music-memory bank! All thanks to the 泡参that mum prepares for me every morning it increases and regains back my memory that i've been lacking for years!
