- Michael Nyman
In Re Don Giovanni for String Quartet (1991)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Written for the Balanescu Quartet (version also available for Michael Nyman Band)
Programme Note
In Re Don Giovanni was the first deconstruction of another composer’s work that I ever undertook – 30 years ago, when I formed the Campiello (later Michael Nyman) Band. The first 16 bars of the ‘Catalogue Song’ from Don Giovanni were scrutinised and its four textural layers – continuous quaver pulse, bass line, violin line and Leporello’s vocal – were separated and re-presented in a cumulative fashion, B repeats, and then the piece ends.
Making the string arrangement is rather like the late Renaissance practice of taking a piece for ‘broken consort’ and making a version for the uniform sound of a consort of viols.
Michael Nyman, 2006
Making the string arrangement is rather like the late Renaissance practice of taking a piece for ‘broken consort’ and making a version for the uniform sound of a consort of viols.
Michael Nyman, 2006