Michael Nyman is God : Vol. 1 - Fish Beach

I can only presume that i came to know Michael Nyman in the same way that many people have; the beautiful scores to Peter Greenaway's films. Never have i experienced such perfect synthesis between the music and the action portrayed on screen. In "The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover" (1989), one of the finest films ever made, the hesitant, and yet anticipant sounds of "Fish Beach" perfectly illustrate the tension between the two main protagonists, Georgina and Michael as they happen upon each other and then meet again in the corridor to the toilets on Greenaway's huge, formal "stage". It seems as if the music and the film are each on the edge of some momentous realisation. If "Fish Beach" in particular has any inherent theme in it, it seems to be creation, the title, one could assume, referring to fish emerging from the sea as in evolution. The pace of the song seems almost as if it is breathing, short inhalations and then long exhalations. The driving low string sounds after the first two repetitions of the theme, at 44 seconds in, are definitely what sets Michael Nyman apart from any other "minimalist" modern composer such as Philip Glass or Wim Mertens; a sense of dynamism, urgency and pace.

Minoan art.

It has recently struck me how insanely beautiful and fascinating these works of practical art found on crete actually are. The Minoan civilisation, which has been shown to have had wide reaching influence all through the mediterranean, even as far as Italy and perhaps Spain, was until the 20th century completely undiscovered and lost to Western culture. Arthur Evans, an insufferable and pretentious son of an equally insufferable and pretentious coin collector, bought the site of the palace at Knossos in 1900, and proceeded to excavate. It was known that a palace had existed there before, but the turkish government had vetoed any archeological work, delaying excavations till Cretan independence in 1898.



What he found was truly remarkable, an underground palace complex so maze-like, so labyrinthine that he declared it most likely the labyrinth King Minos presided over, into which Theseus ventured, and in which the Minotaur resided. Convinced that this was Minos' Palace, he labelled the culture Minoan. And the treasures that he found inside were unique, unlike any other culture in the mediterranean at that time, dating from 2800 BC - around 1400 BC. This is earlier than the earliest greek civilisation, when nearly all of europe was inhabited by societies that were unable to build much beyond wattle and daub mud huts, and had not even begun to produce sophisticated pottery. Only the Egyptians rivalled this cretan civilisation in sophistication, and in contrast to the dark world outside it, the Minoans were truly remarkable.



It is these works of art, made with such sophistication an incredibly long time ago that are among the most fascinating elements of the Minoans.



Probably more to come on the Minoans, because they are wonderful.