“The English Patient”, Film Score

Original title: The English Patient. Gabriel Yared’s music for Anthony Minghella’s film, based on Michael Ondaatje’s novel. Composed in 1995-96. Scored for orchestra with piano and vocal...Read more

Original title: The English Patient. Gabriel Yared’s music for Anthony Minghella’s film, based on Michael Ondaatje’s novel. Composed in 1995-96. Scored for orchestra with piano and vocal episodes; the original performance featured the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, pianist John Constable and singer Márta Sebestyén, conducted by Harry Rabinowitz.

The music combines lyrical orchestral themes with Hungarian vocal inflections. Episodes of the original score in soundtrack order:

1. The English Patient
2. A Retreat
3. Rupert Bear
4. What Else Do You Love?
5. Why Picton?
6. Kip’s Lights
7. Hana’s Curse
8. I’ll Always Go Back to That Church
9. Black Nights
10. Swoon, I’ll Catch You
11. Am I K. in Your Book?
12. Let Me Come In!
13. Convento di Sant’ Anna
14. Herodotus
15. Ask Your Saint Who He’s Killed
16. I’ll Be Back
17. Let Me Tell You About Winds
18. Read Me to Sleep
19. The Cave of Swimmers
20. As Far as Florence

The soundtrack also includes pre-existing music: Irving Berlin’s Cheek to Cheek, Wang Wang Blues, One O’Clock Jump, the Hungarian folk song Szerelem, Szerelem, Where or When by Richard Rodgers with words by Lorenz Hart, and the Aria from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations. These pieces are not compositions by Yared.

The separate vocal number Én Csak Azt Csodálom (Lullaby for Katherine) is sung by Márta Sebestyén.

Yared’s original music won the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score in 1997.