The Kiss and Other Movements

The Kiss and Other Movements is the sixth^[1] album release by Michael Nyman, and the fifth recording (fourth full album) with the Michael Nyman Band. The title track is an "operatic duet" between Dagmar Krause and Omar Ebrahim, based on a painting of the same title by Paul Richards, which is depicted on the cover, and used in a video art project by Richards of the same name. The album includes music from Peter Greenaway's Making a Splash and 26 Bathrooms (originally part of the concert work, Memorial), an excerpt of Nyman's unfinished opera, Tristram Shandy, and a concert piece, "Tango Between the Lines". This is the inaugural album for longtime band member David Roach.

The works

The Kiss

The Kiss was commissioned as part of a Channel 4 series of artists videos, in which Nyman's "operatic duet" plays as Paul Richards creates a painting of a kiss with a Quantel Paintbox. By design, the male voice is a trained singer, the female voice is a self-trained, pop, non-music reader, preferably whose native language is not English, possibly representing an Etruscan. The parts were written for Omar Ebrahim and Anne Pigalle, who performed them in the video. Dagmar Krause replaced Pigalle for the album, and brought to it a darker sonority. The text is based on a collection of 15th century texts about art. The theme line "Images were introduced because many people cannot retain what they hear, but rememember if they see images" is intended by Nyman as ironic—the text originally referred to Biblical scenes versus texts from the Bible. The final bars of The Kiss were later used as a prelude to Nyman's opera with Victoria Hardie, Vital Statistics, with which it shares a common theme. The theme is used to similar effect in their opera, Facing Goya, which is a four-act opera built on the remains of Vital Statistics, which flopped and was withdrawn.

Nose-List Song

"Nose-List Song" is the fourth section of Nyman's unfinished opera, Tristram Shandy. The song is based on "Slawkenbergius's Tale" from Volume IV, Chapter 1 of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, which depicts a visitor to Strasbourg from the Promontory of Noses. It collects together most of the statements made about the visitor by Strasbourg's residents, verbatim from the novel by Laurence Sterne. As recorded, it is performed as a solo by soprano Sarah Leonard. All of the statements are included in the lyrics sheet, but lines 3-8 of the final stanza are omitted on the recording. The vocal line is mostly, but not entirely, in monotone, with the majority of musical ideas carried by the instrumental music, melodies built on a harmonic pinning of the dominant sevenths A, F, B, and, D.

The lyrics of 'Nose-list song':

Never saw such a nose in my life

'Tis a nose of parchment

It is six times as big but

'tis a nose like my nose

I heard it crackle

I saw it bleed

What a pity we didn’t both touch it

What a nose

'Tis as long as a trumpet

And of the same mettle as you hear by its sneezing

'Tis as soft as a flute

'Tis brass

'Tis a pudding's end

'Tis a brazen nose.

I'll know the bottom of it

For I will touch it with my finger before I sleep

My nose shall never be touched

whilst heaven give me strength

There is more in it than any of a dozen of the largest noses put together in all Strasbourg

'Tis a false nose, made of fir tree

There's a pimple on it

'Tis a dead nose

'Tis a live nose and if I am alive myself I will touch it

Such a monstrous nose, said they, had it been a true one could not possibly have been suffered in civil society -And if false- to impose on society with such False signs and tokens was a still greater violation of its rights and must have had still less mercy shown it.I have made a vow to St Nicholas this day that my nose shall not be touched till I… I'll know the bottom of it for I will touch it with my fingers before I sleep.

Tango Between the Lines

"A musical 'alloy', bringing together two different but related musical materials. The connection with the tango is somewhat imaginary."^[2] This is all Nyman had to say about the piece, the shortest, on the album.

Images Were Introduced

Bearing the name of a key line in The Kiss, this piece is the sixth movement of the larger work, Memorial, assembled from music used in Peter Greenaway's Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London and Oxfordshire, 1985. Nyman describes the piece in the liner notes mainly in terms of an exploration of the beauty of Sarah Leonard's upper register, in which he does not have her use words.

Water Dances

Water Dances forms the score of Peter Greenaway's 1984 film, Making a Splash, a short documentary about synchronized swimming. It is the same recording used in the film, although for the film it was heavily edited and fades out at the end rather than reaching its conclusion. Eventually, Nyman expanded the piece into an eight-movement concert work lasting approximately 40 minutes, although the complete version has never been released on a commercial recording. "Stroking" is Movement 2, "Gliding" Movement 5, and "Synchronizing" Movement 8—Nyman describes Movement 5, a slow movement, as a "remake" of Movement 2.^[2] Six movements are built on the chord progression D-G-C-A, derived from a madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi. The remaining two movements are built on the chord progression C-E-flat-A-flat-G.

