Patrick Doyle

Since the emergence of Kenneth Branagh's talent for Shakespeare arose on the big screen in the late '80's, he and his long time friends (Patrick Doyle being one) have collaborated to produce a growing string of fine, well-performed films. Branagh and Doyle, although they had acted together previously, now maintain a strong director/composer relationship. The three scores that have resulted so far from this partnership, Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), and Hamlet (1996), all play a major role in their films. As listening experiences on CD, they are good, but in the film, they are a vital part of building the emotion of many scenes without drowning the ever so precise dialog. After all, Doyle refers to his music for these films as "underscore."

This month's Theme will focus primarily on Henry V, for a number of reasons. A few months back, Filmtracks' September, 1997, Theme of the Month featured the very best scores of 1989. Although I had known of Henry V previously, I had forgotten it when putting together the Theme. Without fail, I received many e-mails (and justfully so!) from Doyle fans mentioning the absence of Henry V. On top of that, I've been part of a Shakespeare course at the university at which I attend, and I wrote an analysis of the effectiveness of Henry V's score for that course. I also, just as a side note, am performing the part of Iago in Othello this month (a part which has its full share of evil --not to mention some great dirty words from the time!). Below is a copy of the essay on Henry V. Also below is some information regarding Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet, including quotes from both Pat Doyle and Ken Branagh. You'll also find links to even more info about Doyle, his scores, and his recent medical problems.

Once More Unto The Scoring Stage...

I

n any motion picture, the musical score is vital in adding an extra element of depth to the emotions and messages of the film. Often overlooked, these scores can easily fade away in the memories of film viewers, who consider the scores to be nothing more than "background music." When preparing the second film version of Henry V in 1988, Kenneth Branagh recognized that the score would play a crucial role in bridging the gap between the text's historical richness and the thematic expectations of a modern audience. He employed long-time friend Patrick Doyle and asked him to produce a score that was powerful enough to provide the emotional touch that Branagh envisioned, without overpowering the complexity of the words themselves. Did Doyle succeed? To answer this question, one must examine the thematic expectations of the modern audience and then judge how the score correlates with Branagh's interpretations of the text. The resulting findings will prove that Doyle succeeded in reinforcing Branagh's interpretations, but failed to use his themes to relate these interpretations to modern audiences as well as he could have.

At the outset of the film production of Henry V, Ken Branagh asked the question, "how am I going to make it appeal to a wider audience?" The story is a political thriller, a study of leadership, a complex debate about war and the pity of war, and an uncompromising analysis of the English class system. To convey this, "a strong visual style that could appeal to an audience on the verge of the 1990's was vitally necessary. The crucial bonding agent in all of this was the music." Pat Doyle had been a fellow actor with Branagh for a number of years, but had never scored a feature film. Nevertheless, Doyle was very familiar with the works of Shakespeare, and felt that he could successfully meld authentic medieval sounds with an "accessible" classical tone. Branagh requested a score that would remain in the minds of the audience as long as the pictures themselves. This required a score of "epic proportions: thunderous, full-blooded, and heroic in size."

An inherent problem existed, though. What if the score overshadowed the most important aspect of the film: the words? To make sure this did not occur, Doyle avoided the bombastic, brassy approach that other composers favored. In the process, he may have lost the imagination of a few of the die-hard, thematically driven film music fans. At the same time, his score did not squash the film's dialog. By examining each of Doyle's important cues, the effectiveness of the marriage of music and words, as well as the bridging of the time gap, can be argued.

The film opens with the narration of the muse, the character who narrates the epic story and encourages the audience to unleash its imagination. Doyle scores this scene as a sort of prologue sequence, giving the audience hints of the themes that will boldly be heard later. The power of the track builds as the Chorus nears the door that will be swung open, revealing the setting of the play. This cue is written perfectly. It gives the audience only a nibble of what is to come, with larger and larger tastes being foreshadowed. As Henry enters the film, the secondary theme (to Non nobis Domine) is introduced in full. It successfully announces Henry's arrival, using the approach of a trumpet fanfare that audiences can identify with. If Henry has indeed reformed from his frivolous, youthful existence, what better way to score his character than with a noble hail of the trumpets? It gives power to Henry, which important, because this scene represents the beginning of Henry's quest to conquer France.

This power, however, does not carry over to the scene in which Henry orders the execution of the three traitors. Clarinets and flutes are used in a scene that might have been more appropriately scored with overlapping cellos. As the music broods, Henry loses some of his noble power. An angry king surely deserves more dramatic underscoring. On the other hand, the scene of the traitors exhibits some of the most intense face to face dialog in the play, so a more dramatic score might have overwhelmed the words.

The next major cue is the first thematically romantic music in the play. As Falstaff, a character dominant in earlier Shakespeare plays, dies, Doyle introduces a theme that only repeats when the focus of the film shifts to the past. This is a good and important move by Doyle, because the music helps signify when the shift of the story moves to past situations. Although this touch doesn't apply directly to the Henry V text, the film could be confusing for audiences who are unaware of Henry IV during those sequences.

As Henry rallies his troops in front of the gates of Harfleur, Doyle summons the opening fanfare to reinforce Henry's growing influence over the screen and its characters. Similar to the prologue, hints of Non nomis Domine dance throughout the brassy cue. To help the audience identify with the action on the screen, Doyle uses the snare drums in a constant roll throughout the scene. Snare drums are widely considered the most "militaristic" of all percussion because of their use in marching. In the process of stirring up these feelings of medieval battle in the audience, though, the music nearly drowns the speech of Branagh, who also has to speak over the sound effects of the burning city in the background. Thus, the delicate balance of music expected by the audience and text is thrown slightly askew in the direction of the audience and music.

At the time of Bardolph's death, Henry's resolve for justice and order is paramount. As Henry remembers old times once again, Doyle uses the same theme he had introduced in Falstaff's death scene, yet this time, it has an undeniably darker tone. If the music had been softer and more melodic, then the audience might have interpreted Henry to be a little more remorseful. As it is scored, though, it shows that Henry is indeed strong in his convictions. The music assists in shaping the new Henry, who some audiences might consider rash and unforgiving.

The cue entitled "Upon the King" coincides with the King's disguised scene among his men. As an interesting note, Pat Doyle himself played the part of Alexander Court, whose only line is "Brother John Bates, is not that the morning that breaks yonder?" As the conversation between the disguised King and Michael Williams intensifies, the music becomes mysteriously repetitive. Doyle introduces a type of pan flute (or so it sounds --no documentation could be found on its exact name) and weaves into the background the main theme of Non nomis Domine. Doyle chose to score it with a mysterious churning of strings and woodwinds, which might further add confusion in the audiences mind as to the question "why is Henry masquerading among his own men?" The music fails to shape any single interpretation; instead, it plays on that question. The nobility of the previous cues is lost.

As Henry prepares for his rallying speech on St. Crispin's Day, Doyle finally reaches the perfect balance between the power of the text and the expectations of the audience. The 15-minute battle cue begins with solo timpani, which helps exaggerate the fact that the English forces are vastly outnumbered by the French. As King Henry's speech begins, the score begins in the lower octaves and slowly --over three minutes-- and works its way higher as means to create an uplifting spirit. The orchestra builds continuously until it reaches a heroic climax and the battle begins. The same uplifting theme can be heard from this point forward in the film, perhaps symbolizing the final achievement of victory by Henry.

The highlight of the score is based on a song barely mentioned in the play. Ken Branagh requested that Doyle compose a repetitive choral piece to accompany the lyrics: "Non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam (Not unto us o lord, but in your name be there glory)." Although the lyrics previously existed, the song was composed by Doyle before production even began on the film. He made a demo tape of the song using a synthesized orchestra and adult chorus, and the demo was so emotional that Branagh requested that it be transferred directly to the film. Even though the action that takes place in the film during the song encompasses only three lines from the play, it is the pinnacle of Henry's conquering achievement. Branagh had the demo tape played over loudspeakers while the burial scene was filmed. This, perhaps, was the best move Branagh made in the production of the film. Because the song was playing during the continuous burial sequence shot, the singing of the extra actors seems even more realistic. Emotionally, it was a brilliant song to represent the scene, and Doyle, who played the first soldier to begin singing in the scene, won the "Best Film Theme of 1989" at Britain's Ivor Novello Awards.

The question remains, though: did Doyle score as a whole bring modern audiences together with the text and coincide with Branagh's interpretations of the film? Indeed, it reinforced Branagh's intentions and served without overwhelming Shakespeare's words. With modern audiences, though, the score did not fare as well, even though it was recognized as a solid effort by first-time composer Patrick Doyle. Audiences expect a single, dominant theme they can associate with a film, and although Non nobis Domine is as worthy as any other theme, Doyle did not use it in full until the last 15 minutes of the picture. If Doyle had used the choral Non nobis Domine theme to tie the entire film together, even as background accompaniment cues behind dialog, the score would be more consistent with others of our time. In the same year that Henry V was released, the hearts of audiences were captured by James Horner's militaristic choral score for Glory, which was a superior representation of a heroic and historical crusade. In Glory, James Horner established a strong thematic base from the outset of the film, thus drawing audiences into the story immediately. Without the emotional power of a dominant theme throughout Henry V, audiences who were not familiar with Shakespeare's works might ponder (upon hearing Non nobis Domine) what they had missed in the first half of the film. Although Pat Doyle had succeeded in composing an adequate accompaniment for Ken Branagh's interpretation of the text, he stopped just one step short of using it in a way that modern audiences could identify with.

This 1993 score was the third collaboration between Branagh and Doyle, after the disappointing (yet Golden Globe nominated) Dead Again in 1991. On the other hand, Much Ado About Nothing came right after Doyle's impressive effort in Indochine, a French film (the soundtrack is available on multiple labels). The Much Ado About Nothing release contains both score and song composed by Doyle, as well as a cue that does not appear in the film. He performs in the songs himself while performing the role of Balthasar. It is a much lighter score than the others, a logical choice considering that this play is a comedy and the others are tragedies or epic histories. The score is especially effective in the film because it keeps up with (or is part of) the quick and frantic pace that the film takes.

"During our earlier discussions on Much Ado About Nothing, Ken suggested adapting 'Sigh No More Ladies' for the song that Balthazar sings in the garden. When I arrived in Tuscany for the rehearsal week, we immediately sat down and bashed our heads together and eventually made it work.


Ken and I discussed preparing in advance many of the music cues required for play-back purposes on the set. We both agreed consequently that the atmosphere of being on a location in such a gorgeous setting would be a crucial element in achieving the appropriate moods. By the end of the rehearsal week, all the actors had learnt the melody and harmonies for 'Sigh No More Ladies', and the small strolling band of players had learnt their dance tunes for 'The Masked Ball'. The melody for 'Pardon Goddess Of The Night' proved to be the most elusive as each time I presented Ken with what I thought he was searching for, I was sent back to the 'Drawing Board'. After much hair pulling, I was fifth time lucky.


Although we had very limited resources and time on location, I managed to grab the actors and teach them a very rough version of the funeral hymn, which we recorded on the 'Villa Vignamaggio Tennis Court' during lunch! Also I shall never forget the assembly line of actors in the central courtyard, literally learning and recording a capella all the harmonies and countermelodies for 'Sigh No More Ladies'. They were magnificent!


Much later back in London, with the help of Gavin Greenaway and a barmoniser, we managed to save almost all of the frenetic work, which proved to be invaluable for the previews as Ken predicted. There were many difficult moments to address in the underscore. The most obvious one was the opening montage sequence which needed to he big, romantic, melodic and dramatic, but at the same time the music needed to have lots of drive. Along with all these other requirements the music had to underline the obvious masculine and feminine aspect. The end result culminated in what turned out to be a traditional 'Overture', containing virtually every theme.


The other difficult moment was where Claudio rejects Hero at the wedding ceremony ('Take her back again'). Here, there were so many changes of mood to capture and on top of that virtually non-stop dialogue. It was one of the last cues I addressed for (apart from terror) every element from either side of this scene had to be drawn upon to give me ideas. In my view it became the most operatic use of underscore.


I am immensely proud and privileged to have been part of Much Ado About Nothing and I don't know why I am surprised, but yet again I am amazed at the talent, strength and inventiveness of its creator. He has done a magnificent job. My many thanks to Ken yet again!"


-- Pat Doyle, March 18th, 1993.

Hamlet's score uses many of the same motif created by the first two scores. There are quite a few sequences that are not-so-subtle hints of previous Doyle music. The main theme is almost note for note like that of Much Ado About Nothing, making it a little less enjoyable. Placido Domingo's performance is surely interesting, however the Doyle theme that he performs doesn't make full use of his voice. Still, however, it is a massive effort --as was the film. The CD release is over 70 minutes in length. Remarkably, even with that much music, only the final track is the memorable of the entire lot. Doyle's music, again, is "underscore," or the type of emotional mood-setting that works splendidly in the film, but lacks much meaning on CD. For Hamlet, Doyle received the nomination for "Best Original Score" at the 1997 Academy Awards.

