I've rediscovered the fiery nature of the creation of Frankenstein; the "Wedding Night" is a rapturous little piece for strings.
[n]Une femme francais[/b] is also an undiscovered gem; though I have only this one track, I have to try to hunt down the whole score.

Hamlet is a score with which I have trouble making it all the way through...these tracks renewed my interest in the score.

Donnie Brasco is really a score I have never given a fair shake, even having bought the damn CD. Much more emotional than I thought.

"Connie's Song" from Mrs Winterbourne is another gem, no one might know about. Definitely worth the price of the CD for that 2 minutes; a song without words.

In short, you're a LOSER (Jeron) if you don't listen to Doyle more often. If Ellen's still around, grab this compilation from her, dammit.

So as you can tell, Patrick Doyle scores, will be my latest musical phase (tempered only partially with my Young Indy and Beltrami sets coming next week).

PS -- j/k Jeron.

Doyle rules!!!

The Love Theme from Frankenstein is unmatched. The Wedding Night makes perfect use of this theme, as do the source music cues that are NOT ON THE CD.

Hamlet is the most "haunting" score I've heard. I don't listen to it very often, because it's true that it is a bit hard to listen all the way through. But when you do, you can't get it out of your head.

Much Ado About Nothing is one of my very very favourite scores (and movies). Perfect both as standalone music and in the movie (I like to call Doyle the "Master of Underscore" ).

And I hope that my CDNow order finally arrives next week: Carlito's Way is among the CDs I'm waiting for.

So as not to be a total party poop, I'll add that none other than Elmer Bernstein said, some years ago, that he considered Doyle to be the best of all the younger composers working.

Shaun, even though your question was pointed to JJ, I'll jump in and agree with you that bombast from Doyle is *definitely* great stuff. And... JJ! Mrs. Winterborne is terrific. Any fan of Doyle *should* own this.

Jeron

And I must defend Branagh's Frankenstein: Overdirected? Overproduced? Certainly! It works like an opera. It SHOULD be overdirected, overproduced and over-everything-elsed. I love it.

Screenwriter Frank Darabont was horrified by what Branagh did with his script, and I suspect he was right to be.

Anyway, here are my comments on some of Doyle's scores: http://www.moviemusic.com/reviews.asp?id=indochine http://www.moviemusic.com/reviews.asp?id=henryv http://www.moviemusic.com/reviews.asp?id=deadagain http://www.moviemusic.com/reviews.asp?id=donniebrasco-score

Marian and Rocco, I don't know what to say. In my opinion, you're both right. In a sense, Frankenstein is meant to be over the top, but I found Branagh's approach a little too... I guess "tasteful" would be the word.

Something to like about Frankenstein is, at least you don't have to say "The composer was just phoning it in!" :-)

quote:

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Originally posted by Swashbuckler:
I'm a big Pat Doyle fan myself. We're also lucky enough to be able to see him in all of Branagh's films.

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In ALL? I saw him in Much Ado About Nothing (but only when I got the DVD I realized that he's in the background ALL THE TIME), I spotted him in Dead Again (first as the police officer, and today when I watched it again also at the party in the past). And in Henry V of course. But I can't recall seeing him in the others he scored for Branagh, or in those he didn't score.

?

I called Doyle the "Master of Underscore". I'd just like to point out an example where this is most apparent. Take the track "Take Her Back Again" from Much Ado (in the movie), and notice the short major part in the otherwise minor track. It perfectly shows that amongst all the wrath, Claudio also feels sorrow. Doyle also mentions this track in the liner notes.

Doyle has the ability to write very long scores for movies with much dialogue without making them seem too much. And he also perfectly scores sequences that rely on the music. His early involvement in Branagh's movies certainly helps in this case. Only that way can he write songs that form the "core" of a score and yet are written and recorded during filming.

And a special bonus for his usual liner notes, which also always are very interesting. This guy should do a commentary track for a DVD featuring one of his scores, like Don Davis did for The Matrix.

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Originally posted by Marian Schedenig:

And a special bonus for his usual liner notes, which also always are very interesting. This guy should do a commentary track for a DVD featuring one of his scores, like Don Davis did for The Matrix.

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I have a radio interview he did several years ago where he gives a blow-by-blow account of "Grand Central" from Carlito's Way while it's playing... it's pretty funny.

"The Creation" from Frankenstein has to be the fastest, loudest 2 minutes of music ever written. Just love it. The love theme has Georges Delerue's stamp of approval all over it.

NP -- The Dove, John Barry; eh, I felt like goin' retro tonight. this is VERY retro

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Originally posted by ActionGuy:
I haven't heard much of anything by Doyle. Any good reccomendations that is a must have??

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Re The Creation, the one thing that annoys me is that it seems to be mixed a tad louder on the CD than the rest of the tracks. Oh, and I just love that deep brass statement during the thunderstorm music (track #4 or something like that).

ActionGuy, there are several good starts:

• Dead Again - The Varese CD only runs for about 30 minutes (some interesting parts of the score are missing, but not much). This was my introduction to Doyle. A very energetic main theme, many lyrical passages plus a great choral climax
  
• Much Ado About Nothing - If you like full-blown, romantic music, you'll just love this. It's my personal favourite
  
• Frankenstein - Read above. The energetic tracks may get on your nerves a bit after some time, but it's a must just for the love theme
  
• Henry V - Doyle's first film score, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle (also the first film score for him).
  

Hamlet is very good, too, but more subtle, so I wouldn't recommend it for a start. Oh, and if you hear a male solo voice singing, that's Doyle himself (except in Hamlet, that's Placido Domingo, obviously)

Part of the problem of recommending Doyle to a new listener is that there's no obvious place to start, except the most obvious, which is Henry V (his first score). But Henry is one of his more challenging scores, as long as we're on that subject.

Much Ado is a good place to start, but again, it's a lot brighter than many of his scores, so...

What the heck, get East-West first. It's recently been released, so it should still be readily available. It has big heroic themes, more intimate music, decent action cues (though not as high-octane as Doyle can get), a fine choral number, and lots of Doylesque panache. You should get a pretty good general idea of what he does, from this score, and if you like what you hear, you can always branch out to his other scores in whatever direction you like.

This is one of the pieces I'd put on my "Introduction To The Orchestral Score".

SHIPWRECKED is another excellent Doyle score that doesn't get mentioned very much, but is a remarkable accomplishment coming right after HENRY V.

Ellen - How could I get a copy of that Doyle compilation that JJ mentioned earlier?

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Originally posted by SBD:
I've been meaning to get Doyle's work, but I've just never really gotten around to it, so...
Ellen - How could I get a copy of that Doyle compilation that JJ mentioned earlier?
NP - Judge Dredd *****/***** ("We Created You")

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ellen B Edgerton:
Send me an email.

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What's your email?

Thanks.

I'm currently hunting for Great Expectations and Carlito's Way. I got the impression I'd like these two from reviews and what I've heard so far. Any others I should look into first?

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Originally posted by Camillu:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by Ellen B Edgerton:
[b] Send me an email.<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

What's your email?
[/B]

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Indochine is just as good as any of the other scores mentioned, with great soaring strings and thunderous brass, everything an epic symphonic film score should be. The music manages to cover many bases without ever sacrificing unity... read my review of it from the link above.

this is perhaps the BEST children's score yet written. Everything about it is charming and magical. Certainly one of Doyle's best works.

I'm so glad I finally got Carlito's Way today!