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Kiss"	9:05
2.	"Nose-List Song"	7:01
3.	"Tango Between the Lines"	4:55
4.	"Images Were Introduced"	7:36
5.	"Water Dances 2 : Stroking"	5:32
6.	"Water Dances 5 : Gliding"	3:04
7.	"Water Dances 8 : Synchronizing"	6:47

Personnel

Performed by the Michael Nyman Band

Alexander Balanescu, Violin
Andrew Findon, Tenor, Baritone Saxophone
David Fuest, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
John Greaves, Bass Guitar
John Harle, Soprano, Alto Saxophone
Michael Nyman, Piano, Kurzweil
Elisabeth Perry, Violin, Viola
David Roach, Soprano, Alto Saxophone
Steve Saunders, Bass Trombone, Euphonium

with

Dagmar Krause, Voice
Omar Ebrahim, Voice
Sarah Leonard, Voice
Mark Bennett, Trumpet
Lowri Blake, Cello
Martin Drower, Trumpet
Rosemary Furniss Violin
David Purser, Trombone
David Staff, Trumpet
Crispian Steele-Perkins, Trumpet
Theresa Ward, Violin
Nigel Warren-Green, Cello
Jonathan Williams, Cello

Recorded and mixed by Neil Drake and Paddy Kingsland at Music Works and Paddy Kingsland Studio

Digital Editing at Nova Studio

Mastered at CBS Studios

Re-mastered for compact disc by David Cunningham and Michael J. Dutton, PRT Studios, 1990

Produced by Michael Nyman and David Cunningham

Cover painting and portraits of Michael Nyman by Paul Richards

References

↑ counting the withheld The Cold Room
1 2 Michael Nyman. The Kiss and Other Movements Liner notes. 1990.

Michael Nyman

Michael Nyman Band - current members	Gabrielle Lester Catherine Thompson Kate Musker Tony Hinnigan David Roach Simon Haram Andrew Findon Nigel Barr Dave Lee Steve Sidwell Martin Elliott Sarah Leonard

Former members and others	Alexander Bălănescu John Harle Chris Laurence Ann Morfee Jonathan Carney Madeleine Mitchell Jamie Talbot Georgina Born Marjorie Dunn Beverley Davison Barry Guy John Greaves Andrew Shulman Michael Thompson Richard Watkins John Metcalfe Christian Forshaw Ute Lemper Marie Angel Hilary Summers Omar Ebrahim David Cunningham Molly Nyman

Nyman-produced albums	Decay Music 'The Masterwork' Award Winning Fish-Knife Michael Nyman The Draughtsman's Contract The Cold Room The Kiss and Other Movements A Zed & Two Noughts And Do They Do/Zoo Caprices The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Drowning by Numbers La Traversée de Paris The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover Out of the Ruins La Sept String Quartets 1–3 Prospero's Books The Michael Nyman Songbook The Hairdresser's Husband The Essential Michael Nyman Band Time Will Pronounce The Piano Michael Nyman for Yohji Yamamoto The Piano Concerto/MGV À la folie Live Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs Carrington The Diary of Anne Frank After Extra Time The Ogre Enemy Zero Concertos Gattaca The Suit and the Photograph Strong on Oaks, Strong on the Causes of Oaks Practical Magic Ravenous Wonderland The Commissar Vanishes Nabbie's Love The End of the Affair The Claim String Quartets 2, 3 & 4/If & Why Facing Goya 24 Heures de la vie d'une femme Sangam: Michael Nyman Meets Indian Masters The Actors Man and Boy: Dada The Piano Sings The Libertine The Composer's Cut Series Vol. I: The Draughtsman's Contract The Composer's Cut Series Vol. II: Nyman/Greenaway Revisited The Composer's Cut Series Vol. III: The Piano Six Celan Songs • The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi Acts of Beauty • Exit no Exit Nyman Brass Love Counts Mozart 252 8 Lust Songs: I Sonetti Lussuriosi The Glare Acoustic Accordions Collections The Composer's Cut Series Vol. IV: Vertov Sounds

Albums to which Nyman contributed (as composer and/or performer)	Recent English Experimental Music The Pavilion of Dreams From The Kitchen Archives - New Music New York 1979 The Sensual World Saxophone Works John Harle's Saxophone Songbook Piano Circus The Contemporary Trumpet Taking a Line for a Second Walk Plus que Tango Visions First & Foremost An Eye for a Difference Pick It Up Meeting Point: The Saxophone Concertos of Nyman, Heath and Torke Twentieth-Century Blues: The Songs of Noel Coward Generation Sex The Golden Section Faces Ahn-Plugged Groovebox Moving On

Singles/EPs	Mozart/Webern The Heart Asks Pleasure First/The Promise Anohito no Waltz In Re Don Giovanni Enemy Zero Piano Sketches

Compilations	Michael Nyman Pure Moods The Very Best of Michael Nyman: Film Music 1980–2001 Man on Wire

Additional operas	Tristram Shandy Letters, Riddles and Writs Vital Statistics La Princesse de Milan Prologue to Dido and Aeneas

Unreleased film scores	Vertical Features Remake The Falls Brimstone and Treacle Ballet Mécanique Monsieur Hire Mesmer Katie and Orbie Titch Act Without Words I Man with a Movie Camera Nathalie... À propos de Nice A Cock and Bull Story

Major individual compositions	Memorial MGV

Les Disques du Crépuscule Minimalist music Systems music

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