Drowning By Numbers (1987 Film) [Soundtrack]

Michael Nyman (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Michael Nyman
• Audio CD (September 25, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Venture / Caroline
• ASIN: B000000HTR
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #279,207 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Drowning by Numbers/Trysting Fields

2. Drowning by Numbers/Sheep and Tides

3. Drowning by Numbers/Great Death Game

4. Drowning by Numbers/Drowning by Number 3

5. Drowning by Numbers/Wheelbarrow Walk

6. Drowning by Numbers/Dead Man's Catch

7. Drowning by Numbers/Drowning by Number 2

8. Drowning by Numbers/Bees in Trees

9. Drowning by Numbers/Fish Beach

10. Drowning by Numbers/Wedding Tango

11. Drowning by Numbers/Crematorium Conspiracy

12. Drowning by Numbers/Knowing the Ropes

13. Drowning by Numbers/Endgame

Editorial Reviews

1988 film score for the Peter Greenaway film, features 13 digitally remastered tracks, packaged in a digipak. Copy Controlled. Virgin. 2004. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Drowning by nyman, June 19, 2000

By 

timbearcub / tim baker (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drowning By Numbers (1987 Film) (Audio CD)

I first heard this when I first saw the film (go see!) and wanted to know who wrote such beautiful music, which was so in sync with the counting games and cut of the film. It's a great score: musically it carries on where Zed and Two Noughts left off, rather than take 4 bars of the Mozart piece, Nyman decided to 'rewrite' and rework the whole piece for inspiration...it turned me onto the darkness in mozart's work (the opera Don Giovanni for example) which I hadn't previously realised. Drowning by Numbers #3 is as haunting as say, 'The Garden is becoming a robe room' and very morbid, like the film...the opening up of the music and score definitely works wonders, where a lot of Z.O.O. left me cold as some academic exercise (apart from the last track, the amazing Angelfish Decay: is that a REAL human voice or a theremin? :-) whereas this is cold in a human, dark way and much more lyrical and flowing.

The only thing is now I've heard Philip Glass's 'Einstein on the Beach.' I now realise what a big influence Glass was on Nyman (rather than the other way round as I'd supposed?), the fast arpegiating chords and vocal lines, even down to the use of counting in the film (although that might not have been Nyman's doing, Greenaway and Nyman did seem to work very closely together). It does seem to equally wear it's influences on (or up?) it's sleeves as much as it improves or conquers them.

But a great soundtrack, and piece in it's own right, 5 stars for feeling and evocative mood alone.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nyman's masterpiece, August 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Drowning By Numbers (1987 Film) (Audio CD)

Nyman produces an aching pastoral score to Peter Greenaway's excellent movie of English preoccupations from game-playing, death and astronomy to infidelity and murder. Nyman's score is of the setting, rich and pastoral- with an air of melancholy. Wonderous.

And, er...this is NOT "NEW AGE"...

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect breakfast music, January 20, 2000

By 

boeanthropist "Philip Welsh" (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drowning By Numbers (1987 Film) (Audio CD)

I moved to New York City a rabid Peter Greenaway fan, only to find him almost universally reviled there. Not that New Yorkers' opinions are worth a ratsass or anything, but the Greenaway-hostile environment only made me appreciate the man's talents all the more. Music fuels so many of his films, and the early- and mid-period collaborations with Nyman reached their pinnacle in DbyN. The music and the movie drive each other like Stirling engines. How many times have I listened to "Sheep & Tides"? I could not count. But it's my favorite weekend breakfast music, drinking coffee and nibbling toast with the girlfriend for hours.