Michael Nyman Memorial for Large Ensemble

Michael Nyman Memorial for Large Ensemble Sarah Leonard, soprano Michael Nyman Band Michael Nyman, conductor Gypsum: Antonio Canova, Hecuba and the Trojan women offer the peplum to Pallas Athena (detail), 1790-1792, Milan, Gallerie di Piazza Scala. Memorial is an epic funeral march-like piece, composed by Michael Nyman around 1984-1985. [...] Nyman explicitly dedicated Memorial to the memory of the Juventus F.C. fans killed in the Heysel Stadium tragedy, in May 1985. [...] The composition borrowed a musical phrase from Baroque composer Henry Purcell’s King Arthur, the prelude to ‘What Power Art Thou’, sung by the Cold Genius in Act III*, but the phrase is repeated in countless times, in a minimalist fashion. The composition is dominated for the first two-thirds by the string and horn sections, backed up by bass guitar, and a drummer. Soprano Sarah Leonard comes in only in the last third of section, and her performance mainly consists of long wordless complaints, adding a dramatic effect to the composition. Her song is continuously an octave higher than the rest of the orchestra, thus creating a haunting effect that suggests pain and sorrow. See (Nyman) *Frost Scene: