Alexandre Desplat

·         He is a professional composer, orchestrator and conductor.

·         His father was Greek and his mother French. Desplat was born in Paris on 23^rd of August 1961. He is the younger of two boys. At the age of five, Alexandre began playing the piano and soon after he became highly skilled on the trumpet and flute.

·         He has written the score for The Painted Veil, The King’s Speech, The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Golden Compass, New Moon, Fantastic Mr. Fox and  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2 and many other movies.

·         Although trained in classical music, Desplat grew up with American jazz and Hollywood movie scores. These styles have influenced his music and it has resulted in a fresh and unique movie music style.

·         Alexandre first came onto the movie music scene after his work on the 2003 film, Girl with the Pearl Earring. This score earned him Golden Globe, BAFTA and European Film Award nominations.

·         His name in movie music was cemented after his composition work on the films, Birth, The Upside of Anger, Hostage and Syriana (earned him another Golden Globe nomination).

·         In 2007, he won his first Academy Award nomination for the film, Queen and in the same year he won his first Golden Globe Award for his work on The Painted Veil.

·         Although, his name is well-known for scoring Hollywood films, Desplat still finds time to compose the score for many European films. His most recent being De Battre Mon Coeur S’est Arrete (The Beat that My Heart Skipped).

·         He has received 4 academy award nominations, 5 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television) nominations and 5 Golden Globe nominations, one of which he won for his work on The Painted Veil in 2006.

·         In 2011, he won his first BAFTA Award for The King’s Speech score.

Awards:

• "Prix de la Meilleure Musique de Film" at 22nd Lourdes Art & Cinema Festival (France) for "The King's Speech" 2011
• Etoiles d'Or du Cinéma Français: "Film Music Composer": Alexandre Desplat for "The Ghost Writer"
• International Film Music Critics' 2010 Awards: Alexandre Desplat "Film Composer Of The Year", "Best Original Score For a Drama Film" for "The King's Speech" and "Best Original Score For an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film" for "The Ghost Writer"
• 2011 César Award (France), "Best Music Written for a Film" for "The Ghost Writer"
• Sammy Award for film music CD of 2010, "Best New Film Score CD: The King's Speech, Music by Alexandre Desplat (Decca)"
• "Best Film Music" at 2011 British Academy Film Award (BAFTA), for "The King's Speech"
• Best Original Score of the Year for "Fantastic Mr Fox", and Soundtrack Composer of the Year for "The Ghost Writer", "Fantastic Mr Fox", "The Twilight Saga - New Moon" and "Julie and Julia" at 2010 World Soundtrack Awards
• Etoile D'Or du Compositeur de Musique Originale de Films Français 2010, Académie de la Presse du Cinéma Français (France), for "A Prophet", "The Army Of Crime", "Afterwards", "Coco Before Chanel" and "Chéri"
• Best Music Score for "The Ghost Writer" at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2010
• Best European Composer at 2010 European Film Awards for "The Ghost Writer"
• Alexandre Desplat receives the Golden Alexander for his career in film music at 2009 Thessaloniki International Film Festival (Greece)
• 2009 BMI Film Music Award for "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button"
• Hollywood Film Composer Award at 13th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards
• Alexandre Desplat Film Composer of the Year and Best Film Score of the Year for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" at the 2009 World Soundtrack Academy Awards
• Best New Film Score for "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" at the 21st Annual Sammy Awards
• Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing at 20th Palm Springs International Film Festival
• Best Original Score for "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" at the 7th Annual Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards
• 2008 Best Original Score for "The Curious Case Of Benjamion Button", Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards
• 2008 Grand Prix de la musique pour l'audiovisuel, SACEM (France)
• 2007 Film Composer of the Year, Movie Music UK Awards
• 2007 Score of the Year and Best Original Score Fantasy/Science Fiction for "The Golden Compass", Movie Music UK Awards
• 2007 Film Composer of the Year and Best Original Score for Fantasy-Science Fiction for "The Golden Compass" Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA)
• 2007 Best Film Music by Soundtracks.pl for "Lust, Caution"
• 2007 Best Original Film Score at the 44e Golden Horse Awards Competition (Taiwan) for "Lust, Caution"
• 2007 European Composer by European Film Academy (EFA) for "The Queen"
• 2007 Film Composer of the Year at the Ghent Film Festival for "The Queen" and "The Painted Veil"
• 2007 BMI London Film Music Awards for "The Queen" and "The Painted Veil"
• 2007 Golden Globe Award, Best Original Score for "The Painted Veil"
• 2006 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, Best Music for "The Queen" and "The Painted Veil"
• 2006 César (France) for "The Beat My Heart Skipped"
• Etoile D'Or du Compositeur de Musique Originale de Films Français 2006, Académie de la Presse du Cinéma Français, (France) for "The Beat My Heart Skipped"
• 2005 Silver Bear for Best Score at the Berlin Film Festival for "The Beat My Heart Skipped"

"Hard to Handle" from the Committments

Duration:

• Strong and apparent pulse
• Relatively fast tempo
• Simple time signature-4/4
• Many layers of sound:
• piano
• drum kit
• backing vocals
• brass section
• main male vocals
• congas
• tambourine
• electric guitar
• bass guitar
• woodwind-saxophone
• There are many accompanying rhythmic layers where repitition is a feature. The drums, piano, tambourine, drum kit, bass guitar, guitar and congas are all examples of this.
• Short and syncopated rhythmic values are very prominant and constant.
• There is syncopation in both the melody and the accompaniment.

Texture:

• Homophonic texture
• Male lead vocals has the melody while all remaining instruments and backing vocals have the accompaniment
• The texture does not remain the same; it varies with the addition and subtraction on instruments and vocals
• The texture is very thick due to the many layers of sound and also due to the rough, harsh tone colour of the main male vocals.
• Silences are also used. In this extract there is a silence starting on the lyrics 'pretty little thing let me light your candle...'. This causes the texture to become monophonic as all instruments drop out and lead vocals sing solo. This is the main textural change within the piece.

Happy Days

Tone Colour:

-Main vocals (male)-main melody the whole of the theme song except for when the flute takes over

-Drum kit-accompaniment

-Backup singers (male)-counter melody

-Keyboard-accompaniment

-Bass guitar-accompaniment

-Flute-main melody in the small time it plays (0.33)

Texture:

-The texture is homphonic; melody and accompaniment

-The texture begins quite thick with all singers, drums and bass guitar in straight away

-As the dynamics increase, the texture thickens with the keyboard in

-In the chorus, the texture changes a little as all the instruments stop for a few seconds while all singers keep singing. this happens 8 times. 

-After this variation the flute is added which again thickens the texture

-The texture variation occurs again but this time the bass and the keyboard  continue to play with the singers. again this pattern is repeated 8 times, with slight difference on the 3rd, 5th and 7th bars

-All instruments and singers are then in for the ending with a small crescendo being played. the common pattern, a.k.a the chorus is also the rhythmic pattern used as the outro of the theme

Duration:

-The tempo is quite fast

-The time signature is common time (4/4)

-At 0.13 the backup singers sing the main theme for the TV show and at 0.32 the flute plays this same rhythm

-At 0.34 clapping hands is apparent. they clap twice on beat 2-& and once on beat 4. 

-Although the drums are accompanying the main melody, they still play many of the rhythms that the vocals play, example at 0.50; it hits the drums on the same beat as the singers sing