TRACKLISTING
1 - Elizabeth : Overture
2 - Love Theme — Arrest
3 - Tonight I think I die
4 - Walsingham
5 - Night of the Long Knives
6 - Coronation Banquet
7 - Love Theme
8 - Aftermath
9 - Parliament
10 - Rondes
11 - Conspiracy
12 - Ballard
13 - One Mistress, No Master
14 - Nimrod
15 - Requiem

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Nothing at present.

ABOUT THE FILM
England 1554. Under the rule of Queen Mary I, England has been reduced to a country racked by financial and religious instability. When Mary dies the young Elizabeth is crowned Queen.

While the country rejoices, Elizabeth relishes the return of her childhood sweetheart, Robert Dudley, but is advised to forget personal matters and address the problems facing the country from abroad.

Sir William Cecil, her chief advisor, says she must marry to secure the realm. While she cares only for Dudley, Elizabeth realises she has to exert her authority forcefully in Court and in Europe if she is to survive.

With threats from both the French and Spanish, and putting her only trust in her chief confidant, Sir France Walsingham, she overcomes internal conspiracy and assassination attempts, wiping out all opposition to her leadership. No one is spared — except Dudley, who the Queen allows to survive as a reminder of the danger always confronting her.

Her triumph signals both her personal strategy and astonishing courage to achieve national unity.

Elizabeth is a PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presentation of a Working Title Films Production, directed by Shekhar Kapur (The Bandit Queen). The film stars Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes and Richard Attenborough. It is produced by Alison Owen, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. The screenplay is written by Michael Hirst and the original score composed by David Hirschfelder.

COMPOSER'S NOTES
Edited extracts from a press article by Paul Tonks

Australia has a remarkable musical talent in the form of David Hirschfelder. They acknowledged it with awards and praise for home-grown productions such as Strictly Ballroom, and the stage show of Jesus Christ Superstar. Thankfully the rest of the world has now been allowed to share. The 1997 Oscar-winning Shine spotlighted David's name brightly enough for all to see. Yet unlike the easy route many have chosen on hitting the "big time", he instead continues to seek out film projects that genuinely mean something to him. "I get so deep into them — probably deeper than I should," says David of his habit of total immersion. With Polygram's Elizabeth, the depth of his involvement truly awoke something within the composer. The spotlight he turned upon himself revealed a new-found confidence and prescience of his future career in film scoring.

After the success of Shine, David was in Los Angeles last year signing to his new agent Kraft-Benjamin. They immediately inundated him with about fifteen scripts ("It was all very flattering — I loved it!"). Out of them all his manager picked two. One was Sliding Doors, and the other Elizabeth. "First a nice break with a romantic comedy, and then this powerful historical thing. Right up my alley. Of course it wasn't guaranteed I'd be chosen by them. While I was having a meeting for Sliding Doors, I also had one with Shekhar Kapur. I met them in Soho. It was quite magical for me. They were asking the usual sorts of questions like what sort of music did I have in mind for the film? I'd only just got the script the day before. I actually came up with a piece from reading it through, which was a good sign. It's part of a dance suite in the movie. Other than that there was no preparation. So I was really on the spot when they asked. I was saying all sorts like period music, violins, some antiphonal styles reminiscent of the period mixed with modern styles. I was floundering basically with a whole lot of waffle. Shekhar saw right through it. He described the scene from the end of the film where Elizabeth emerges from her cocoon with her powdered face and the wig. This icon they were seeing for the first time. He described it very poetically, and as he did I was hearing three boy sopranos singing these notes. Three-note chords and a simple melody. I heard them so clearly and said: "Shekhar, I wish there was a piano here". And he said: "David there's one over there." So there in a public place I left my eggs on toast and played these notes for him. He said: “I like those notes”. That was it — I got the job. I've never auditioned like that. Normally it's from a tape or a résumé. I could tell he made the decision from just those few notes and their simplicity. They went on to become the love theme. I wonder if that will ever happen again."

Shine demonstrated that David is a fine piano player himself, and is delighted that a cue featuring his playing will appear on the album. "There was a wonderful Bösendorfer piano at a London studio, and Shekhar wanted to play with me — to repeat the experience we'd had at the interview. I'd literally write something before his eyes. I made little baby cues from those sketches. One of them ended up surviving as solo piano for the film. Now you'd obviously be asking what the hell is a solo piano doing in a Tudor film, but it actually works in the context of the drama. There were low notes, which Shekhar called 'Conspiracy Notes', then high notes which were 'Intrigue Notes'. In three parts of the film we used those Intrigue Notes with harp — which is a more acceptable timbre from the time. So I did get a chance to exercise my skills — and it does survive onto the album. It's quite a simple piece, but quite disturbing. I remember the look on the editor's face; she said: 'That music makes me feel dizzy'. I took that as a great compliment."

Some very interesting choices were also made in source music adapted for the film. Choices which supported one of the director's wishes. "Shekhar liked the idea of contradicting the sound of the day. We ran out of time at the end of the film, and experimented with a recording of Elgar's 'Nimrod' variation from the Enigma Variations, and it worked so well. When I played it to Shekhar, he had tears in his eyes. That decided in me that it would be counter-productive for all of us for me to compose a new piece. It had a sadness, yet a nobility. All the hit points worked emotionally.”

In summation, David is confident of both his and the film's approach by the relationship he developed with the director. "One of the bold, wonderful, audacious things about choosing an Indian to direct a picture about English history is that he doesn't carry any baggage. He's outside the culture. He's a very learned, bright, sensitive man, and is able to see it from outside of the goldfish bowl. I think he'd be the first to admit he wasn't an expert on the period. But then I'm not a specialist on early music either! We've all relied on experts when we've needed to. We've made sure you're grounded at the right moments. But Shekhar always liked the unpredictability of stepping back and viewing from the 20th century almost like a time traveller. A lot of the camera moves feel like you're an alien time traveller circling them watching these events from now. It's intimate without being intrusive."