And Do They Do/Zoo Caprices

And Do They Do/Zoo Caprices

art by David Buckland
1989 Ter Records CD release
Jay Edition is identical save for the logo
Studio album by Michael Nyman
Released 1986
Recorded 1986
Genre Contemporary classical music, minimalist music
Length 48:22
Label Ter (1986, 1989)
Jay (1999)(producer of the original recording)
Producer David Cunningham
Michael Nyman chronology

A Zed & Two Noughts
(1985)		 And Do They Do/Zoo Caprices
(1986)		 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
(1988)

And Do They Do/Zoo Caprices is the eighth album released by Michael Nyman and the fifth featuring the Michael Nyman Band. And Do They Do is a modern dance work commission by Siobhan Davies and The London Contemporary Dance Theatre, which premiered at Sadler's Wells Theatre on November 25, 1986. Zoo Caprices is a multi-stop violin solo for Alexander Balanescu based on the score for Peter Greenaway's film, A Zed & Two Noughts.

The album was issued on LP in 1986 by Ter Records under license from Jay Records. It was issued on compact disc first in 1989 by Ter Records, which had released A Zed & Two Noughts. Jay Records then reissued the album on CD June 15, 1999.

And Do They Do

And Do They Do consists of four linked "Songs" (although none of them are actually sung), that were used for Siobhan Davies's dance production, which the album photos suggest was done entirely in the nude. (The back cover of the booklet shows male full frontal nudity.) The third song, although it has the jazziest qualities, is based on Robert Schumann's Nachtlied Opus 19, No.1, a "spin-off" from his opera, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which was written concurrently and in which Schumann's music is an important element of the story.

Zoo Caprices

Zoo Caprices was written for the virtuosity of Alexander Balanescu, who premiered the work in Paris on April 8, 1986. The score is a reduction of the score for A Zed & Two Noughts, but allows for Balanescu's ability to create multiple harmonies on a single instrument through multiple stops. The order is significantly altered from the original album, and "Vermeer's Wife" and "Prawn Watching" are combined into a single section.

Track listing

  1. Song I
  2. Song II
  3. Song III
  4. Song IV
  5. The Lady in the Red Hat
  6. Swan Rot
  7. Up for Crabs
  8. Car Crash
  9. Bisocosis Populi
  10. Venus de Milo
  11. Angelfish Decay
  12. Vermeer's Wife Watches Prawns
  13. Timelapse

Personnel

Performed by the Michael Nyman Band