Patrick Doyle
Patrick Doyle is a Scottish film composer. A longtime collaborator of actor-director Kenneth Branagh, Doyle is known for his work composing for films such as Henry V, Sense and Sensibility, Hamlet, Carlito's Way, and Gosford Park, as well as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Thor, Brave, Cinderella, and Murder On The Orient Express. Doyle has been nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, and is the recipient of the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award for "outstanding achievements and contributions to the world of film and television music".
Doyle has scored films for renowned directors including Robert Altman, Ang Lee, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, Brian De Palma, Chen Kaige, Amma Asante and Régis Wargnier.
Life and career
Early life
Doyle was born on 6 April 1953 in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. He is a classically trained composer who studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, of which he was made a Fellow in 2001.Film career
Doyle joined Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987 as composer and musical director composing for plays such as Hamlet, As You Like It, and Look Back in Anger. It was here that Doyle established his relationship with Kenneth Branagh, scoring his first film, Henry V, in 1989. The song "Non Nobis, Domine" from Henry V was subsequently awarded the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme. He has since composed for fourteen more Kenneth Branagh films including Dead Again, Much Ado About Nothing, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, As You Like It, Sleuth, Thor, , Cinderella, Murder on the Orient Express, and Artemis Fowl.In October 1997, shortly after composing for Great Expectations, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Doyle was diagnosed with leukemia. He managed to write the entire score for the animated fantasy Quest for Camelot in hospital whilst undergoing treatment. Doyle made a full recovery.
Other films scored by Doyle in the 1990s have since become cult gangster films, such as Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way, and Mike Newell’s Donnie Brasco.
In the 2000s, Doyle went on to compose for iconic British movies such as Bridget Jones’ Diary, Gosford Park and Calendar Girls.
Doyle collaborated with Mike Newell again when scoring Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005.
In the 2010s, he composed scores for Hollywood blockbusters including Thor, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Cinderella.
Other notable works by Doyle include his scores for family movies such as Brave, Nanny McPhee and A Little Princess ; as well as his collaborations with French director Régis Wargnier on French films such as Indochine, Une femme française and Est-ouest.
Artist collaborations
Doyle regularly collaborates with artists from other fields in his scores. From the classical music world, Plácido Domingo sang "In Pace" on Hamlet and Jane Eaglen sang "Weep You No More Sad Fountains" on Sense & Sensibility, with both films earning Doyle Oscar nominations for Best Film Score.Pop artists Doyle has collaborated with include Jarvis Cocker on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as well as Pulp and Tori Amos on Great Expectations.
Doyle also co-wrote the song "Never Forget" with Kenneth Branagh for Murder on the Orient Express, which was performed by Michelle Pfeiffer.
Concert works
Patrick Doyle’s Music from the Movies concert, in aid of Leukaemia Research UK, was staged at the Royal Albert Hall in 2013. It was directed by Kenneth Branagh and written by Daniel Hill and included appearances from Emma Thompson, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Judi Dench, Alan Rickman, Imelda Staunton, Richard E. Grant, Adrian Lester, and Robbie Coltrane, with music from Doyle's scores performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.Doyle’s work was celebrated in two concerts at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow in 2019, both performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Dirk Brossé. The first concert was the world’s first live performance to film of the music Doyle composed for Pixar’s Brave, which took place at the Glasgow Concert Hall. The second, “Patrick Doyle – A Celebration,” took place at the Glasgow City Halls and featured two original works composed by Doyle for the concert – "Sweet Rois of Vertew" and "Scottish Overture". This concert also featured a performance of "Corarsik", a solo violin piece he originally composed for Emma Thompson’s 50th birthday.
Doyle has composed numerous original concert pieces. These include "The Thistle and the Rose," a song cycle commissioned by Prince Charles in honour of the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday, produced by George Martin and premiered at Buckingham Palace; "The Face In The Lake", commissioned by Sony and narrated by Kate Winslet; and "Tam O Shanter," commissioned by the Scottish Schools Orchestra Trust.
Syracuse International Film Festival commissioned Doyle to write a film score for the classic silent movie ‘It’ in 2012.
Recorded works
In 2013, Doyle composed an original concert suite, Impressions of America, released by Varèse Sarabande. This received its world premiere in 2012 with the National Schools Symphony Orchestra, of which Doyle is a patron.Doyle recorded a solo piano album in 2015, performing pieces from his film scores to date, also released by Varèse Sarabande.
In 2020, Doyle contributed the opening track "Château Ferguson" to the album Fresh Air… Breathe In in aid of the not-for-profit organisation Breathe Arts Health Research in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Awards
In June 2013, at the twenty-eighth annual Film & Television Music Awards, Doyle was presented with the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award in recognition of his "outstanding achievements and contributions to the world of film and television music". ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams observed, "Patrick Doyle's extensive body of work is some of the most compelling and affective in the industry. His ability to flawlessly cross genres in film, TV and beyond is why he can successfully score everything from Carlito's Way to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."In October 2015, Doyle received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Soundtrack Academy during the Gent Film Festival in Belgium.
Trivia
sampled Doyle's theme from Great Expectations on West's song 'Robocop' from the album 808s & Heartbreak.Doyle has appeared as an actor in some of the films he’s scored – playing Balthazar in Much Ado About Nothing and Court in Henry V; voicing Martin in Brave; and appearing in As You Like It, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Dead Again. He also wrote some of the score for Much Ado About Nothing whilst on location in Tuscany.