About Patrick Doyle
Patrick Doyle is best known, as a film composer, for his collaborations with actor/director Kenneth Branagh. He was born in 1953 near Glasgow, Scotland, and studied piano and singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He graduated in 1974, then worked as a piano teacher before writing his first score for the musical comedy Glasvegas for the 1978 Edinburgh Festival. He then went on to a dual career in acting and composition for British television. He composed the music for Scottish Television's Charlie Endell and for the BBC's The Butterfly's Hoof. He also worked as a song writer and performer for the BBC program 60 Minutes, and appeared in a small role in the film Chariots of Fire.
Doyle joined Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987 as actor, composer and musical director, after he was commissioned to write the music for the television version of their very successful production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. He also wrote the music for other Renaissance productions including Hamlet, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Look Back In Anger, King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1989 he was asked to write the score for Branagh's new film of Shakespeare's Henry V, which began his career in film scoring.
There's also a biographical article on Patrick at Air-Edel Associates Ltd.
Film Music, Eye to Eye
Patrick Doyle hails from a large, music-loving family, and played tuba and piano before studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. His first composition, a piano trio, was assigned as a punishment after a professor became annoyed at his classroom behavior. The piece had to be finished in one week's time, but when Doyle performed it with the help of two classmates, it was deemed a hit. It seems that this college experience foreshadowed his eventual involvement -- and surprising success -- in a field that demands great creativity often under high pressure and insanely short deadlines: film scoring. [Photo: Patrick Doyle (left, with guitar) with Kenneth Branagh on location for Much Ado About Nothing.]
However, for over a dozen years after graduating from RSAMD, Doyle worked as an actor -- first in his native Scotland (where he appeared as Hector in John Byrne's production of The Slab Boys, and in the popular musical revue Glasvegas, whose score he wrote), and later in London where he appeared on stage and television (including parts in the TV series Tutti Frutti, The Monocled Mutineer, and bit parts in films such as Chariots of Fire). He was frequently asked to write music for many of the productions in which he appeared. His experiences as an actor and musical performer would affect his film composing career in a special way.
"I've been on stage so often and watched eye to eye and performed eye to eye, so there's an intensity, an awareness of how drama happens, so when I'm watching a movie I can put myself in the situation a lot easier... I can actually transport myself into the room as it were, imagine myself being one of the protagonists... Being formerly an actor, I think I can smell and feel an atmosphere that I can pull into the picture."
Doyle's approach to composing for film is often unique in an industry where composers are usually brought on to work long after shooting is completed. In the course of his assignments, he prefers to visit filming locations and sets when possible, observing the filmmakers and their work first hand. He has also appeared in small roles in some of the films he has scored. (He played the role of Court in Henry V and appeared as Balthasar in Much Ado About Nothing.) In this fashion, the musical score becomes an organic part of a film rather than an afterthought, and the composer is afforded a special insight into the heart of the drama.
"[Kenneth Branagh] 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... I loved it so much, I thought, this is what to do now. "
Since giving up acting for writing music full-time, Doyle's career has been one of resounding success in an amazingly short period. Since his film scoring debut in 1989, he has worked with many distinguished directors (including Kenneth Branagh, Brian DePalma, Mike Newell, Alfonso Cuaron and Ang Lee). He has also worked with many outstanding musicians, including orchestrator Lawrence Ashmore, conductor Sir Simon Rattle (formerly of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), Placido Domingo, Jane Eaglen, Emmanuel Ax (left, with Patrick) and many others.
"I suppose I've been lucky in that my background in theater has paid great dividends. It was such a varied background. Whenever I approach film, it's clearly appealed to all that past experience... 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."