Michael Nyman composed the music to Peter Greenaway's most popular films and the music is just as important as the film itself. Greenaway uses the soundtrack as a way of enhancing the cinematic experience. The musical themes in the film are ways of enjoying the beautiful images on the screen and also to depict variations on a theme (either an architect in Belly of an Architect, male sexual fantasies in 8 1/2 women, or systems of classifications such as numbering and the alphabet in Drowning by Numbers and A Zed and Two Noughts). Variations on a theme is something usually found in music (at least going back to classical music) and is interesting when applied to film. Greenaway establishes certain scenes and applies music and goes back to that scene often later in the film and expands on it either with color-coding imagery or lighting, or its character depiction. We see a lot of minimalist elements, as in music, where repetition plays a part in the total experience of the work.
Click here to find out more about Michael Nyman.
Click here to see a short preview of Prospero's Books with Michael Nyman's score to it.
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