The Draughtsman's Contract


Virgin Records UK (5012984115828)
Movie | Released: 1989 | Film release: 1982 | Format: CD, Download
 

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# Track   Duration
1.Chasing Sheep is Best Left to Shepherds2:33
2.The Disposition of Linen4:47
3.A Watery Death3:31
4.The Garden is Becoming a Robe Room6:05
5.Queen of the Night6:09
6.An Eye for Optical Theory5:09
7.Bravura in the Face of Grief12:16
 40:30
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The Draughtsman's Contract - 09/10 - Review of Tom Daish, submitted at (English)
I always have a quick look at online reviews for films I've never seen (and am not likely to see) when I'm doing the soundtrack album review, just to see what the general vibe is. In all the research I've done for Michael Nyman's scores for Peter Greenaway, I've only come across a comment that compares one his films to George of the Jungle. In this case, The Draughtsman's Contract is noted to be the worst film the reviewer had ever seen, 'narrowly beating George of the Jungle' - a good film to compare with one about an 17th century noblewoman who swaps sex for paintings of her husband's estate. Much like comparing Gone with the Wind and Spaceballs. Anyway, onto the music and it's fine Nyman score, even more impressive in its position as Nyman's first for both Greenaway and ever. His reputation was already cemented in the concert hall, but his work with Greenaway and later, other directors, helped bring his music to a wider audience and develop an even larger band of devotees.

Occasionally, a piece of film music enters the public consciousness, sometimes at an all embracing, you can't escape it level - Bernstein's immortal Great Escape march for example - but usually, most film composers can only hope for a more subliminal, 'I've heard that before' reaction. The opening track of The Draughtsman's Contract, the esoterically titled Chasing Sheep is Best Left to Shepherds (although I'd have thought that should be '...best left to sheepdogs'), is a perfect piece of mock-baroque - or rather more correctly pre-baroque as Nyman refers to Purcell as a source in his informative liner notes - that seems to get used as underlay music in endless television programs about country houses and most recently in the UK for period setting crisp advert. It is certainly a memorable motif and has that nice period sound, all harpsichords and strings, but with so much modern edge that it can only be a fake. To my mind it's Michael Nyman does Zadok the Priest (which is later and by Handel), without the choir. After such a strong start, the remaining tracks a little less memorable, but only as a relative measure.

There is a busy complexity to The Draughtsman's Contract which makes it more compelling and rich, the ideas are layered in a striking counterpoint, placing strands of different speeds together in a totally cohesive way. Although Nyman appears to have taken Purcell as the basis for much of the music, notably in using some of Purcell's own ground basses, one could never confuse this with real music of the period. Nyman notes that he is actively trying to avoid the music being pastiche, but this kind of neo-renaissance style of writing is pastiche of a sort. It's clearly not meant to be fake Purcell as the harmonic language is too colourful for such an early period, yet it is clearly designed to evoke the flavour of the period. It's certainly a different and interesting approach to the period score and given that Nyman started writing a thesis on music of that period, it is clearly written with an air of authority. Of course, the bottom line is that it's interesting and very satisfying music and whatever its antecedents, makes for an extremely enjoyable album with some fine playing from the Nyman Band.

Other releases of The Draughtsman's Contract (1982):

Meurtre dans un Jardin Anglais (1989)
Draughtsman's Contract, The (1990)
Draughtsman's Contract, The (1983)
Draughtsman's Contract, The (1982)
Draughtsman's Contract, The (2016)


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