George Fenton
British composer/conductor George Fenton became a celebrated film, television, and theater scorer, winning his first BAFTA TV Award in 1982. A first-time Academy Award nomination followed a year later for Gandhi, a collaboration with Ravi Shankar. Fenton later earned Oscar and Grammy nominations in the song category for the title track to Cry Freedom (1987). Alternately wistful, playful, and rousing, his work in film and TV went on to include such diverse titles as Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Groundhog Day (1993), and the nature series The Blue Planet (2001) and Planet Earth (2006). Featuring his complex, majestic orchestral scoring, the latter two won Fenton both BAFTA and Emmy Awards. Frozen Planet (2011) was among his other projects for the BBC as he continued to provide original music for movies such as Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem (2013), frequent collaborator Nicholas Hytner's The Lady in the Van (2015), and the Liam Neeson vehicle Cold Pursuit (2019). Fenton has also scored well over a dozen films for arthouse director Ken Loach.
Born George Richard Ian Howe in Bromley, Kent, Fenton sang in church choirs as a boy and started playing the guitar at age seven. He studied music while attending St. Edward's School in Oxford, but, though he later taught composition at the Royal College of Music and the University of Nottingham, he had no university-level training of his own. He changed his name to George Fenton while pursuing acting roles in the late '60s to avoid confusion with another actor. Frequently asked by directors to play musical instruments on various projects, he gradually filled a demand for musicians and composers. During the '70s, he penned music for such esteemed British theater directors as Richard Eyre, Peter Gill, and Adrian Noble, winning BAFTA and Ivor Novello awards for his compositions in the process. His work in theater led to broadcasts for the BBC and ITV, and by the early '80s, he was juggling scripted TV series (Fox, Shoestring), made-for-TV movies, and drama anthology series (BBC2 Playhouse). In the 2020s, his stage work included Talking Heads, Beat the Devil, and Bach & Sons.
Fenton's big-screen breakout came with Best Picture Oscar winner Gandhi, released in late 1982. He composed its score with legendary Indian musician Ravi Shankar, a collaboration that resulted in Academy Award and BAFTA nominations. More Oscar nominations followed for Fenton's work with Jonas Gwangwa on 1987's Cry Freedom (for both song and score) and for his sole composer credits on 1988's Dangerous Liaisons and 1991's The Fisher King.
The 1994 docu-drama Ladybird Ladybird (composed with Mauricio Venegas) launched a long-running partnership with independent film director Ken Loach. The same year, Fenton delivered The Madness of King George, his first of many collaborations with director Nicholas Hytner. They followed it later in the '90s with an adaptation of The Crucible (1996) and the romantic comedy The Object of My Affection (1998).
In the 2000s, in addition to turning in scores for over a half-dozen more Loach films, Fenton took home BAFTA and Emmy awards for his work on the popular BBC nature documentary epics The Blue Planet (2001) and Planet Earth (2006). Meanwhile, he scored a big-screen adaptation of The History Boys (2006) for Hytner, returning to the big screen for 2008's Fool's Gold, among other film projects. More nature documentaries, including Life (2009) and Frozen Planet (2011), soon followed. Fenton scored theater for the silver screen in 2012 with National Theatre Live: People, and after films including The Zero Theorem (2013) and DisneyNature's Bears (2014), his original music for the Hytner film The Lady in the Van hit screens in 2015. Still working regularly with Loach, he composed the score for the director's 2016 film I, Daniel Blake as well as 2019's Sorry We Missed You. At the turn of the decade, Fenton scored The Secret: Dare to Dream, The United Way, The Duke, and Elizabeth.
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Dangerous Liaisons (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Virgin Catalog (V81) on Jan 1, 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Wind That Shakes The Barley (Original Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Shogun Music Ltd on Oct 2, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Duke (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtracks - Released by MovieScore Media on Feb 25, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Memphis Belle (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by WaterTower Music on Jan 29, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wild Isles: Our Precious Isles (Music from the Original TV Series)
Educational - Released by Shogun Music Ltd on Mar 12, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dangerous Beauty (Original Motion Picture Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Shogun Music Ltd on Feb 24, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frozen Planet (Soundtrack from the TV Series)
George Fenton, The BBC Concert Orchestra
Film Soundtracks - Released by Silva Screen Records Ltd on Feb 28, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts (Original Film Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Shogun Music Ltd on Feb 19, 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Heaven's Prisoners (Original Score from the Motion Picture)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Shogun Music Ltd on Jul 12, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grey Owl (Original Film Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Shogun Music Ltd on Apr 14, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sweet Home Alabama (Original Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Hollywood Records on Jun 23, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Zero Theorem
Film Soundtracks - Released by Masterworks on Jan 3, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Madness Of King George (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Sony Classical on Jan 1, 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Anna and the King (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Arista - LaFace Records on Jan 11, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
You've Got Mail (Original Motion Picture Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese Sarabande on Mar 2, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Final Analysis (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by WaterTower Music on Mar 3, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Planet Earth
Film Soundtracks - Released by Silva Screen Records Ltd on Mar 16, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cold Pursuit (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese Sarabande on Feb 8, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cry Freedom (Cry Freedom/Soundtrack Version)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Geffen on Jan 1, 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ever After: A Cinderella Story (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Blue Planet (Original Television Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Silva Screen Records Ltd on Jan 1, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo