Patrick Doyle

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Patrick Doyle (born April 6, 1953, Uddingston, South Lanarkshire) is an Academy Award nominated Scottish musician and film score composer. His collaboration with Kenneth Branagh and the Shakespearean community is well known, but his scoring talents are versatile, and he has composed orchestral scores for a variety of films and film genres, from Disney's Shipwrecked to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In the latter half of the 1990s, he utilised a combination of synthesizers, chorus, and solo vocals, along with a traditional orchestra.

[edit] Career

Doyle graduated in 1974 from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, where he studied piano and singing. His first music score was written in 1978, and subsequently, he has written the music for a host of radio, television, theatre and film productions. He now lives in Surrey with his wife and his four children.

In 1987, Doyle joined the Renaissance Theatre Company as composer and musical director. He has since composed music for their productions of Hamlet, As You Like It, and Much Ado About Nothing for directors Derek Jacobi, Geraldine McEwan, and Judi Dench. Doyle later worked with director Judi Dench on both the theatre and television productions of Look Back in Anger and then completed a world tour with the Renaissance Theatre Company, for which he was both composer and musical director for the company's productions of King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Director Kenneth Branagh commissioned Doyle to write the film score for the Renaissance Film Company production of Henry V. "Non Nobis Domine", from that film, was awarded the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme. In 1990, Charles, Prince of Wales commissioned Doyle to write The Thistle and The Rose, a song cycle for full choir, in honour of the Queen Mother's 90th birthday. In 1991, Doyle wrote the score for the Paramount feature Dead Again also directed by Branagh, and the score was nominated for a 1991 Golden Globe Award.

Doyle's 1995 score for Sense and Sensibility was nominated for a Golden Globe, an Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score, and a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Score. In 1996, Hamlet, a four hour epic directed by Kenneth Branagh for Castle Rock, received an Academy Award nomination. In 1997, Sony Classical commissioned him to write a piece of music to accompany a children's story entitled The Face In The Lake. This piece was premiered in February 1998 at Carnegie Hall in New York City, along with two other stories with music written by Wynton Marsalis & Edgar Meyer. Sony Classical released a CD of the music, narrated by Kate Winslet, together with a companion children's book published by Viking Press.

Doyle's style of classical composition and history as an actor and stage hand makes him a very knowledgeable musical artist. He has appeared (and sung) in numerous films and is always seeking to lend his diverse skills to more projects. The original themes he both composes and performs vocals for can be heard on the albums for Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing.

In November 1997, Doyle was diagnosed with leukemia, from which he has recovered. Nonetheless, he completed his score for Great Expectations and continued to work on Quest for Camelot during treatment. By 1998, his career had returned to full swing. He has recently completed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, taking over from John Williams who composed the last three Harry Potter scores and due to schedule conflicts did not score the film. He also wrote the music for the Eragon soundtrack (released December 15, 2006).