Patrick Doyle Scores for Branagh
London
The Daily Telegiraffe
What's Up: MUSIC
Patrick Doyle is a great fan of Shakespeare. "Oddly enough, I'm moved far more often reading
Shakespeare than I am listening to music; I think he's arguably the greatest genius the
planet has ever seen."
Doyle is responsible for much of the music in Love's Labour's Lost,
Branagh's latest Shakespearean adaption for the screen.
Here is an excerpt from the Scorelogue magazine interview with Doyle:
Doyle: I think it's a wonderful idea. It harks back in many ways to the old MGM days. Ken adapted
the original text and he interspersed between the story great songs by Irving Berlin, Cole
Porter, Gershwin, in order to highlight, as it were, various points in the story. They become
singing soliloquies, almost like arias in the drama, in order to reiterate the point and drive
it home - they just burst into song! The curious thing is that none of us had been involved in
musicals for the cinema; I'd written a musical many years ago and had been involved in
pantomimes - these were Christmas shows very much in the style of a Broadway or West
End musical musical. In our country we, like you, were brought up on all the MGM
musicals; one of my earliest memories is watching the famous sequence from Singin' in
the Rain where Gene Kelly is singing and being rather bemused by the fact that he
handed his umbrella to a policeman in the end. I must have been about four or five,
thinking it was such a crazy thing to do. The music, comedy, and dance had a lasting effect
on me. I think one of the greatest musicals adapted for cinema was West Side Story, but
that entire world of the MGM training school seemed to me an amazing world. In a way this
film was slightly like that in that in two and a half weeks people came in and by the end had
learned all these songs and choreographed moves and lines. In fact after 2 weeks Ken
had a run through on one of the large Shepperton stages using simply tables and chairs.
Scorelogue: Sort of like a dress rehearsal?
Doyle: A technical rehearsal, in fact. Many people said afterwards, "God, you could just put that
onto the stage in the West End and it'd be a huge hit." It was wonderful to see the
rehearsals going on. Something was happening in every room: people were being taught
songs, taught harmonies, movement, and so on, and I was continually popping in and out
to supervise and find out what had changed, what was new, what was being added. It
looks extraordinary, and I think it's one of the best films ken has ever done. It's totally
charming.
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"Fans of Patrick Doyle will easily recognise his style, with the rich string writing and soaring melodies
(a cue like 'Beauty of a Woman's Face' is heartbreakingly beautiful). There is a mammoth cue, the nine minute 'Twelve Months and a Day..." which is very impressive. Without doubt Patrick Doyle writes some of the most beautiful music composed for films these days, he's a Georges Delerue for the new millennium. Another example is 'You That Way, We This Way..." with a lot of tear-jerking mid-register string writing. Such beauty."--Mikael Carlsson, Music From the Movies
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Another interview with Doyle about music and working with Branagh.
A Labour of Love
Scoring Shakespeare
Paul Tonks, for Amazon UK
Actor/director Kenneth Branagh has introduced a new cinema
audience to Shakespeare, from his cinematic debut in
Henry V (1989)
to Love's Labours Lost (2000), his latest in the series. All have
featured music by Scottish composer Patrick Doyle, who spoke to
Amazon.co.uk about putting the Bard into a 1930s musical setting.
Amazon.co.uk: After six movies together, how much of a verbal
short-hand has developed between you and Kenneth Branagh?
Patrick Doyle: It's a very relaxed relationship. Generally speaking, once
he's talked about what he's after in terms of style--we're set. For Love's
Labours Lost there was a lot to think about stylistically. We knew there
were the songs, but there was how to introduce them musically. Ordinarily
you'd get something like four bars in the old MGM style of musical cinema.
But it took a while to dawn on us that we needed a much longer preamble
before the song emerged. Because it's Shakespeare, that introduced a very
new aspect in an otherwise very traditional world of music. This was an
example where our dialogue evolved throughout the process of working
together. On something like Hamlet, he was clear about what he wanted
from the start. It needed something that talked about the man musically in
terms of honour, optimism, sadness etc. Ken likes a tune first, and that's
really the barometer for the rest of a film for him. He's happy for the
rest to
develop once we're set with a main core.
Amazon.co.uk: How do the songs replace some of the Shakespearean
text?
