Musicology Annotation << Back The bricolage principles in First String Quartet by Michael Nyman Aleksandra Y. Alekseeva The article examines the First String Quartet (1985) by contemporary British composer Michael Nyman. The piece by the contemporary composer which is considered to be the new for the Russian musicology makes its examination be of current importance. In his creative work he refers to different styles of music: Western music, folk music, pop-music, etc. The composer creates his own works by transforming borrowed material in different ways. The Nyman`s creative method is close to the creation of bricolage (term by C. Levi-Strauss): selecting elements from the original, organizing them into a system, and making a new work with appropriate forming tools. The article formulates the hypothesis of the existence of bricolage principles in Nyman`s First String Quartet. The piece is based on the three opuses: J. Bull`s Walsingham Variations, Second String Quartet by A. Schoenberg, A.North`s ‘Unchained melody’. At the end of the paper, with the borrowed sources being exposed to a close scrutiny, we draw a conclusion about the possibility to consider the First String Quartet in the context of bricolage use. Keywords: composer Michael Nyman, minimal music, string quartet, intertextuality, bricoleur, bricolage, Claude Levi-Strauss, Gerard Genette. Contacts: E-mail: sashundrik89@mail.ru Pp. 03-11.