What is your opinion of James Newton Howard?

[Josh500 1,615]

Do you like his works? What are your favourite JNH scores (if you have any at all)? 

 

I only know The Fugitive, which is pretty cool, and the theme from the TV series ER, which is awesome! 

[badbu 123]

The best Score from him is.... -> The Village

I really like JNH :-) 

[Josh500 1,615]

Just now, badbu said:

The best Score from him is.... -> The Village

I really like JNH :-) 

 

Oh yeah, good one. I saw the movie a long time ago. I seem to vaguely recall the score... Lots of violin solos... 

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

It took me a while before I started to really like his work. I had to listen to Wyatt Earp and Waterworld which are IMO two of his best scores along with King Kong.

I also love his Dante's Peak Main Title and The Villagers Chant from Congo.

[Bespin 8,478]

My discovering of this composer started only two years ago and he's now among my favourites.

 

You know, he's already 70 yo, he's a respected veteran in the domain. He has a classical formation background and he's also a talented musician.

 

We can't deny the quality of his work on the keyboard and strings, and his ability to offer ever more varied compositions.

 

For the moment I'm still in the making of a "basic" collection (physical CDs for the most part, when It's possible).

 

Here's my "basic" collection to this day:

 

A few "Highlights" (and great sounding albums) to begin with if you are new to JNH: The Expansion of Dave, The Expansion of Wyatt Earp, The Deluxe Edition of Outbreak, Fantastic Beasts I & II OSTs, Red Sparrow, A Hidden Life and News of The World. (Honorable mentions to it's two Batman's collab with Zimmer: Batman Begins and Dark Knight).

 

Please also visit this thread:

 

[Edmilson 7,389]

Well, he's the one I chose for my avatar, so that should give you an idea of how much I like him... Lol

 

He's basically one of only composers whose new scores are always very anticipated by me, alongside John Powell and Williams.

 

 

[publicist 4,643]

Love JNH for several reasons, though i also admit that his pragmatic approach to his employers' laundry list of bad suggestions not always makes for the most compelling music (not FILM music).

 

First of all, he's the only one today carrying the Goldsmith torch of a strong, to-the-point theme augmented by short characteristic motifs in an orchestral/synth framework and he does it with style and like Goldsmith for every genre imaginable (like in JG's later career phase, that automatically leads to a good number of merely functionable scores, but that's the nature of the beast).

 

Secondly, i love the understated elegance in a lot of his themes - think King Kong's emotional material, and under which conditions it was conceived.

 

And his recent concert works are proof that he's really a very capable, accomplished composer, whom i wish better assignments than the many lame CGI spectacles he has to labour over in recent times. 

[Bellosh 3,385]

King Kong and Signs are favorites of mine from him. I've admittedly not listened to most of his scores though.

 

His score for Lady in the Water is remarkable as well.  I've never seen such a shit movie with such an amazing score before.  It's off the charts.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

His King Kong is brilliant and emotional. 

Signs, I haven't enough words for this score. Hands of Fate 1&2 are easily one of the top.tracks in 21st Century film scoring. 

Maleficent, Catching Fire, Fantastic Beasts 1 and 2, and likely 3 are /will. E representative of his best works.  

However if in collaboration with Hanz Zimmer...eww.

[LSH 968]

James Newton Howard was the first composer I really connected with and subsequently latched onto when I first got into scores. His Disney scores in the early 00s were what got my initial attention and then I worked my way back through the major hits in his back-catalogue. He was my favourite for many years. 

 

He's still up there but he was very soon joined by the likes of Goldsmith, Williams, Horner, Newman, Silvestri, and then the MV/RC graduates with merit.

 

My favourite JNH scores, in no particular order:

 

- WYATT EARP

- DINOSAUR

- SIGNS

- WATERWORLD

- ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE

- GRAND CANYON

- THE MAN IN THE MOON

- VERTICAL LIMIT

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

He's an absolutely outstanding composer, one of the our very best today, and sadly a bit of an underachiever.

 

He has not always had the best pick of projects sadly. You can see how much of a difference a great partnership with the best filmmakers in the business can make to your career.

 

He does not get the juiciest gigs out there. But the ones he does get, he does a damn good job with them.

 

So he's definitely under-rewarded under-appreciated and doesn't have the level of fame and success and wealth and laurels that his talent warrants but such is life. 

 

I think his magnum opus, his life's great work, the work that he would like to be known by or what to be remembered by is the Fantastic Beasts franchise. His music for this as wholesome and full of sweep of grandeur and beauty and melody as can be desired. 

[JNHFan2000 2,944]

James Newton Howard is one of my top composers. I went to see his concert a few years back. It was soo cool. He told stories about the scores that made me even love them more.

My favorite scores of him which I truly reccomend:

 

Dinosaur

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Treasure Planet

Maleficent

Fantastic Beasts (both scores)

Jungle Cruise

The Village

Lady In The Water

Defiance

Wyatt Earp

Unnreakable

King Kong

The Last Airbender

A Hidden Life

Raya Amd The Last Dragon

 

And the more orchestral parts of The Hunger Games scores & Snow White & The Huntsman + The Overture and last 2 cues from Red Sparrow.

 

As you can see. Big fan! There are of course much more good scores.

[GerateWohl 4,330]

I had a short but intensive James Newton Howard phase. I adored his M. Night Shyamalan scores The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening. And King Kong is brillant. And I really liked what I heard during Disney's Dinosaurs movie.

But after some time I began to struggle with his tendency for these looping in my mind not very interesting short motives, the increasingly synthetic sound and more and more spheric sound carpets. Maybe something happend during his collaboration with Hans Zimmer on The Dark Knight, that inspired him to go that route. And maybe his academy award for Michael Clayton. Or maybe just I changed when I discovered my passion for classic golden age scores. Or I heard too many scores of James Newton Howard that didn't give me anything. But I am not really looking forward to any of his new scores. I still like his old albums. If there ever would be a remastered expanded version of Unbreakable I would surely go for it. But apart from that I am not that much interested. But you have to focus somewhere.

 

 

 

[Knight of Ren 785]

He is one of my favorite composers ever. Most of the scores of him that I adore have already been mentioned in here, so just want to say that I equally love his more emotionally-oriented scores, like the ones he did for Shyamalan movies (being The Village my favorite), but I also love his more blockbuster-oriented scores, like The Hunger Games Saga or his scores for Disney movies, like Atlantis or the recent Jungle Cruise.

 

He is one of the few composers who keeps me excited for a new release of him, and I cannot wait to hear what he does in the next entry of the Fantastic Beasts saga, which he has kept consistently engaing despite being surrounded by some mediocre films.

[Richard Penna 3,670]

If I look over the last 10 years or so, I find a selection of scores I love, amongst a selection of those that don't interest me in the slightest. I don't think I've ever known another composer whose output varies so much in engagement.

 

I certainly have interest and anticipation when he comes out with a new score, but I'm fully prepared for it not to be very interesting.

[Anthony 572]

JNH is awesome. 

 

Waterworld
Hidalgo
Dinosaur
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Signs
King Kong
Lady In The Water
The Last Airbender
Maleficent
 

All excellent, among many others.

[Thor 7,465]

I believe I/we have gone into some of our lists and reasonings in the official JNH thread already, but a recap:

 

James Newton Howard is one of my top 10 favourite film composers of all time. I met and interviewed him in 2013, in Ghent, Belgium. Up to and including THE VILLAGE, he could almost do no wrong, whether it was orchestral stuff or synth-driven material. His early, pre-film music shenanigans with the Toto crowd are neat too. And Elton John. Etc.

 

But then after THE VILLAGE in 2004, it's been rather uneven. Many scores have had great individual tracks, no doubt about it, but rarely come together as works with consistent quality throughout. That changed with A HIDDEN LIFE in 2019 -- the best score that year, a return to form and JNH's best since the aforementioned THE VILLAGE (and kinda in the same style). After that, it's been back to the uneven stuff again (you need a clever programming hand to make scores like RAYA work on a reasonably good level, for example).

 

My top 10 JNH:

 

1. WATERWORLD ("Swimming" is one of the greatest film music cues ever written, IMO)

2. Snow Falling on Cedars

3. The Saint of Fort Washington

4. A Hidden Life

5. The Village

6. Falling Down

7. Restoration

8. Wyatt Earp

9. Dinosaur

10. Promised Land

 

Or something.

[Josh500 1,615]

4 hours ago, Thor said:

I believe I/we have gone into some of our lists and reasonings in the official JNH thread already, but a recap:

 

James Newton Howard is one of my top 10 favourite film composers of all time. I met and interviewed him in 2013, in Ghent, Belgium. Up to and including THE VILLAGE, he could almost do no wrong, whether it was orchestral stuff or synth-driven material. His early, pre-film music shenanigans with the Toto crowd are neat too. And Elton John. Etc.

