Music to Arouse People’s Emotions...From Patrick Doyle
Music has always been a part of my career, but until I met Kenneth Branagh and David Parfitt and worked with the Renaissance Theatre Company I was principally an actor.  Now, composition is my main occupation.   I was working as actor, composer and musical director on the Renaissance Theatre Company’s first UK tour (with Hamlet) when I first approached Ken about writing the score for Henry V.  I had never written a feature film score, and Ken had never directed a film:  understandably, he was very worried about taking an inexperienced composer on board.  However, after a great deal of deliberation he asked me to come up with some ideas that would give him an indication of what I might produce.
     When, on the tour’s only foreign visit, we reached Helsingor (Shakespeare’s Elsinore), Stephen Evans (the executive producer), David, Ken, and I met in the ballroom of the Marianlyst Hotel, where I played through a few rough sketches.  They liked what they heard, and on return to London Ken asked for the sketches to be orchestrated.
      Once I had been commissioned to write the score, I recorded a demo tape of three pieces in synthesized orchestration.  Quite unknown to me, the tape was given to Simon Rattle, who to my delight liked what he heard.  He agreed to conduct the score, and we were fortunate in finding available dates for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.  For Simon and the orchestra—as for so many of those involved—Henry V was a first.
      I played the part of Court in the film and worked throughout the shooting period.  I had my own Portakabin at Shepperton, and when I wasn’t acting I was jotting down ideas for the score.  The opportunity to watch and work with the performers on the set and see the rushes every day gave me a unique insight into the characterization, construction and requirements of the film; it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world to be on site, though in fact the composer is usually brought in after the film is completed.
      Though Ken is not a musician, he has an uncanny instinct for what is required of the composer.  He originally planned to have 50 minutes of music (which I later realized is quite a lot for a film), but after we saw the finished film the score grew to around 90 minutes.  Some advised that this was far too much music; Ken always maintained that the film needed it, and that anyway he would rather have too much music (and cut some) than find himself stranded at a late stage with too little.  Ken wanted the music to arouse people’s emotions.  With this in mind, throughout the score I held a musical mirror up to the dialogue and action; my approach was in many ways operatic.  There are in addition many long music cues, which meant that I was able to write neatly rounded pieces that could ultimately stand on their own.     The recording sessions with Simon and the CBSO were the most memorable and emotional four days of my career, and I shall never forget their enthusiasm and encouragement....from the Henry V film program    

from Simon Rattle...It was a happy chance that brought the CBSO and me into Henry V.  An old friend of mine, Sophie Baker, was the stills photographer for the film.  She mentioned that Kenneth Branagh wanted us to do the music, but that he thought we would have neither time nor inclination.  I leapt at the prospect. Films have always been a passion for me, but very much as an uncritical outsider:  like most of the orchestra, I was about to enter a new, uncharted world.  Reasonable control started to turn to panic when I walked into the studio and found myself confronted with an unfamiliar orchestral layout and even more unfamiliar equipment (not all of which looked immediately user-friendly).  However, to relieve the twitches, there was the orchestra’s first meeting with Patrick Doyle to enjoy.  Having worked with him in his Portakabin in Shepperton, and having sat in the company of his synthesizers and shared his month’s supply of used teabags, I sensed he would cut through any tension.
      And so it proved:  after the first take, in contrast to the shy gravity of most composers when they meet an orchestra, Pat raced into the studio and, in his best hysterical Glaswegian, bubbled that we were ‘pairfect’ and ‘greeet’ and that this was the most wonderful experience of his life. My (slightly stunned) orchestra fell for him completely; and not just for him, of course, but also for his music, which seemed such an organic part of the action.  The fact that each take was played back to the orchestra in the studio with the film running meant that we all felt a part of the creative process—as one of the orchestra put it to me, ‘spending a few days listening to performers such as Judi Dench, Ken Branagh and Derek Jacobi can’t be too bad a way of making a living.’  I personally found it an immense and pleasurable challenge to listen to Shakespeare’s speeches in one earphone while at the same time attempting to fashion a living counterpoint to them. Pat made our task enormously satisfying with his apt and eloquent music, and Lawrence Ashmore, the orchestrator, gave us sonorities that unfailingly leapt off the page.  Above all, as musicians, we felt privileged to be part of what is so obviously a great and remarkable film. And finally, which of us would have missed two thumbnail sketches from John Sessions, Macmorris in the film and resident clown for the duration:  of the late Sir Laurence Olivier playing in EastEnders and Pat Doyle reading the Bible in 20 seconds?...from the Henry V film program