![]() You really can’t do a film score like that anymore. It’s kind of a film score from another era. The Prince of Tides was my first Oscar nomination, so that was a big one. It wasn’t a huge hit by any means, but it meant a lot to me personally. I love writing music about LA, and that was really important to me at the time. It was the beginning of one of my favorite relationships, which was with Larry Kasdan. It’s definitely the thing that I do best. I wanted to do it more, and I was very fortunate that I was offered more and more opportunities. I absolutely loved it, and lo and behold, I was actually kind of good at it. But then I did it, and that was a movie called Head Office, which was a funny, little comedy. I didn’t know how to synchronize the music. I didn’t know how to write under pressure in that amount of time. I turned it down because I thought I just had no idea how to write for one. James Newton Howard: I was pretty damn successful as a session musician and a record producer, and then somebody offered me a movie. Rather than go the safe route by choosing only blockbusters, he included several smaller projects in his list, making it clear that he values different gigs for different reasons. That’s not an easy task when considering the scope of Howard’s career. Since his latest, the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, hits theaters this week, we asked him to pick the scores that are most important to him, in addition to discussing his work on Beasts. He has since perfected that sonic contrast, composing the music for more than 100 films in a little over three decades. “I enjoyed learning how to combine electronics and orchestral music.” “Touring with Elton was really where I learned how to combine,” he says. Howard credits his time in the rock world for giving him a leg up when creating his own film scores. Before he got into film, Howard was a session musician with Elton John, playing keyboards and synthesizers on several albums and arranging the strings on songs like “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. This month, James Newton Howard picks some of the most notable scores of his career and discusses his work in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, out this Friday.Įven if James Newton Howard wasn’t a film composer, you’d still find discussions of his work on this site. Ever wonder which movies inspire your favorite bands or how filmmakers work with artists to compile your favorite soundtracks? Sound to Screen is a regular feature that explores where film and music intersect.
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