Albert Nobbs (soundtrack)

Albert Nobbs (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album to the 2011 film Albert Nobbs directed by Rodrigo García, starring Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska and Aaron Johnson. The album, which released by Varèse Sarabande on 13 December 2011, featured score composed by Irish composer, arranger and conductor Brian Byrne, and an original song "Lay Your Head Down" written by Close and performed by Sinéad O'Connor. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at the 69th Golden Globe Awards, and won the 16th Satellite Awards in the same category. It was chosen as one of the 39 songs to be eligible for nominations at the Best Original Song at the 84th Academy Awards, but failed to enter the final list of nominations. Byrne won the Best Original Score category at the 9th Irish Film & Television Awards.

Development
Brian Byrne was hired to compose the musical score. Before writing the cues, he penned a waltz for dance scene at the hotel where Nobbs work. Close loved the music which Byrne had used it at several pieces in the score. After completing 80% of the film's music, he needed a tune for the end credits, which resulted him writing a song with makeshift lyrics cobbled from the lines in the screenplay and played it to Close and Garcia who felt that the lyrics were "terrible". Close, being a former ASCAP member, agreed to help him modifying and rewriting the lyrics. Sinéad O'Connor recorded the song, for which Byrne had to record her vocals in Bulgaria, following O'Connor's European tour.

The song had to be derived from the themes of the musical score, which Byrne said "There's nothing throwaway in any of the music or the lyrics. You might listen to it and think, why is that fiddle there, or why is that piano there? The fiddle is there because it's the violin that was playing the first time we heard that piece of music in the film. The piano is there because I wanted to link the sound of the score, which has a lot of piano, with the song, so it doesn't sound like a tacked on song. It's an organic piece of music that comes out of the score and out of the emotions in the film."

Personnel
Credits adapted from CD liner notes.


 * Album credits
 * Music composer and producer – Brian Byrne
 * Musical assistance, music preparation, score supervisor – John Byrne
 * Recording – Ciaran Byrne, Umberto Belfiore
 * Recording assistance – Damien Chennell
 * Mixing – Ciaran Byrne
 * Mixing assistance – Michael Manning
 * Mastering – Bernie Grundman
 * Executive producer – Robert Townson
 * Manager – Anthony Long


 * Performer credits
 * Performer – RTÉ Concert Orchestra
 * Orchestrator, conductor, piano, harpsichord – Brian Byrne
 * Guitar, mandolin – Bill Shanley
 * Harp – Geraldine O'Doherty
 * Violin – Ken Rice
 * Whistle – Fraser Fifield
 * Leader – Mia Cooper
 * Liner notes – Glenn Close