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He has written scores for some of Hollywood’s biggest films but hails his childhood piano teacher as the inspiration for his glittering career.
Now Patrick Doyle has paid a moving tribute to Edith Ferguson and told how he keeps a picture of her above his piano in his workroom at Shepperton Studios.
The twice Oscar-nominated composer has written the scores for movies including Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, Murder On The Orient Express, Carlito’s Way and Calendar Girls.
He has rubbed shoulders with film greats Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Andy Garcia and Helen Mirren but it’s all thanks to the woman who taught him to play the piano as a child.
Patrick – who grew up in Birkenshaw, near Uddingston, Lanarkshire – wrote a piece of music during lockdown called Chateau Ferguson, which is the name he gave the council house he visited every week for seven years for his piano lessons. Ahead of International Women’s Day tomorrow, he paid tribute to Edith, who died in 2011.
“She lived like the Queen in this lovely council house in Viewpark,” said Patrick. “She was very posh when she spoke, but she was just the same as the rest of us.
“When you went to her door, she opened it as if she was opening the door of Buckingham Palace. It swung open with her scarf flying in the air and she would shout, ‘Come in, come in!’”
Patrick, seventh in a family of 13, started taking lessons with Miss Ferguson at the age of 12. He said: “I was a late starter. I didn’t ask for lessons as I didn’t think my parents could afford it. Edith gave me singing lessons too and helped with my harmony. She was an outstanding pianist and soprano.
“Her house was like the Tardis. She had two pianos in her living room. I remember thinking: ‘How can you get two pianos in a council house?’”
He worked hard and secured a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 1975.
Patrick, 67, said: “I remember Edith telling me I wrote lovely melodies. And I remember my secondary school music teacher, Inga Marshall at Dalziel High in Motherwell, saying, ‘I’ve never had a
child who writes melodies like you. Between her and Edith I thought, ‘That’s two people who have said this, so there must be something.’”
His first big break came in 1989 when he was asked to write the music for Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V for which he won an Ivor Novello Award for best film theme.
He has since collaborated with Branagh on 17 films including Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and Cinderella, and has received nominations for two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, one Bafta and two Cesars.
Patrick was thrilled to be made a Fellow of the RSAMD in 2001 and Edith was there to share the occasion. He said: “She was so proud. I had such respect for her as she was such a lovely, lovely person.
“She transformed my musical life. She was paramount in opening an awareness of my potential. I thanked her repeatedly which I’m glad I did. Behind me in the studio on the wall I have a picture of her playing a big white piano in a hotel. She was a great friend.”
When Edith died, Patrick read the eulogy at her funeral. He said: “That’s when I first christened her house Chateau Ferguson. Everyone laughed in the church because she behaved like a dowager who wasn’t a dowager.
She was gorgeous, like the nicest grand duchess in the world.
“The piece I’ve written in her memory is totally inspired by her. The melody is Scottish, as she loved Scotland. It’s only a little piece but her genteel nature and her love of Scotland shines through.
“She loved the culture and the great, great soulful music the country produces. I had no idea Edith was also a composer until she stage-managed her own funeral. She’d written two solo airs for violin which were played at the graveyard and were very poignant.
“I remember listening to the music with the name Chateau Ferguson in my head and thinking, ‘You know, I am going to write this.’ Lockdown allowed me to do that.” Patrick has also had time to complete another project close to his heart after uncovering 60-year-old recordings of Doyle family get-togethers.
The tapes feature singers including his mother and father performing songs at their home in Third Street, Birkenshaw. And Patrick has set their voices to music with a full orchestra. Patrick explained: “My father bought a Grundig tape recorder in 1960. He knew it would be good for the family but he didn’t know then what it would lead to.
“Of course the Doyles were always having huge big parties and he recorded those shindigs with people singing at our house. These were all outstanding singers. My father had a lovely tenor voice.
“I would have been seven at the time, and I have managed to find those recordings, have them digitised and cleaned up, while still keeping the atmosphere.
“There’s nothing fancy done to them but what is remarkable is that these people are natural born singers. It’s astonishing.
“I’ve put an orchestra behind the singers – my granny, my father, my mother, my great uncle Patrick and his son, my auntie Cathie, my auntie Maggie and so on – and it’s absolutely out of this world.”
“Edith was part of all that, too. She was an extension of the family. She was part of that incredibly musical community and she was the glue that held a lot of it together.
“She was hugely influential and her feedback and support throughout the years was remarkable. I owe so much to her.”
She transformed my musical life. She opened an awareness of my potential Patrick Doyle on Edith Ferguson
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