Unlike yesterday, I know exactly where I first heard about this record. It was before I'd seen — and possibly before I'd even heard of — the film. I went round for lunch with Abigail, and her friend Jessica was visiting. Jessica was studying music at Goldsmiths, and we discussed Steve Reich and Philip Glass. She told me about this guy Michael Nyman, who'd studied Reich and Glass, and then done an adaptation of some of Purcell's music filtered through what he'd learnt from those contemporaries. (Wikipedia now has the full story, including a list of the Purcell pieces that Nyman used.)
I'm not sure if I'd even heard of Peter Greenaway at that stage. He soon became one of the directors our branch of the chattering classes whose every film we had to see, lest we be left out of the conversation. "Must-see" had yet to be invented as a term. Happy days.
So any excuse for a film clip. I remember you trying to watch Draughtsman on that salvaged TV that you insisted setting up in Cosin Court, even though it was so borked that it showed everything in blue and white. I tried watching with you for five minutes, but it was hopeless. Greenaway would have had a fit at the very thought of such a bowlderised experience of his art.
Truth to tell, though, this has never been my favourite film of his, nor my favourite soundtrack of Nyman's. Probably a toss-up between Drowning by Numbers and the underrated Zed and Two Noughts, in both cases.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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