When it comes to Shakespearean films, many people may first think of Shakespeare's Love History directed by John Madden. The film's soundtrack was composed by British composer Stephen Warbeck, who also won him the Academy Award for Best Original Score that year and enjoyed high popularity around the world.
However, the film is not based on Shakespeare's plays, but focuses on Shakespeare's affair. In terms of soundtracks for Shakespeare's plays alone, it's easier to think of Patrick Doyle, another British composer of Warbeck's age.
Patrick Daui
Before entering the film industry, Daui had composed music for many Shakespeare stage plays. Thanks to his experience in composition in theatre, he entered the film scoring industry and was particularly adept at scoring films on British literature and Shakespeare's plays.
In the 1970s, Daui studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where he studied both classical music and the performing arts. In fact, he leaned more toward acting than music early in his career.
After graduating from college, the fledgling Doy was inspired to become an actor and played roles in several films and TV series. In 1981, he made his debut in the famous British historical film Chariots of Fire. A year later, he played a role in a British tv series called "Number 73", which was broadcast live until 1988, but As an actor, Daui did not impress the audience too much, and his acting skills were not well received. Only then did he decide to devote himself entirely to music.
In 1987, Dauie joined the British Renaissance Theatre Company as a composer and music director for the troupe, composing music for stage plays such as Hamlet, Everybody Rejoices, Twelfth Night, and Angry Memories. Soon, Daui became an expert on the soundtrack of Renaissance stage plays.
In 1989, director Kenneth Branagh invited Daui to compose music for the Renaissance film Henry V, which, although only Daui's film score debut, was a great success. The film's theme song also won the Best Film Theme Song Award at the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards in the United Kingdom that year.
This chant-style theme song is the highlight of the entire soundtrack. In historical film scores, excellent vocal singing sections often serve as the finishing touch, and their melodies are usually a theme melody that appears repeatedly throughout the soundtrack. But this theme song is unique, and there is no echo in the entire soundtrack, but because of this, it is even more outstanding.
Stills from Henry V
Since then, he has become a long-time partner of Shakespeare's famous director Kenneth Branagh. In the latter's films such as "Henry V", "All Men Are Troubled", "Hamlet", "Everyone Is Happy" and so on, Daui fully demonstrated his creative talent and composed many popular theme melodies.
1996's Hamlet is the pinnacle of Doesaon's soundtrack, with 25 pieces of music on the soundtrack. Whether it's a grand theme that renders the background of the times and spectacular scenes, or a musical section that reflects love scenes and shows psychological struggles, Daui handles it with ease and just right.
Similar to Henry V, Hamlet does not overemphasize the provocative melody, but creates a pure and noble musical atmosphere for the audience by navigating the complex orchestral passages, as close as possible to the artistic tone of Shakespeare's plays.
Stills from Hamlet
In addition to working with Branagh, Daui also created several other memorable works from this period, most of which are also from British literary themes, such as Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" and Julian Gerrard's "Great Prospects".
A year before Hamlet, Dauie's music for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility enjoyed a lofty status in the hearts of fans and fans alike, even better than his Shakespearean soundtrack in terms of melody alone.
It is a meticulously crafted soundtrack to the melody, each with a noble and elegant tune, which is the most beautiful classical style film soundtrack of the 90s.
Stills from Sense and Sensibility
In order to fully display Ang Lee's film language, Daui deliberately slowed down the rhythm of the entire soundtrack, and in order to set off the string group and the woodwind group, the brass part always maintained a very restrained volume. The band marched in a smooth and harmonious manner, with basically no drastic changes in sound effects. In order to express the sense of age in the film, Daui also wrote several chamber music that imitated the styles of Mozart and Haydn.
Like those famous film directors, most successful film scorers will be labeled by the outside world as some kind of genre. In the eyes of many, Patrick Daui's name is almost always associated with English literature and Shakespeare's plays. In fact, like most famous soundtrack artists, his creative talents are not limited to a particular genre or genre.
Kenneth Branagh has always been considered an expert on Shakespeare's subject matter, but the director is equally passionate about making suspense thrillers. As early as the early 1990s, he directed "Renewing Past Lives" and "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", both of which were written by Daui. In 2017, the old duo collaborated on Murder on the Orient Express.
Stills from Thor
Of all the films the two have worked on, the audience is most familiar with the Marvel series "Thor". Despite being a comic book film with characters and stories born out of Norse mythology, Branagh's Thor 1 has a strong Shakespearean theatrical style, which happens to be Daui's best style.
In addition, Daui's commercial blockbuster soundtracks include Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and The Rise of the Apes; in addition, he has also scored some popular romantic comedies, such as "Love Wash and Blow" and "BJ's Single Diary" that Chinese audiences are familiar with.
Compared to the scoring masters who have hundreds of works at every turn, Patrick Daui is not a prolific composer. Despite his extensive involvement, his best-known work has focused on English literary films, Shakespeare's theatrical films, and a few feature film scores. To this day, the unforgettable melody of "Sense and Sensibility" is still widely circulated all over the world.