 

But then after THE VILLAGE in 2004, it's been rather uneven. Many scores have had great individual tracks, no doubt about it, but rarely come together as works with consistent quality throughout. That changed with A HIDDEN LIFE in 2019 -- the best score that year, a return to form and JNH's best since the aforementioned THE VILLAGE (and kinda in the same style). After that, it's been back to the uneven stuff again (you need a clever programming hand to make scores like RAYA work on a reasonably good level, for example).

 

My top 10 JNH:

 

1. WATERWORLD ("Swimming" is one of the greatest film music cues ever written, IMO)

2. Snow Falling on Cedars

3. The Saint of Fort Washington

4. A Hidden Life

5. The Village

6. Falling Down

7. Restoration

8. Wyatt Earp

9. Dinosaur

10. Promised Land

 

Or something.

 

 

This is amazing! 

 

Here's a whole new composer (at least for me), whose works I now may start exploring.... 

[Corellian2019 383]

No love for The Fugitive, apart from the OP?

 

I also second The Saint Of Fort Washington

[GerateWohl 4,330]

9 hours ago, Thor said:

My top 10 JNH:

 

1. WATERWORLD ("Swimming" is one of the greatest film music cues ever written, IMO)

2. Snow Falling on Cedars

3. The Saint of Fort Washington

4. A Hidden Life

5. The Village

6. Falling Down

7. Restoration

8. Wyatt Earp

9. Dinosaur

10. Promised Land

 

Or something.

Interesting. No "Signs" in there? I would have expected that.

[Anthony 572]

Signs has a great beginning and ending but the middle is a little uninteresting.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

I don’t know, I haven’t met him.

[Thor 7,465]

7 hours ago, Corellian2019 said:

No love for The Fugitive, apart from the OP?

 

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

Interesting. No "Signs" in there? I would have expected that.

 

THE FUGITIVE and SIGNS are great scores, but not top 10 for me.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

I wish PAWN SACRIFICE was on CD.

One of the few scores of his Im very fond of.

He's one of those composers I like but don't love

 

 

I'm always suspicious of folks with three first names😛

[crocodile 7,984]

He's alrate. Not a massive fan. But his good stuff is very good indeed.

 

Karol

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

I like, JNH but I always think of him as being one of those composers where I'll like every third score or so (I actually put Hans in that category... having to wade through a Dunkirk or something to get to a WW84 etc) but his best stuff is great, Waterworld was an early favourite, as well as Dinosaur, Atlantis, Wyatt Earp, King Kong, Snow Falling on Cedars and most of his Shyamalan output although I reluctantly agree with the comments that Signs doesn't live up to the high watermarks of its beginning and ending. I don't know if it's the orchestration, the recording or just his style of writing, but his bigger stuff can get a bit hollow and blustery - the two Fantastic Beasts scores feel a bit like this, enjoyable though they are. I am really enjoying his Violin Concerto, not perhaps as interesting as Danny Elfman's (which is bloody marvellous) but more accessible than JW's.

[Jurassic Shark 12,028]

He's got one really good score - Signs.

[Richard Penna 3,670]

25 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I don't know if it's the orchestration, the recording or just his style of writing, but his bigger stuff can get a bit hollow and blustery

 

I diagree on Signs (I love it all), but strangely yes, you've got something there. Once he goes into a realm of more 'epic' orchestral material there's often something a bit disconnected about it all. It's like he's got a collection of interesting ideas and orchestrations but he just sort of jumps between them.

[Quintus 5,399]

C-Grade 20-30 years ago. 

 

Elevated to B-Grade now due to the current state of play. 

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

7 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

 

I diagree on Signs (I love it all), but strangely yes, you've got something there. Once he goes into a realm of more 'epic' orchestral material there's often something a bit disconnected about it all. It's like he's got a collection of interesting ideas and orchestrations but he just sort of jumps between them.

I would add that my comments on Signs are very much relative and more an indication of how great those cues are rather than any deficiencies elsewhere. It’s still one of his best. I did that thing of pointlessly singling out a score negatively without really meaning to sound quite as down on it!

 

I don’t quite know how to articulate what I mean about his bigger scores but agree with your comments. It’s also the orchestration which isn’t always as interesting for the bigger moments so it can sound a bit thin (as opposed to just having clarity). However it’s more nitpicks than genuine complaints!

[Anthony 572]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I don't know if it's the orchestration, the recording or just his style of writing, but his bigger stuff can get a bit hollow and blustery - the two Fantastic Beasts scores feel a bit like this, enjoyable though they are.

 

I hadn't said this, but I completely agree. 

