Acts of Beauty • Exit no Exit is the 55th album by Michael Nyman

Michael Nyman

Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...

, the eighth on his own label, and the third of these to consist entirely of previously unrecorded work. He does not perform on the album, but composed and produced it. Acts of Beauty is a song cycle

Song cycle

A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...

 with texts by various writers commenting on the nature of art and beauty. It is performed by Cristina Zavalloni

Cristina Zavalloni

Cristina Zavalloni is a contemporary Italian singer and composer who focuses primarily on jazz and experimental music....

 and Sentieri Selvaggi

Sentieri selvaggi

Sentieri Selvaggi is an Italian musical ensemble, specialising in contemporary music.It was founded in 1997 by Carlo Boccadoro, Filippo Del Corno and Angelo Miotto...

, conducted by Carlo Boccadoro. Exit no Exit was originally a vocal work for John Motson

John Motson

John Walker Motson OBE ,AKA Motty, is an English football commentator on both television and radio as well a well known moter. He made his name as 'Moty' after he moted out the entire Huddersfield huddersfield cheerleaders team. writer.-Biography:The son of a Methodist minister, Motson was educated...

 called Beckham

David Beckham

David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...

 Crosses, Nyman Scores, in tribute to the English association football team. Here, the vocal part is rewritten for bass clarinet

Bass clarinet

The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...

, and played by Andrew Sparling of the Michael Nyman Band

Michael Nyman Band

The Michael Nyman Band, formerly known as the Campiello Band, is a group formed as a street band for a 1976 production of Carlo Goldoni's 1756 play, Il Campiello directed by Bill Bryden at the Old Vic...

 with the Nyman Quartet: Gabrielle Lester

Gabrielle Lester

Gabrielle Lester is an English classical violinist and orchestra leader. She maintains an extensive discography of classical, popular and soundtrack recordings.-Career:...

, Catherine Thompson, Kate Musker, and Tony Hinnigan

Tony Hinnigan

Anthony "Tony" Hinnigan is a musician from Glasgow. He is best known for his work with Michael Nyman , Ennio Morricone, and James Horner. He plays cello as well as Irish whistle and various Andean woodwind instruments...

.

Acts of Beauty

Acts of Beauty features settings of material by Vincenzo Cartari

Vincenzo Cartari

Vincenzo Cartari was an Italian mythographer and diplomat of the Italian Renaissance.According to Jean Seznec, Cartari was probably a protégé of the duke of Ferrara...

, Kurt Schwitters

Kurt Schwitters

Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...

, subject of Nyman's opera, Man and Boy: Dada

Man and Boy: Dada

Man and Boy: Dada is a 2003 opera by Michael Nyman on a libretto by Michael Hastings. It tells the story of a friendship between aging dada artist Kurt Schwitters and a twelve-year-old boy. These two characters and the boy's mother make up the cast of the opera.It was first performed at the...

, and Dziga Vertov

Dziga Vertov

David Abelevich Kaufman , better known by his pseudonym Dziga Vertov , was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist...

, director of Man with a Movie Camera

Man with a Movie Camera

Man with a Movie Camera , sometimes called The Man with the Movie Camera, The Man with a Camera, The Man With the Kinocamera, or Living Russia is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors, by Russian director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta...

, a film he scored at the behest of the British Film Institute

British Film Institute

The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...

. "Marulla's Hobby" is about measuring erection

Erection

Penile erection is a physiological phenomenon where the penis becomes enlarged and firm. Penile erection is the result of a complex interaction of psychological, neural, vascular and endocrine factors, and is usually, though not exclusively, associated with sexual arousal...

s.

Track listing

1. "Due figliuole di un contadino" – 8:42
2. "Halt, we are specialists" – 6:02
3. "We are at a film studio" – 6:24
4. "Life's chaos" – 3:21
5. "Marulla's hobby" – 1:41
6. "Exit No Exit 1" – 1:02
7. "Exit No Exit 2" – 1:10
8. "Exit No Exit 3" – 1:40
9. "Exit No Exit 4" – 1:34
10. "Exit No Exit 5" – 1:24
11. "Exit No Exit 6" – 2:07
12. "Exit No Exit 7" – 1:17
13. "Exit No Exit 8" – 1:28
14. "Exit No Exit 9" – 1:29
15. "Exit No Exit 10" – 10:35
16. "Exit No Exit 11" – 1:02

External links

• MN Records official site