Golden Globe nomination for Navan music composer

"Very exciting" is how Navan music composer Brian Byrne describes his nomination for a Golden Globe award last week. The Los Angeles-based musician was on a flying visit home to Ireland at the weekend for a concert in Belfast, at the same time that nominations for the movie awards were being announced. He has been nominated in the category of Best Original Song for 'Lay Your Head Down' in the movie 'Albert Nobbs', starring Glenn Close, which was filmed in Dublin this year. Close wrote the lyrics for the song, which is sung by Sinead O'Connor. The movie, co-scripted by Close and John Banville, is based on a short story by George Moore. On Sunday night in Beverly Hills, the song was named Original Song at the International Press Academy's Satellite Awards. In 'Albert Nobbs', Close plays a woman passing as a man in order to work as a butler and survive in 19th century Ireland. Some 30 years after donning men's clothing, she finds herself trapped in a prison of her own making. The movie is directed by Rodrigo Garcia, with Brian Byrne providing the original music. It has been an ambition of Glenn Close to make the movie for 30 years, since she first played the role on stage, and Byrne worked closely with her on the project. He first got a call about it from his agent around a year ago when he was home in Ireland following the passing of his father, Jim. He had just finished work on 'The Good Doctor', starring Orlando Bloom, which he arranged and produced. "My agent said there's an Irish film coming up, and it would be ideal for you - we're putting you forward for it," he recalled. Byrne was recommended by a music supervisor who had worked with the producer, Bonnie Curtis, in the past. He got the script and, back in LA, met with the producers, and established a good rapport. As it was a low budget movie, he ended up looking after all the music, from writing right through to production stages, with the emphasis on the period drama that it is. The nominated song began life as the music for a waltz scene starring Pauline Collins, and Glenn Close liked it so much that it was developed into the theme and the chorus of the song. "Glenn Close was amazing to work with, and had a real interest in the project, as she had written it with John Banville, and it was 'her baby', you could say," adds Byrne. If, while working on the music, he felt lyrics needed to be changed, or there was some tinkering needed, there was no problem calling her to discuss it. "It's not everybody you could do that with," he says. "But she was very humble to work with, she just wanted to get it right. And it would come back 100 times better." Also, unusually for working on a movie, there was a lot more time to work on it, as he was allowed work alongside the production process, and had four months rather than the six weeks that is typically allowed to a scorer. It was a family affair as his brother, John, was the score supervisor on the soundtrack. Work began at the end of last January/early February and as there was a small budget, he recorded a lot of the piano himself in Los Angeles, and then in Dublin in June the RTE Concert Orchestra was involved. He said that he would not have thought a year ago that he would be now involved in a Golden Globe-nominated movie, which he describes as "the best project I've ever worked on". He added: "I can't believe it. There had been some internet buzz bout the Golden Globes, but that was just blogging. We knew it was on the radar all right." The Golden Globes take place on 15th January next, with 'Albert Nobbs' nominated for three awards. Close is nominated for Best Actress, Drama, with Janet McTeer in the running for Best Supporting Actress. Brian Byrne was in Ireland at the weekend to conduct a Brian Kennedy concert in Belfast on Saturday night, and had an opportunity to visit his family in Navan. He will return to Ireland next week for the National Concert Hall's New Year's Eve concert, which he will be conducting. It has been a busy year for him, as he was also commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra to compose a fanfare for Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Dublin last May.