|
 Howard
Shore, this year's recipient
of the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award,
has been one of film & television
music's most distinctive and
versatile composers for more than
25 years. Closely associated with
the offbeat films of director and
fellow Canadian David Cronenberg
(The Brood, Scanners, The Fly),
Shore has also worked on films by
directors ranging from Martin Scorsese
(After Hours, Gangs of New York),
Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the
Lambs) and Tim Burton (Ed Wood).
Shore has composed scores for family
films (Mrs. Doubtfire, Big), broad
comedies (Analyze This), and small-scale
dramas (Nobody's Fool). The
past few years have seen Shore linked
with what is probably the most successful
fantasy film series of all time
– The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
directed by Peter Jackson. Shore
received Best Original Score Academy
Awards for his scores for two films
of the Tolkien trilogy, The Fellowship
of the Ring and The Return of the
King, as well as the Best Song Oscar
for the "Into the West,"
a song co-written by Shore, Fran
Walsh and Annie Lennox for The Return
of the King.
Shore's impact on popular
culture started long before his
involvement with film music. He
was an original member of the popular
1960's Canadian rock band, Lighthouse,
for a number of years, and later
was a founding creative force on
the television mainstay, Saturday
Night Live. Despite a long list
of musical achievements, crowned
by the Lord of the Rings scores,
Shore remains driven to express
himself musically and to collaborate
with others on a high level. Shortly
after his Oscar triumph, Shore shared
some reflections on his distinguished
career in music.
CAN YOU
DESCRIBE YOUR MUSICAL BEGINNINGS?
I started studying counterpoint
and harmony when I was ten, along
with the clarinet. At fourteen,
at a music library, I heard Toru
Takemitsu for the first time. I
also discovered the music of Karlheinz
Stockhausen, John Cage, Bela Bartók
and Igor Stravinsky. That was the
music that interested me when I
was younger and I mixed that with
my love of popular music –
Elvis Presley and the Beatles, growing
up in the 50's and 60's.
Saturday Night Live was actually
started with a show that Lorne Michaels
and I did at summer camp called
Timberlane in Ontario when we were
14 and 15. We would do an improvisational
show with music, comedy and acting.
YOU WENT
FROM SUMMER CAMP SHOWS TO PROFESSIONAL
MUSICIAN PRETTY QUICKLY.
I was accepted at Berklee College
of Music and studied composition
there. And then I went on the road
with Lighthouse and did a thousand
one-nighters in four years of touring.
It was another way to express music
with this group – I did eight
albums with them. I wrote songs,
played woodwinds and sang –
it was all very much being part
of a repertory group. We had ten
in the band, including a string
quartet and a horn section. We also
played with symphony orchestras
- at 19 and 20, I was conducting
pieces of my own, including a ballet
with The Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
I was also doing radio and TV programs
for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation) with Lorne Michaels.
That led to Saturday Night Live
– which I did from 1975 to
1980, 113 live broadcasts.
SO WAS SATURDAY
NIGHT LIVE GOOD PREPARATION FOR
FILM COMPOSING?
I think it was good preparation.
I wrote music every week, assembled
the band, wrote the opening and
closing themes, and established
the sound of that show. It had you
working with writers, actors and
different directors and it showed
you the great value of collaboration.
And the repertory nature of it was
good for film music because you
were using so many approaches.
YOUR ENTRY
INTO FILM MUSIC TOOK PLACE WHILE
YOU WERE STILL MUSIC DIRECTOR OF
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.
Yes. It wasn't until the late
70's that I began delving
into film. The reason I did was
more from an interest in music than
film. I thought it was a means of
expression. As I mentioned before,
all those earlier years listening
to Takemitsu, Stockhausen, Cage
and Bartók - it was working
its way through my young brain for
years, but I had no way to express
any of that - not in a rock band
or in doing radio and television.
The director, David Cronenberg,
is a few years older than I am and
I had known about him growing up
in Toronto. He was a kid from the
neighborhood who rode a motorcycle
and made 16 mm films, some of which
were very experimental. I approached
him about working together. He had
never worked with a composer before
and I had never worked with a director.
In 1978, we made The Brood and over
the next 20 years we made ten more
films.
WAS LORD
OF THE RINGS YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE
AS A FILM COMPOSER?
Without question, each of the three film scores is four hours long and
I've been working on these
scores for close to four years.
There are few film projects which
encompass that kind of time and
effort.
My career has always been about
music. And Lord of the Rings is
just an expression of music that
I had in me but hadn't had
an opportunity to create. It's
music that I had thought about for
years and years. You hear it in
earlier works, like The Fly and
Dead Ringers, The Silence of the
Lambs. If you look at the whole
career, you can see all the workings
of it leading up to this twelve-hour
piece. It's been a very linear
process since the age of ten, gathering
experience, knowledge, working in
recording studios, working with
bands and orchestras until you have
the experience and the energy to
create something like The Lord of
the Rings Trilogy.
CHORAL MUSIC
PLAYS A BIG PART IN LORD OF THE
RINGS. HAD YOU HAD MUCH PRIOR EXPERIENCE
WITH THAT?
