Robert Duncan is a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

of film and television music. He has composed music for such TV series as '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ''

Castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

'', as well as films such as '' Butterfly on a Wheel'' and '' Into the Blue 2: The Reef''. He has been associated with writer/producer Shawn Ryan, composing some of his produced TV shows including '' The Unit'', '' Lie to Me'', '' Timeless'' and more recently '' S.W.A.T.''. He has received fourteen ASCAP awards.

Early life

Born and raised in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, Duncan was born into a family with deep musical history. His great-grandfather arranged music for silent films in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, and other relatives were closely affiliated with two of England's prominent composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten. As a child he attended the Claude Watson School of the Performing Arts and in sixth grade he composed his first piece of music. At age 16 in high school, he landed his first gig scoring a promotional video for the local Board of Education. As an extra-curricular activity, Duncan studied the

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

and

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

before later earning a bachelor's degree in music at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

Career

After graduating, Duncan spent the next five years apprenticing with two Canadian composers and participated in the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop. He wanted to do more, wanted to write scores for live orchestra, but he thought the chances of succeeding in

were slim, so in 2001 he moved to

Hollywood, Los Angeles Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

. Shortly after this move, Duncan was hired as a series composer on '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. After the show ended, he started to land television and film scoring assignments. Landing many small-screen projects including ''

The Chicago Code ''The Chicago Code'' is an American crime drama television series created by Shawn Ryan that aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox in the United States. The series was filmed in Chicago, Illinois, originally airing from February 7 to May 23, 20 ...

'', ''Terriers'', ''The Gates'', '' Lie to Me'', '' The Unit'', ''Point Pleasant'', '' Tru Calling'', and '' S.W.A.T.'', he is best known for his work on ''

''.

Instruments

Duncan uses a variety of traditional and peculiar objects and instruments to create his scores. These objects include grand pianos, deconstructed pianos, metal brushes, hot-rod exhaust pipes, fire extinguishers,

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, a variety of

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, and even objects from junk yards all over

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Cameos

Duncan made on-screen appearances on ''

'' season 4, episode 14 “The Blue Butterfly” in the opening scene as a jazz club

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

on the baby grand piano as well as season 8, episode 8 "Mr. and Mrs. Castle" as a cruise-ship pianist.

Scores

Television series

Film

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Robert American film score composers American male film score composers American television composers Living people Musicians from Toronto Year of birth missing (living people)