Michael Nyman's score for the Peter Greenaway film Drowning By Numbers (1988), is, at the film director's specific request, based entirely on themes taken from the slow movement of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat Major. Bars 58-61 of Mozart's work are heard in their original form immediately after each of the film's "drownings". Nyman was alerted to the potential of this piece by Greenaway in the late 1970s and had previously used it as material for part of the score for Greenaway's The Falls, The Masterwork Award Winning Fish-Knife and Tristram Shandy. The The Trysting Fields section of Drowning By Numbers contains the most complicated use of Mozart's music: every appoggiatura [a melodically important ornamental note, sounded on the beat, and preceding a main note] from the movement, and no other material from the piece, is used. Watch a performance of The Trysting Fields by The Michael Nyman Band . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

One of the most poignant themes of the "Coming of Age" film is First Love . . . usually bittersweet, wrapped in soft-focus nostalgia, and accompanied by string-drenched music. But Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961), made at a time when both films and society were undergoing profound changes, is darker. It deals realistically, even shockingly, with the agony of first love, and the forces that drive lovers apart. Bud and Deanie are high school sweethearts in 1920's Kansas, who are finding it increasingly difficult to resist their sexual urges. Deanie's puritanical mother warns her that "nice girls don't" . . . so Deanie doesn't. Bud's nouveau-riche father urges him to find a not-so-nice girl to take care of those urges. The consequences are disastrous. With composer David Amram's modern (and often dissonant) music, and Richard Sylbert's stark, striking production design adding atmosphere, Splendor in the Grass is the antithesis of sentimental. (Margarita Landazuri @ Turner Classic Movies). Watch the opening of Splendor in the Grass with David Amram's film score . . . our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.

Canadian composer and pianist Heather Schmidt is recognized as one of the most talented, exciting and versatile musicians of her generation, bringing a contemporary freshness to the illustrious composer-performer tradition of the past. She has received international acclaim through performances, broadcasts, commissions and awards both in North America and abroad. Hear a performance of Schmidt Solus (1996), for piano solo, performed by the composer . . . one of this week's PYTHEAS EARFULS.

Béla Bartók is recognized as one of the most important composers of the 20th century. His style grew out of romanticism and nationalism to embrace new currents heard in the music of Debussy. Inspired by Hungarian traditional songs and dances (he collected some 10,000 songs from Hungary, Romania, Central Europe, Turkey, and North Africa), he incorporated folk modes and irregular rhythmic patterns into his highly original scores. The year 1926 brought a sudden rush of works designed for Bartók, himself, to play in concert. These include the Piano Concerto No. 1, the suite Out of Doors and the Piano Sonata. These exploit the piano as a percussion instrument, using its resonances, as well as its xylophonic hardness, in ways never utilized before. Watch a thrilling performance of the first movement of Bartók's Piano Sonata (1926) by pianist Lang Lang . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.