[GerateWohl 4,330]

An issue that I have with newer JNH scores is, like with so many other modern scores, even though they are filled with orchestral textures in nature they are not orchestral scores that are supposed to be played as orchestral pieces. The score frame and fundament are synthetic sounds and other sound effects, where an orchestral part is just showing up besides all the other sounds in a quite unnatural mix. That's completely OK but just not my cup of tea. Especially when it does not really excite me what's going on there in the music.

[Thor 7,465]

5 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

An issue that I have with newer JNH scores is, like with so many other modern scores, even though they are filled with orchestral textures in nature they are not orchestral scores that are supposed to be played as orchestral pieces. 

 

While that may be true of some scores that are supposed to have a 'blend' feel, I'd say JNH's purely orchestral scores are just that. A score like WYATT EARP, for example, is pretty straightforward, Coplandesque Americana with some lovely pastoral bits.

 

In fact, what you describe seems more fitting to someone like John Powell.

[GerateWohl 4,330]

7 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

While that may be true of some scores that are supposed to have a 'blend' feel, I'd say JNH's purely orchestral scores are just that. A score like WYATT EARP, for example, is pretty straightforward, Coplandesque Americana with some lovely pastoral bits.

 

In fact, what you describe seems more fitting to someone like John Powell.

That is fitting for me for scores like Fantastic Beasts or After Earth or Raya. 

I must admit, it does not fit to A Hidden Life, which is more like his older scores. In fact this one sounds to me like a meshup of Lady in the Water and The Village. But I prefer the originals.

[bollemanneke 3,337]

I think JNH is an incredibly versatile and extremely talented composer who has written fantastic scores (Fantastic Beasts), nice scores (Nutcracker) and who has also sadly been asked to compose simple crap (Hunger Games 3-4). Seeing him live was a true privilege.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

He's good at drama but I never felt his action material was very good.

 

[Corellian2019 383]

20 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

He's good at drama but I never felt his action material was very good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

I think his action material in FUGITIVE is pedestrian.

If you listen without the visuals it's nothing special. The scene is great

The dramatic cues are quite good

[Corellian2019 383]

I couldn't disagree more, but to each his own

[Thor 7,465]

Yes, Bruce's tastes are a bit wonky sometimes.

 

THE FUGITIVE is a wonderful blend of jazz and symphonics, and with a propulsive momentum that makes it somewhat of a genre classic.

[GerateWohl 4,330]

Even under the best film composers I would say, there is hardly a hand full that are writing action cues that have a legit musical life of its own apart from the picture. I wouldn't swear James Newton Howard is one of them. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

It's pretty much a lost art

 

Zimmer occasionally comes up with a good one. TDKR, INTERSTELLAR...

But , they lack themes so fade into the background.

FUGITIVE didn't need great action scoring. But, on.cd I tend to skip them

 

 

Btw I would say the same thing about WATERWORLD as FUGITIVE.

 

I always program OUT those INDY sound- alike action cues. Weak tea. One suspects temptrackitis

13 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Even under the best film composers I would say, there is hardly a hand full that are writing action cues that have a legit musical life of its own apart from the picture. I wouldn't swear James Newton Howard is one of them. 

Silvestri can still bring.it!

[Mephariel 451]

1 hour ago, bruce marshall said:

It's pretty much a lost art

 

Zimmer occasionally comes up with a good one. TDKR, INTERSTELLAR...

But , they lack themes so fade into the background.

FUGITIVE didn't need great action scoring. But, on.cd I tend to skip them

 

 

Btw I would say the same thing about WATERWORLD as FUGITIVE.

 

I always program OUT those INDY sound- alike action cues. Weak tea. One suspects temptrackitis

Silvestri can still bring.it!

 

While I love listening to "Mountains" and "No Time For Caution" outside of the film, not sure if I would use Interstellar as an example of a Zimmer score having action cues memorable outside of the film. I would point to Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, WW84, The Lion King, and The Rock. 

 

But yeah, in recent years, there are maybe a handful of action cues that I really care about outside of the films, far less than drama cues or fun cues.  

[bruce marshall 1,315]

The " Docking"" Caution" cues  were certainly exciting in the film.

Not sure they work as well on CD if one hadn't seen the film.

It's not a melodic piece

 

SPIRIT definitely has memorable action cues.

Just listen to that main title( not sure if it's on the official ost)

[Stark 310]

I don’t know if I love JNH as a composer, but he has consistently created large amounts of largely high quality music for 30+ years and I own dozens of his scores. I would describe his music as extremely professional and effective.

(And I do love several of his scores!)