Yes, there were the beginnings of
that in the film Looking for Richard,
which used choirs singing in Latin.
The text was created by Elizabeth
Cotnoir. The Lord of the Rings is
a music image of Tolkien. I'm
used to working with different authors
– I did music imagery for
Naked Lunch, the William Burroughs
book, and Looking for Richard was
based on Shakespeare. I like to
read and dream and create music
that is based on the imagery of
text. If you have the combination
of a great book and a great filmmaker,
what could be better for the composer?
DO YOU COMPOSE
"STAND-ALONE" MUSIC, NOT TIED TO
A FILM?
Yes, I write chamber music. I like
it because I can have a lot of control
over the piece. The orchestrations
are for usually less than ten musicians.
It's something I've
always done. The Aspen Music Festival
will be doing some of my chamber
music this summer.
YOU HAVE
NEVER ALLOWED YOURSELF TO BE BOXED
IN BY CATEGORY – YOUR DOMAIN
IS COMEDY, ADVENTURE, HORROR, FANTASY
AND DRAMA.
I found it interesting to see what
my reaction would be to different
types of films. And because of my
repertory experience, in theater
and television variety, it seemed
perfectly natural to me. Theater
and film are essentially the same
– just different kinds of
storytelling.
I'm interested in good collaborations
and in working with directors who
bring something new and interesting
out of you. It isn't the subject
of the film, then, as much as the
people involved and creating something
where the sum of what's created
is better than all the parts. That's
the success of Lord of the Rings
– the whole is greater than
all the individual parts.
SONGWRITING
FOR THE LORD OF THE RINGS MUST HAVE
BEEN CHALLENGING WITH YOU LIVING
ON THE EAST COAST, ANNIE LENNOX
LIVING IN BRITAIN AND FRAN WALSH
LIVING IN NEW ZEALAND.
We connect through technology. Video
conferencing is something I've
been using for years. I've
developed some good systems for
working in London, San Francisco
and Wellington, New Zealand. But
the three of us were all together
for quite a while in London last
August, September and October.
DOES RECEIVING
THE ASCAP HENRY MANCINI AWARD INSPIRE
ANY THOUGHTS?
It means a lot to me because of
Henry Mancini. I took over for Henry
on Ed Wood, the Tim Burton movie.
Henry was going to write that score
but became ill. I dedicated the
score to him. I have always been
a fan of his work since the late
1950's, beginning with Touch
of Evil. I never was fortunate to
have met him, but I'd have
loved to.
YOU'VE
WORKED IN FILM MUSIC FOR QUITE A
LONG TIME. IT SEEMS THAT THE TANGIBLE
ACCOLADES ARE REALLY COMING IN FOR
YOU NOW. WHAT DOES THE OSCAR MEAN
TO YOU?
It's just joyous. This is
the 76th year of the Oscar. When
you look at the list of people who've
won before, you really feel that
you're part of a great tradition
of filmmakers. It's wonderful
to feel part of the filmmaking community
gathered in that room for the broadcast.
- Jim Steinblatt |
Howard Shore
Filmography
Upcoming Projects
2005
King Kong
2004
The Aviator
Filmography
2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Return
of the King 1 2 8
2002
Gangs of New York
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3 5
Panic Room
Spider 7
2001
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring 1 3 5 6 7 8
The Score
2000
Camera (Short)
The Cell
Esther Kahn
High Fidelity
The Yards
1999
Analyze This 5
Dogma
eXistenZ
Gloria
1997
Cop Land
The Game
1996
Before & After
Crash
Looking For Richard
Striptease
That Thing You Do!
The Truth About Cats and Dogs
1995
Moonlight and Valentino
Se7en 5
White Man's Burden
1994
The Client 5
Ed Wood 6
Nobody's Fool
1993
Guilty As Sin
M. Butterfly
Mrs. Doubtfire 5
Philadelphia 5
Sliver
1992
Made in Milan (Documentary)
Prelude to a Kiss
Single White Female
1991
A Kiss Before Dying
Naked Lunch
Silence of the Lambs 5
1990
Quick Change (Additional Music)
1989
An Innocent Man
She Devil
Signs of Life
1988
Big 5
Dead Ringers 4
Moving
1987
Heaven (Feature Documentary)
The Local Stigmatic
Nadine
1986
Fire with Fire
The Fly
1985
After Hours
1984
Nothing Lasts Forever
1983
Videodrome
1981
Scanners
1979
The Brood
I Miss You, Hugs & Kisses
Television
Late Night with Conan
O'Brien (Theme), 1993
The Scales of Justice, 1990
Saturday Night Live (Music Director),
1975-80
Music Director/Supervisor
Postcards from the
Edge, 1989
Belizaire the Cajun (Music Producer),
1987
Places in the Heart, 1984
Silkwood, 1983
Key
1 Academy Award
2 Golden Globe Award
3 Grammy Award
4 Genie Award
5 ASCAP FTV Award
6 Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Award
7 World Soundtrack Award
8 Broadcast Film Critics Association
Award
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