Neil Brand | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Neil Brand in 2014 | |
| Born | (1958-03-18)18 March 1958 (age 67) Burgess Hill,Sussex, England |
| Occupations | Actor, dramatist, composer, author |
| Website | https://www.neilbrand.com |
Neil Brand (born 18 March 1958) is an English dramatist, composer and author. In addition to being a regular silent filmaccompanist at London'sNational Film Theatre, Brand has composed new scores for two restored films from the 1920s,The Wrecker andAnthony Asquith'sUnderground.
Neil Brand has been a silent film accompanist for nearly 40 years, regularly in London at the Barbican and BFI National Film Theatres, throughout the UK and Ireland and at film festivals around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, Israel, Scandinavia, Georgia, Ukraine, throughout Europe.[citation needed] Brand has also acted and written plays for the BBC.[citation needed] His book,Dramatic Notes, focuses on the art of composing narrative music for the cinema, theatre, radio and television. For his contribution to music, in 2016, Brand was awarded with aBASCA Gold Badge Award.[1]
Brand was born inBurgess Hill,Sussex, England, and attended Junction Road Primary School in Burgess Hill, thenBrighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School (nowBrighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College).
At the age of 18, he went to theUniversity College of Wales, Aberystwyth, to study Drama underJohn Edmunds.[citation needed] However, he had a talent for music, and it was atAberystwyth that he began writing and playing music seriously for the first time. In 2013 he was made a Fellow of Aberystwyth University.[citation needed]
On television, Brand has appeared inSwitch, aBBC drama for the hearing impaired, as Ted, a bullying businessman. In 2004 he appeared as an expert on cinema accompaniment inWho Do You Think You Are? which investigated the musical background ofsopranoLesley Garrett.[citation needed]
Other work for the BBC has included musical compositions and radio plays.[2] He also composed the score forChannel Four's three-part documentary series on theCrimean War in 1997.[3] One of his plays,Stan, was broadcast on radio[4] in 2004 onBBC Radio 4 and then adapted as a television play, first broadcast onBBC Four. It documentsStan Laurel's last moments with best friend and comedy partnerOliver Hardy, who lies bedridden after a stroke. Another play broadcast on Radio 4 in 2007,Seeing It Through, dealt with Charles Masterman and his efforts to coordinate writers and journalists for the Britishpropaganda effort inWorld War I.[citation needed]
In September 2013, Neil Brand presented theBBC Four programmeSound of Cinema: The Music that Made the Movies.[5] In the first episode in the series, he looked at the impact of classic orchestral film scores via the work of European-born composers (such asMax Steiner andErich Wolfgang Korngold) and their influence on contemporary film composers such asBernard Herrmann,Hans Zimmer andJohn Williams. He was also a guest presenter in theBBC Radio 3 programmeSound of Cinema: Live from the BFI[6] presented bySean Rafferty where he demonstrated on piano some of the intricate motifs fromFranz Waxman as well as some of his own music.
On 20 December 2014,BBC Radio 4 broadcast Brand's new version ofA Christmas Carol, adapted by him for actors, the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which was recorded before an audience in the BBC Maida Vale Studios.[7] Other Christmas broadcasts included the ghost stories ofM.R. James (BBC Woman's Hour Drama, 2018) and an original radio play,The Haunting of M.R. James.
In January and February 2015, Brand presented theBBC Four programmeSound of Song in which he looked at the history of popular song and its relationship to technology in the twentieth century.[citation needed] In January 2017, also on BBC Four, he presentedSound of Musicals,[8] exploring how musical theatre has evolved over 100 years. a further seriesSound of Movie Musicals, was broadcast in 2018. One critic said: "Brand was an enthusiastic compère throughout, combining formidable knowledge and terrific piano playing on his Steinway".[9] His 2020 seriesThe Sound of TV was called "refreshing" and "insightful" by thei.[10]
Brand wrote a new score for the restored 1929 filmThe Wrecker, released on DVD in November 2009.[11] He followed this up in 2011 with a score for another recently restored film,Anthony Asquith's 1928 dramaUnderground: the new composition was premiered by theBBC Symphony Orchestra at theBarbican Centre in London.[12]
Brand regularly accompanies silent films with theskiffle bandThe Dodge Brothers[13] (which includesMark Kermode ondouble bass).[14] They have played toWhite Oak,Beggars of Life,The Ghost That Never Returns,Hell's Hinges andCity Girl.
Brand also composed a score forThe Lodger. This is the score that is available on the Criterion Collection's release of the DVD. According to Brand, he looked tofilm noir motifs from composers such asMiklos Rosza when making this score.[citation needed]
He has also written a book,Dramatic Notes (1998), discussing the art of composing narrative music for the cinema, theatre, radio or television, and including interviews with composers and directors.[15]
He has an occasional slot onBBC Radio 4'sThe Film Programme, analysing and deconstructing film music of various genres, illustrating his points with excerpts on the piano.
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