CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky Jan Głowacki, Report on Michael Nyman’s visit in Częstochowa city
JAN GŁOWACKI
REPORT ON MICHAEL NYMAN'S VISIT IN CZĘSTOCHOWA CITY Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Source: http://www.cndm.mcu.es/es/series-2021/michael-nyman-band
Report on Michael Nyman's Visit in Częstochowa City
Are the things we do, the arts we create justified in our spiritual inside? Of course they are. But sometimes we don’t know why our inside expresses itself with particularly that spirit or taste, especially in the area of art such as music. Tone and color must express the amplitude and the sum of our experiences. When listening to Michael Nyman concert at the Częstochowa Philharmonic Hall I was familiar with the works of this artist. For example, his soundtracks to the Peter Geenaway’ films ("The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover", "The Draughtsman's Contract", "A zed and two noughts", "Prospero's Books", "Intervals" and American "Drowning by numbers”) or the music to "The Piano" are quite widely known. But for the first time in my life I was able to listen to his music with "notes". With remarks of the master who modest but a bit rough - appeared at the press conference few hours before the concert on Nov. 18 of 2012 year at the Częstochowa Philharmonic Hall. The composer personally started with the words about his roots, his origins and Częstochowa, which, in fact, found him more than he did it himself. Over the years of youth and studies he never asked where he came from. Then a reflection on himself led him to Ciechanowa, because he mistakenly was searching for his roots there. www.CyberEmpathy.com
JAN GŁOWACKI
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky Jan Głowacki, Report on Michael Nyman’s visit in Częstochowa city Finally he found himself at Częstochowa at the opening ceremony of the "memorial" monument in honor of Częstochowa Jews deported to German concentration camps. Somewhat casually he came to the Joshua Bell Concert at the Częstochowa Philharmonic Hall. Not only this concert explained his own origins, but also his own perception of the world, his deep music inside and echoes of his own soul. Joshua Bell was playing the Brahms violin concert that evening, on the Stradivarius violin which once belonged to Bronisław Huberman. Bronisław Huberman was a Polish violinist and a teacher of Jewish origins who died in 1947. He was one of the greatest Polish violinists of the XX century. He was a Częstochowa inhebitant and the building of the Philharmonic Hall was recently named after him. Joshua Bell, a brilliant American violinist, is also a Jew, while his father is a Christian. He plays serious music and is also interested in film music and bluegrass. The artist is one of the greatest and most popular violinists in the world. Bell performs with a number of very well-known orchestras and conductors, and composers. He also performed the violin solos in the film The Red Violin, for the soundtrack which was awarded an Oscar, and also in the film Ladies in lavender. "When I came to Częstochowa I was actually indifferent to it, it was only the end of my genealogical research. I had no preconceived idea about it and I did not built emotional relation to it. But then something unusual happened. Not realizing this beforehand I found myself in my grandparents city on the day of the Jewish congress – Jewish Częstochowa inhabitants from around the world. I was invited to the concert of Joshua Bell, who played the Bronisław Huberman Stradivarius’. I realized that, after all, here, in Częstochowa, my grandparents walked the same streets, breathed the same air as Huberman. They could have met somewhere by case. Częstochowa became important to me." The story develops further: "These emotions have strengthened the next day when I took part in the unveiling of the monument in commemoration of the Jews of Częstochowa ghetto murdered in Treblinka. There was present a leader of the rise in the camp who also was the author of the diaries and Mr. Częstochowa – Zygmunta Rolat was his name. The scenes recorded there by the German team and other scenes from Częstochowa were included by me in film titled "The Częstochowa Memorial". www.CyberEmpathy.com
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky Jan Głowacki, Report on Michael Nyman’s visit in Częstochowa city
The film was shown at the end of the concert of Michael Nyman and his band. The show was also accompanied by the master’s music. He himself said of it in this way: "This music was not written for this film or dedicated to Częstochowa. It was created for the Peter Geenaway film "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover". I assume that time purifies. It separates from the context, so you can treat the film and the music as more abstracted arts wholeness".
Coming back to the notion of "notes" which I have used before. Only knowing the story, getting to know Michael Nyman, we begin to get his music in a new way. Separated on the stage from its parts - an image, in other words - it begins to have its own, additional and previously undiscovered importance and meanings. My first discovery was the understanding of motifs of ubiquitous, sometimes persistent ostinatos. It can be heard clearly especially at a concert when it’s not accompanied by a film action. Are these ostinatos some kind of a latent need to reflect a rhythm of life? A mechanical heartbeat, which consistently beats, regardless of the context of life? Isn’t it a constant "march" of thousands, millions of martyrs of the Holocaust? Such an internal perception comes to a listener’s mind, and in my mind the question arises whether the master of music himself feels that way now? After years? "Time purifies, separates from the context" says the composer about his music. So music composed for a definite film, a definite image, must have had and has a hidden universal message in it that not only does not lose its validity and timeliness without an image, but, even on the contrary, undergoes a kind of "purification" and becomes independent. The second phenomenon, I notice as a listener of the concert, is some deliberate rawness of sounds; sharp parts of wind instruments contrasting the violin lyricism. Simple rhythmic, almost mantric piano parts, and altogether it makes a moving impression. Echoes of music that seems to be a mix of ancient syncretism combined with jazz and contemporary classical music. It is impossible to escape the impression that the Nyman’s music carries the www.CyberEmpathy.com
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky Jan Głowacki, Report on Michael Nyman’s visit in Częstochowa city whole burden of being discovered or voluntarily resounding past, his culture and past and his ancestors. I can’t help the feeling that, even though he did not say it, Nyman himself discovered the source of his music actually in Częstochowa. His music unquestionably carries the unique mark of the author; his specificity, depth and complexity; but also the peculiar, though sometimes rough, beauty. The author himself speaks of the subtle specificity responding to a question about his music composed for the Japanese computer game. "It is not important to me whether I write the music for a film, a string quartet or a soundtrack to a computer game. The essence of it is that this music should contain microNyman." Actually, a phenomenon of that music is this “microNyman”, which composes the music and paints it a specific color, the Nyman’ color. Vasilij Kandinsky said "Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the Harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul." Looking at what was happening on the stage during the master Nyman concert I could not help the feeling that I was able to see with my own eyes the exact fulfillment of the Kandinsky’ words there. In a way deprived of exaggerated facial expressions and acting - decidedly, earnestly and calmly - Nyman's presses this or that key of tint, hue, sound, building the mood which is typical and one of a kind. Michael Nyman is one of the few artists who are able to mark their music with a character of their coloring and once’ own genre in a perfect and delicate way...
REFERENCES: 1 From the interview for CyberEmpathy, 18.11.2012 Częstochowa’ Filharmonic 2 http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kandinsky/ 3http://czestochowa.gazeta.pl/czestochowa/1,102357,12944033,Michae l_Nyman_w_Czestochowie__Wielki_koncert_w_filharmonii.html#ixzz 2FnXxmSQ0
www.CyberEmpathy.com
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky Jan Głowacki, Report on Michael Nyman’s visit in Częstochowa city
www.CyberEmpathy.com