Doyle: Ken has adapted the play for the screen, and obviously he cuts
down a long play to make a short film. But the point of the songs is
they're
like arias in an opera: they highlight the Bard's words. Really they're a
bit of
fun that capture the essence of what Shakespeare was after. In many places
it's as simple as: "I love you and can we get together for a while?"
Amazon.co.uk: Did you help select the songs?
Doyle: They were entirely Ken's choice. My job was a big piece of musical
direction as well as providing the underscore. I did some work on the
arrangements. I'm sure it was very different from the old days of MGM
musical where they had months and months of preparation. Filming started
two months after we began on the songs, and then once we saw the
choreography the arrangements had to change again. My feeling when I first
saw them filming was I'd have to give a bold lush score, because the whole
thing looks so bright. I felt the story needed something strong yet not
incongruous to the performances or the songs.
Amazon.co.uk: What were the important themes or characters for you to
focus on in your score?
Doyle: Ken's speech in the library when he talks about the power of love
and a woman's touch inspired one of the main themes: that had to have a
nobility to it, something with a feeling of English choral music because
of the
university setting. It looks so quintessentially English that to me it
called for a
theme that represented that look. The score had to create a whole new
world to complement the songs. Even
these longer introductions going into the songs are separate things: the
audience has to hear them and
subconsciously know they're going into a musical number. Musically, you're
preparing and leading the
audience by the nose so it's not a shock to encounter a song in
Shakespeare. A great example is "I've Got A
Crush On You", where each character has a verse. It's a real comedic
moment and I had to write the
underscore way in advance.
Amazon.co.uk: What have been your proudest musical moments over the course
of your collaborations
with Branagh?
Doyle: Henry V as my first picture was one of the most thrilling
experiences of my life. To hear a symphony
orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle doing my music was just beyond words.
I was a bit emotional when
they played the first bit back. Much Ado About Nothing was such an
extraordinary project. To spend six
weeks in Tuscany with that cast. I laughed like a drain all the time going
to Florence for your evening meal.
Dead Again had some of the best recording sessions I've had. Hamlet has
one of my all-time favourite
moments with the sword fight at the end. That string piece with lots of
pizzicato was recorded on the second
take. It was the most phenomenal sight-reading I've ever known. We had so
much fun at the Oscars running
up and down the aisle shouting "loser!"
Amazon.co.uk: Branagh announced wanting to adapt all of Shakespeare's works
for film. Which play would you most like to work on?
Doyle:"The Scottish Play" is my favourite of course!
This interview can also be found online
here.
For audio clips of Doyle's music from Henry V, and other Henry V multimedia, visit the story page
for Henry V and scroll down.
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Love's Labour's Lost CD Liner notes
From Director Kenneth Branagh
Perhaps it was the challenge of walking into a meeting with film financiers to persuade them to bankroll an obscure
Shakespearean comedy musical. Or perhaps it was a love affair with this neglected play. Or perhaps it was my awed
admiration for the great Hollywood extravaganzas of the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Whatever the reason, Patrick and I were pretty
sure that we would be setting ourselves an irresistibly exciting and demanding creative challenge by fusing Shakespeare and
the musical. And so it proved.
A plot that many critics have described as silly; a style that moves from high romance to farce to social satire; characters who
can veer from narcissism to the grotesque -- all are inside a play which, alone among Shakespeare's works, went unperformed
for some two hundred years after his death. Add to that the very genre of film musical, rarely revived, replaced, we were told,
by the rock video. This soundtrack is the essential element with which we attempted to overcome these difficulties. .
We chose classic songs from composers whose economy, lightness of touch, and linguistic and melodic brilliance could stand
beside the equally delicate poetry of the playwright. And we strived to create new arrangements that took their style from the
drama (and the comedy); orchestrations that would viscerally give audiences the vicarious thrill of on-screen emotions; and
finally, a narrative score that required Patrick to tackle the awesome challenge of complementing both Shakespeare and some
of the major popular songwriters of the twentieth century. Patrick, I am sure you will agree, has risen to the occasion with an
immensely joyful and touching work. My collaboration with him and the sensational team that enabled us to realise this
deliciously crazy endeavor was truly a privilege. I thank them all for their patience and talent. And I know that all of us thank
Mr. William Shakespeare, Mr. Cole Porter, et al for this opportunity. .
Perhaps it was the challenge of walking into a meeting with film financiers to persuade them to bankroll an obscure
Shakespearean comedy musical. Or perhaps it was a love affair with this neglected play. Or perhaps it was my awed
admiration for the great Hollywood extravaganzas of the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Whatever the reason, Patrick and I were pretty
sure that we would be setting ourselves an irresistibly exciting and demanding creative challenge by fusing Shakespeare and
the musical. And so it proved.
A plot that many critics have described as silly; a style that moves from high romance to farce to social satire; characters who
can veer from narcissism to the grotesque -- all are inside a play which, alone among Shakespeare's works, went unperformed
for some two hundred years after his death. Add to that the very genre of film musical, rarely revived, replaced, we were told,
by the rock video. This soundtrack is the essential element with which we attempted to overcome these difficulties.
We chose classic songs from composers whose economy, lightness of touch, and linguistic and melodic brilliance could stand
beside the equally delicate poetry of the playwright. And we strived to create new arrangements that took their style from the
drama (and the comedy); orchestrations that would viscerally give audiences the vicarious thrill of on-screen emotions; and
finally, a narrative score that required Patrick to tackle the awesome challenge of complementing both Shakespeare and some
of the major popular songwriters of the twentieth century. Patrick, I am sure you will agree, has risen to the occasion with an
immensely joyful and touching work. My collaboration with him and the sensational team that enabled us to realise this
deliciously crazy endeavor was truly a privilege. I thank them all for their patience and talent. And I know that all of us thank
Mr. William Shakespeare, Mr. Cole Porter, et al for this opportunity.
From composer Patrick Doyle
Shakespeare wrote lyrics to be sung in many of his plays, but for this adapatation of Love's Labour's Lost, Kenneth Branagh
had a unique approach. Ken's idea was to incorporate existing popular songs into the score, in particular, some of the most
masterful tunes and lyrics in modern musical history, written by the likes of Gershwin, Porter, Kern, and Berlin. Even before
filming began, there were many meetings involving the music, for all of us knew we had a mammoth task before us.
From the moment I saw rushes, my instincts told me that a big, lush, romantic, magical score would inevitably emerge and that
the arrangements had to be "filmic" and driven by the drama. In this context, the popular songs we used would seem like
arias, springing out of a moment to highlight a thought or to advance the narrative.
As my work on the score progressed, it became clear that Ken's unique approach to Shakespeare demanded particular
musical ideas: unlike the traditional song introductions of the past (which are relatively short), the songs here needed longer
introductions; the Collegian design (being quintessentially English) called for a traditional English sound; the Royalty aspect
cried out for a noble quality; the very funny "Cinetone News" sequences needed none other than the classic "March of Time"
accompaniment; the comic characters -- who, with the exception of Costard, took themselves very seriously -- needed music
that reflected their dignity; the opening titles needed to sound like the old MGM overtures (which I will always associate with
childhood Sunday afternoons, accompanied with the smell of home cooking).
Finally, as this is one of Shakespeare's most poetic works, it sometimes proved difficult to reflect its poetry in the score -- never
more so than in the scenes where the four couples say good-bye.
This project was a hugely enjoyable new experience, and it is certainly one of Ken's finest films. He has been a great friend,
and I thank him. And as I suspected from the very beginning, working on this film has turned out to be one of my most
interesting projects to date.
Click here to listen to "I Won’t Dance". (Wav file)
Sony's Love’s Labour’s Lost CD site.
Liner notes from the CD site.
(Thanks to Isabel)
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Below is a partial transcript of composer Patrick Doyle's April 1994
appearance on KUSC-FM's The Record Shelf, hosted by Jim Svejda.
(Some of Svejda's comments were post-recorded and so have been edited out.)
Thanks to Terry E. for typing this transcript. Thanks to Maria Isabel Ortiz.
On his career before film composing:
Patrick Doyle: I suppose I had a fairly good career as an actor. I
managed
to have a house, a mortgage, a car, kids, the whole bit, so in those
terms I
survived as an actor, at least I worked. And occasionally I would write
for radio or the odd television thing, but I was very often asked to
write
for the theater. I wrote a musical, in fact...that was called
"Glasvegas" (as opposed to the other place) and it was a kind of Fifties spoof
sendup.
It was very successful, and in fact it was revived about two years ago,
just a small tour of Scotland. So that was great fun. So all along the
line,
in fact I had to keep refusing musical direction work. But no matter
where I
went, I always ended up doing a bit of music and acting, because it was
cheaper to employ me, because you got two jobs for the price of one.
(Laughs) I'm serious. So I was always helped. I mean, someone said,
he'll
never stop working because he's got two jobs he could turn his hand
to. So
really, that's what happened.
Jim Svejda: How did [Kenneth Branagh's film] "Henry V" happen to happen?
PD: Well, it was really through a mutual friend of Ken Branagh's and
myself
called John Sessions. I suppose he's the British equivalent of Robin
Williams--extremely, extremely gifted comedian. And John and I worked
together as actors in a Bert hold Brecht play. And I remember during a
break
I was doing a pastiche, some Mozart--it was a sendup for a TV show I
was
doing previously, a kind of evening current affairs show where there
was a
song at the end of the show, and I did the sendup of an opera. And so
I was
joking and laughing, and playing it for John, and really through that
John
got to know about my musical background. And when Ken actually asked
John if
he knew anyone who could possibly write some music for a forthcoming
production of Twelfth Night, John suggested myself. And I remember he
had
talked about this Ken Branagh, and he had recently won a lot of praise
for
his performance of Henry V in the RSC. I hadn't seen the performance.
So I
knew vaguely the name, but this was just at the beginning of the
Renaissance
Theatre Company, which Ken had formed with David Parfitt. So I went
along to
meet Ken, and we got on very well--he had yet to hear a piece of my
music,
and offered me the job of writing the music for his production of
Twelfth
Night. And I thought, well, I'm going to jump at the chance of this
because
I'm really fed up acting and writing music, I'll just write the music
for
the first time in a long time. And I found out during that show that I
just
lost the bug for acting. I just thought I really loved writing this.
It was
a small band, only four people, and I loved it so much, I thought,
this is
what to do now.
On the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra:
PD: For someone who had never written a film score before, and to
suddenly
find out that someone of Simon Rattle's caliber and an orchestra of that
standard were to be the people employed for the job--it was just the
most
terrifying prospect. That was more terrifying than anything else--
forget
the fact that Walton wrote his version a while ago--that was the most
frightening thing. I was terrified because I had so much respect for
Simon
Rattle's work. It's an orchestra where you can almost instantly tell,
even
by just switching on the car radio or something--it's such a
distinctive
sound, it's such a tight ensemble, just a special, special talent.
JS: Is there a better orchestra in Britain these days? I don't think so.
PD: Well, for me, it's my favorite orchestra, there's no question,
because
the way he rehearses them and the way he allows certain members of the
orchestra to go away on sabbatical and do chamber work. I remember I
talked
to one of the double bass players and he said he goes away maybe for a
couple months to Germany or whatever and gets together with European
friends
and they do concerts and do chamber work. And obviously, they come back
bringing all that wealth of experience back into the orchestra. He
usually
rehearses longer, and it pays huge dividends. The composer gets a
complete
crack of the whip. There's no question. He gives the music every
chance in
the world to breathe. So it was just fortunate that the photographer
that
was employed on the film of Henry V was a neighbor of Simon Rattle's.
The
producer of the picture was very keen for Simon Rattle to do it. I
wouldn't
have dreamt of asking for Simon Rattle and the Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra. But the producer was keen on it, and the demonstration tape
that
I worked on--there was an electronic version done--was actually given
without my knowledge to Simon Rattle. And Rattle nodded his head in the
right direction and said yes, he'd quite like to get involved in this.
So
when the news of that came back, thatís what made me want to think,
I'm not
doing this job! (Laughs) It's too scary! But he did the most magnificent
job, and it was just a thrill. A thrill. Unbelievable.
On recording the score of "Henry V":
PD: I must say there was a point during a cue that accompanied the very
famous St. Crispin's Day speech, and watching the playback, we were
looking
at the monitor and they had just recorded the cue...and I remember
that was
the most cathartic moment. I've never cried before or since, in my
career,
emotionally over anything. I like to have good fun as much as I can,
but I
just completely broke down. It was embarrassing, it was really
embarrassing!
I've never done it before or since. My father sang in the choir--a
great
tenor, a terrific tenor. And my sister is a very good singer, in fact
she
sang on "Into the West", a score I did. So they were there, and Simon
Rattle
gives a hug, and it was like--oh, so mortifying. It was like the
Oscars,
you know--(Mimics) "Dahling, you were mahvelous! No, you were
mahvelous." I was in a terrible state. I was an emotional wreck.
Because I
just couldnít believe this had all happened. I heard this orchestra
blasting
away, and I just couldn't believe it. And to this day, I still can't
believe...that I'm sitting here being asked about it. I'm waiting on the
Hand of Fate--"Mr. Doyle, your time ís up!" (Laughs) "You've been found
out!"
JS: This is probably a silly question, but was anyone really prepared
for
the success that this film enjoyed?
PD: I wasn't prepared for the subsequent attention the score got. I
would
have been very content just to get through it, to have anything
accepted,
and just to carry on slowly working my way toward another job. But as
far as
the attention in this part of the world was concerned, it was a very
pleasant surprise for Ken to be nominated for two Oscars. I know that
the
score got an awful lot of play in America, and it sold many CDs, so I
was
very surprised, as I say, and I'm surprised I'm sitting here,
so...continually surprised.
On "Non Nobis, Domine" (the music at the end of the battle in "Henry V") :
PD: The actual structure of it is Ken Branagh's. Ken said, "I want it to
start off with a solo voice, and I want it to build and build and
build and
build." Ken described the shot in detail, said he wanted to use the
words of
"Non Nobis, Domine" and he described the shot--the carnage, dead
soldiers,
dead horses, mud, gore, spears, overturned carts--and he would be
walking
through all the mud and gore toward a cart where he would lay a body.
He'd
be carting one of the boys that were murdered by the French. So the shot
ended up just as he described. And I wrote this piece--it was part of
the
demonstration tape, as it were. So really what is actually on film is
what
was given to Ken as a result of a very clear--you know, I could see the
thing, I could actually picture it in my mind's eye, it was such a clear
picture of what he was about to shoot. And the actual music, in fact,
was
used on location, as a dolly came along, this huge tracking shot, the
music
was blasting so everyone could feel the atmosphere and give their
utmost.
On Kenneth Branagh's film "Dead Again":
PD: It was [a great leap], but it wasn't in many ways, because of the
fact
that I leaped from one job to the next was a miracle. (Laughs)
Obviously, it
was the same director, but being brought up on a diet of American
pictures,
especially the older pictures, certainly I was aware--I had seen many
Hitchcock pictures, pictures like "Rebecca." When Ken handed me the script
before it was shot, I knew it was a great piece of writing. Although
we had
problems in terms of the structure, once it was actually filmed they
were
very quickly sorted out when we played it to audiences, and there were
a few
rewrites and Scott Frank did a great job. So it was a hard, tough
score, a
very tough score, because it had to be so varied and it had to be a
modern
score, it had to pastiche the Forties. The plot was so convoluted and
the
score had to reflect a piece of music that this composer within the
picture
was writing, yet it had to address the picture and drama as well. So
it was
a very interesting challenge, and a tough one because it was a
follow-up to
a film that I was surprised that I got through in the first place,
Henry V,
and the fact that I thought, well, there's bound to be some section of
the
population out there interested to see what I am going to come up with
next.
I think it did quite well, Dead Again, I'm not quite sure of the
figures,
but in terms of a second picture, Ken did a great job.
JS: For people who didn't see the film, there are two stories going on--
one in color, one in black and white. The black and white is the
murder of
the wife of a famous composer. Both of these people bear a strange
resemblance to the two people in the modern part of the film--and I
must
say that he is about the only British actor I've ever seen that does an
absolutely convincing American accent.
PD: Well, he has a very good ear.
JS: Olivier's was terrible. Whenever Olivier played an American, it was
awful, just awful.
PD: Certainly, as far as Ken's concerned, he's got a terrific ear, and
the
very first time I saw Ken on stage was a play that he'd written called
"Public Enemy" in which he played a character who--it was set in Belfast,
which is where he was brought up until the age of eight. He was
playing a
character obsessed with Jimmy Cagney. He does the most brilliant Jimmy
Cagney impersonation. In fact, when he's slightly chubbier, when he
has a
good old holiday and the pasta and the wine flows, he tends to look very
strikingly like James Cagney.
KS: Which is something that a lot of the reviews, when Henry V first
came
out--they said, this guy really looks like Cagney, he really reminds of
the kind of power, streetwise . . .
PD: Clearly, he is a brilliant mimic, most people don't actually realize
he's a brilliant mimic and that accent--I'm sure he had to work at
it, and
do his homework. Both of them in fact have very good ears for accents.
Emma
did an equally convincing American accent.
On Brian DePalma's film "Carlito's Way":
JS: In Carlito's Way, you worked in an idiom which I don't imagine
you've
had much experience with.
PD: Uh...no. Certainly, I've never met people like that. I don't mean
the
actors, I mean the characters they were portraying. I remember Brian
DePalma
mentioned the script, he said, "It's a gangster movie, have you ever
done a
gangster movie before?" I said, "No, and neither have I met any."
(Laughs)
So he chuckled. I remember I got poor Brian DePalma out of his bed, he
was
on location, we kept trying to contact each other for a week and I
woke him
up. I think he'd just gotten in from this plane journey and I said,
"Don't
tell me it's one o'clock in the morning, Brian"--I was afraid he'd
tell me
it was five o'clock in the morning. He was terribly nice, and very very
strong, knew exactly what he wanted, he knew he wanted an elegiac
opening
for this picture, so I said, well I'll give you one of them, and in fact
it's one of the pieces Iím very proud of. When I wrote the piece, I also
wrote another version, just in the hope that one day if ever there
were a
concert version of it I would have it on hand, because I was
particularly
proud of it. I had worked very hard, as I do on all projects, but
particularly for this film, which I thought was one of the finest and
most
beautifully crafted pictures I'd seen in a long time. And he's a very
gifted
man, and I was very flattered to be asked to do it.
JS: There's a tracking shot in this movie--the cue is actually called
"Grand Central." One of the great tracking shots, period, in my
experience--it just goes on forever and ever and ever and ever.
PD: (Laughs)
JS: Why don't you basically set up the situation with what's happening
here?
PD: Well, basically itís the climax of the picture where the central
character, Carlito played by Al Pacino, is rushing toward an arranged
meeting with his girlfriend, and the baddies, as it were, are chasing
him.
When I saw this section of the fi lm, I saw it very early on before it
was
finally cut. I knew it'd have to be a piece of music that rose to the
picture, because it was such an incredibly directed piece and there
was this
particular hand-held camera shot that went on for about...God, was it
two
and a half minutes or something? It was directed like a ballet. The
whole
thing was so balletic, so beautifully moved. That was one thing that
became
abundantly clear, in a matter of seconds, was that this man had
impeccable
timing. He knew how to time and how to cut, and he knew the rhythm of
the
film. And I think they're absolutely inseparable, the fact that a film
to me
must have movement. It makes a great picture, the fact the director
has a
sense of movement, and that's something he has plenty of, he has it in
abundance. And even when he was describing to the editor about how to
cut
it, he saw a rough shape--it should be there, there, there, and done.
Even
when he was describing the cut, it was like there was a rhythm, a
drummer or
something. So I just knew that I was in the hands of someone who knew
exactly how music worked to picture. There'd be no love lost in
telling me
exactly what. Whenever he gave suggestions they were on the button.
And that
was a particularly difficult cue because it had so many ups and downs--it
was so long--and it had to be a continual theme. I suppose the obvious
thing, because it was at a station, was to have a train rhythm, but I
didn't
consciously come up with what was so apparent, like a locomotive theme
(Hums it)--believe it or not, that was not conscious. That was a
totally
subconscious rhythm and theme--it wasn't until the recording that I
thought well, of course. (Hums) It wasn't that conscious. And it seems
the
obvious thing--what ís he talking about--of course that ís the obvious
thing to do--choose a train rhythm! But I didn't; I didn't consciously
think.
On Kenneth Branagh's film "Much Ado About Nothing":
PD: "The Picnic" which opens the picture, clearly called for a
pastoral,
luxurious, relaxed-sounding cue. And Ken and I had watched the film
mentioned earlier called "Dead Again" and there was a particular theme
that I
used in that earlier on which was eventually dropped, and Ken felt it
would
be ideal to try and unearth it again and try in some way to get it in to
Much Ado. He was so fond of it. And we found it almost fitted--with a
bit
of work--to the words of "Sigh No More, Ladies." And so then that
became
one of the main themes throughout the picture. The Overture, as it
were--I
suppose it's an Overture in the strict sense in that it has virtually
every
single theme--and it does have every theme that ultimately appears in
the
picture--but it was an enormous pressure, that one, because it' s just four guns blasting all the time, it's relentless. And I had to portray
two
things, clearly: the femininity present in the picture, and also the
masculine side of things. I had to have one bouncing off the other. So
that
was the challenge of it. Plus, it had to clearly address all the fast
cutting. Not all--it wasn't all mickey-mouse, it wasn't catch every
cut.
