ABSTRACT
Michael Laurence Nyman was born in Stratford, part of the London Borough of Newham, on 23 March 1944 but was brought up in Chingford, North East London. Nyman's student compositions were mainly written for performances at the Academy between late 1962 and early 1964. Despite some fleeting allusions to twelve-note techniques in his student compositions, Nyman's exposure at the time to serialism and its methods was very limited. Nyman's studies at King's with Thurston Dart from 1964 to 1967 provided him with a specialized range of editorial, critical and analytical skills. Nyman soon realized his mentor's musical interests extended well beyond Baroque. At King's College Dart implemented an innovative honours degree entirely in the study of non-Western music, one of the first of its kind in Britain. The implementation of ideological values by modernist composers in order to legitimate a post-war, avant-garde approach was also being used in folk music.