"In this score Patrick Doyle attempted the most difficult of things for an artist - simplicity. His challenge was to write music that would serve the words and yet, over the course of the film, could build a profound resonance in itself. As with our other Shakespearean work we wanted the instant accessibility that Patrick's gift for melody could provide - a chance to direct the audience's mood through difficult passages, and yet not patronise the viewer or dilute the power of a scene. I think he has succeeded superbly well.


As with Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing the score is unashamedly romantic. Our Hamlet is not presented as a man predisposed to melancholy. His usual character, described so often in the play, is vibrant, curious, positive. So it is with the music. We wanted, wherever possible, to stress the potential for joy in this court. Hence the wedding fanfares at the beginning of the early court scenes speak of glorious possibility, of a relationship between Claudius and Gertrude which could be full of hope, and a bright new era for the Danish nation. Only we, the audience, and Hamlet himself suspect otherwise. This contrast, expressed through music, between the darkness of Hamlet's mood and the potential for happiness in the lives of the other characters was something we pursued constantly.


Thus we play the sweetness of the Ophelia/Laertes relationship, the genuineness of the passion between Hamlet and Opheha, and the tenderness of Hamlet's relationship with his father, as positively as we can.


We resisted Gothic notions of a permanently gloomy Elsinore. For me, the Play is partly a search (through Hamlet's extraordinary mind) for what makes life worth living. When afforded a glimpse of those things that occasionally inspire Hamlet - love, friendship, the theatre - I wanted the music to soar with Hamlet's temporary optimism and hope. And finally, I wanted the audience to leave, not depressed, but shaken by an emotional catharsis that the music would support in the most full-blooded way. Aside from the great choral finale, Patrick gives us a beautiful funeral elegy. "In Pace" is sung (to our honour and delight) by Placido Domingo. That miraculous voice, expressing with such delicacy lyrics from The Book of Wisdorn, sends our hero on his way with a touching dignity. His journey, reflected in the musical score, resolves itself into a peace, which he has pursued throughout the film. We are moved to accept the tragic inevitability of his fate. It seems to me that, through his score, Patrick has realised a very fine musical response to the play. It has lifted the rest of our work in a way I could scarcely hope for, and I thank him for his remarkable talent."


-- Kenneth Branagh



"The three principal thematic ideas upon which the score is built are those that reflect the characters of Claudius, Ophelia and, of course, Hamlet.


The simple, childlike Ophelia melody (first used in track 12) came to me eventually after watching Kate Winslet on the set and being extremely moved by the scene in which Ophelia reads Hamlet's letter to her. In the Confessional scene, as in a number of other scenes, the drama is effectively heightened by interspersing throughout the action a string quartet (and on occasion, a quintet), joined by a full string or mixed orchestra.


Claudius' theme (stated in its entirety in the Confessional scene - end of track 14) takes the score much further into the realm of 20th-century harmonies; in addition, to compliment Claudius' dark, troubled soul, I decided on a canon as the most dramatic musical device with which to create a feeling of continued restlessness. This canonic theme ultimately provides the basis for most of the driving material and serves as a musical means of linking Hamlet, his father and Claudius.


Hamlet's theme proved to be the most daunting and elusive; the score could not develop until this materialised. I lost count of how many times I stared helplessly at the last scene before the 'simple' theme reared its salvatory head. The song 'In Pace' clearly weaves together the themes of Hainlet and Ophelia. To have it performed by Placido Domingo, one of the great voices of the century, was a tremendous privilege.


I had such a happy experience throughout this assignment. The quality of the performances along with all the technical crafts were a constant inspiration. In my opinion, it is unquestionably Kenneth Branagh's greatest work for the cinema, both as a Director and especially as Hamlet. I only hope that my contribution has helped Ken in realising what I consider for him to be a remarkable personal achievement.


With deepest admiration I would like to dedicate this score to Kenneth Branagh. I should also like to dedicate 'In Pace' in memory of Rhona."


-- Patrick Doyle

Links to more information about Patrick Doyle:

Filmtracks Reviews:

• Henry V
• Shipwrecked
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Sense and Sensibility
• Hamlet
• Great Expectations

Filmtracks' Favorite Doyle Links:


• Ellen Edgerton's Patrick Doyle Site.
• ScoreLogue's Patrick Doyle Info Page.
• Patrick Doyle's composer management agency, Air-Edel Associates.

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