But one of the interesting technical features of it was the opening, the
kind of Magnificent Seven moment when you have all these actors,
slowly each
one came up. I think there was--let's count them--(Hums main Overture
theme)--so there were seven of them I think! Anyway, one by one they
come
up and as always I stared at the images for a long time thinking,
"What am I
going to do with this?" Because it wasn't quite regular. Almost
regular, in
terms of the distance between each cut and how they come up. But I
suddenly
came up with the idea of just having these big leaping horns and (Hums
theme) and the seventh and the sixth . It looks as if they're all
doing it
in three-four time, but with the help of Roy Prendergast, who's a
terrific
musician and my music editor, Roy and I ramped the click. In other
words,
itís not strictly three-four time, it pulls slightly, and to catch the
cut
every time bang-on. I mean, I suppose I could have contacted the
editor and
said, "Look, I want this cut," and Roy and I would have worked out the
footage, but it was a nice challenge to just leave it as it was, to
take the
cut that was presented to me, and then write around that. I studied
that for
a long time before I thought, What am I going to do? It had to be very
butch. And it had to be heraldlike, it had to herald the arrival,
clearly,
of all these men back from the war.
On "Sigh No More, Ladies":
PD: I had already written this theme for a previous picture, "Dead
Again," and
it was never used. Ken came up with this idea, which I thought was mad
to
begin with, that we should use the same theme. And I felt it was a bit
gratuitous, just because he liked this theme, to shove it into
something,
especially those very famous words. But he's very driven, and usually
when
he's hooked onto an idea it's very difficult for him to let go, and he
really convinced me it would work. So with a little bit of
jiggery-pokery,
we managed to do it and fit the words to it. Obviously, when we looked
at it
again it wasn't quite the same theme, but with development and some
work on
it we managed to do it. He always insists on a very strong melody.
It's something which is a difficult brief, in that it should be instantly
appealing, yet have a longevity, have a life after. It should do all the
right things--it should reach a climax when a melody should reach a
climax, it should drift back to a final conclusion when it should.
Take a
beautiful melody, "The Londonderry Air." It just does all the right
things
at the right time, and lands its final resting spot in a perfect
place. If
it appeals to me, then hopefully it will appeal to other people.
On influences and career:
PD: I suppose I've been lucky in that my background in theater has
paid, I
think, great dividends. It was such a varied background. Whenever I
approach
film, it's clearly appealed to all that past experience. I also played
a lot
in bars, when I was in London, over a period of six years while I was an
actor as well. That helped to keep the wolf away from the door. It also
meant I was playing great songs by some of the most talented American
composers--Cole Porter, Irving Berlin--and those wonderful people.
That
helped, I think, each time I played that stuff. It helped to give me a
sense
of harmony, of harmonic progression, a great sense of melody, and those
songs for those shows are quite theatrically written. All that added
to the
melting pot to prepare me, I think, for writing for film. I was always
subconsciously aware of the interaction between drama and music, and
consciously--when it was bad, I think I noticed it. When it was working
well, I enjoyed the product, I enjoyed the film or TV program or
whatever.
So it seems to be a natural path for me, looking back on it. I work very
hard, and I take it very seriously, and I'm a very committed composer
and I
get terribly involved in it and very passionate about it. I would hope
that
comes across.
Return to top of this page
For the Love's Labour's Lost
page, click here.
For the Making of Love's Labour's
Lost, click here.
Click here for Trust Kenneth Branagh. Interviews with the RTE, Belfast Telegraph and The London Guardian are paired with photos and screen
captures from Love's Labour's Lost.
For the Daily Telegiraffe review of Love's Labour's Lost,
click here.
For other reviews of Love's Labour's Lost, click
here.
For the official
website of Love's Labour's Lost click here.
For
Branagh's thoughts on the film (from the LLL official website), click here.
For Love's Labour's Lost and more in the Guardian interview
with Kenneth Branagh at the National Film Theatre's 1999
Branagh retrospective, click here.
Layers as they were combined by the artists.
