Music
| The Draughtsman's Contract | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Michael Nyman | ||||
| Released | 1982 | |||
| Genre | Contemporary classical music, Film scores; minimalism | |||
| Length | 40:42 | |||
| Label | Piano DRG (Italy) Charisma/Caroline (CD) |
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| Producer | David Cunningham | |||
| Michael Nyman chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
Michael Nyman's score is derived from grounds by Henry Purcell overlaid by new melodies. The original plan was to use one ground for every two of the twelve drawings, but Nyman states in the liner notes that this was unworkable. Ironically, the ground for one of the most popular pieces, "An Eye for Optical Theory," is now considered to be probably composed by William Croft, a contemporary of Purcell. The goal was to create a generalized memory of Purcell, rather than specific memories, so a piece as recognized as "Dido's Lament" was not considered an acceptable source of a ground. Purcell is credited as a "music consultant."
The album was the fourth album release by Michael Nyman and the third to feature the Michael Nyman Band.
The following ground sources are taken from the chart in Pwyll ap Siôn's The Music of Michael Nyman: Text, Context and Intertext, reordered to match their sequence on the album:
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