James Newton Howard - NIGHT AFTER NIGHT

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

7 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

Yeah, in the sense that any film just is what it is, the score would be different if the movie was different. But dramatic arcs and editing rhythms aside, ultimately the composer deserves all the credit for expressing a film's particular musicality, which is infinitely variable and doesn't really exist except in their mind. 

 

That's how I tend to think of Goldsmith's score for The Omen. Not a *bad* film by any stretch, but absolutely one that every time disappoints me because I don't think it lives up to its promises. A synopsis and Goldsmith's score one their own paint a much grander picture in my mind than the film actually delivers.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

19 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

A synopsis and Goldsmith's score one their own paint a much grander picture in my mind than the film actually delivers.

 

And that's the original The Omen! How much truer that statement becomes when we venture onto the THIRD one! 

 

Yavar

[leeallen01 2,136]

On 20/09/2023 at 10:27 PM, JNHFan2000 said:

 

 

 

Hahaha I'm going insane because I can't actually believe we are getting this!

 

Are you bloody kidding me?

 

It's like JNH asked me personally what I'd love to have from him and he just said "sure, no probs."

[Evanus 217]

Yeah this sounds amazing, can't wait. Wish more film composers did stuff like this!

[Edmilson 7,466]

If this album does well, JNH could do something similar for other scores of his, like his Disney movies 

[leeallen01 2,136]

Yeah, imagine if this inspires him and others to do more like this. 

 

A Howard Shore piano focused LOTR. (Considering piano is the least used instrument in all of his Middle Earth material)

 

A Williams full Jazz re-telling of his favourite themes. 

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

A chamber orchestra album of Zimmer scores. Hahah.

 

Maybe something from Thomas Newman, more from John Powell, Michael Giacchino, Alan Silvestri, Joel McNeely. I could go on and on

[leeallen01 2,136]

2 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

A chamber orchestra album of Zimmer scores.

 

I would actually love to have a small, calm, minimal Zimmer reimagining of his scores. One of my favourites from him is his piano theme for Clark in Man of Steel. So delicate and powerful. I could imagine his other big scores being interesting with the same treatment.

[mrbellamy 6,287]

On 21/09/2023 at 11:15 AM, LSH said:

This is most evidently a must-hear. Good to see JNH and M. Night are still friends - hopefully we’re still yet to enjoy another collaboration at some point. 

 

It is nice just to see them hanging together after five M Night Shyamalan movies have gone by now without JNH 

[Schilkeman 964]

He should do a whole album with Hahn like Williams did with Mutter. They seem to agree with one another.

[leeallen01 2,136]

I've been waiting for this album all my life.

 

 

 

Speechless.

[Faleel 5,354]

12 minutes ago, leeallen01 said:

I've been waiting for this album all my life.

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

Samples below!

 

https://www.qobuz.com/nz-en/album/night-after-night-music-from-the-movies-of-m-night-shyamalan-james-newton-howard-jean-yves-thibaudet/k2ixe840ds22a

 

[leeallen01 2,136]

Man, this album...

 

Whenever I stumble upon listening to anything Lady in the Water for example, it just has an instant weird relaxing effect. Those descending strings of the theme are so perfectly calming, and it says so much so simply; it's mysterious, flowing, serene, and still has an edge of darkness. 

 

I might re-number all the tracks in order of film release for my listening continuity.

[Mr. Who 919]

I just started listening to this album and so far it's amazing! Love the new arrangements and the performances are great! I hope JNH does more of these types of albums and as a huge fan of his violin and cello concerto, I hope he writes more classical music in the future! Oh and he should release his cello concerto officially!

[crocodile 8,017]

I haven't heard anything from this but my CD should arrive today. Judging by the track list alone, it might become my favourite JNH album ever. I am already thinking of double-dipping and getting the vinyl. I bet this will be delicious at this time of the year.

 

Karol

[Thor 7,508]

30 minutes ago, Mr. Who said:

I just started listening to this album and so far it's amazing! Love the new arrangements and the performances are great! I hope JNH does more of these types of albums and as a huge fan of his violin and cello concerto, I hope he writes more classical music in the future! Oh and he should release his cello concerto officially!

 

Intriguing. I'll get to it soon. As I've said before, I was never into JNH's Shyamalan scores, for one reason or another (with the exception of THE VILLAGE). I don't know why. Maybe their "chilliness", the slightly minimalist tone language, maybe because I latched on to and fell in love with a different kind of JNH before he ever worked with Shya, I don't know. But perhaps this album will open my ears a little more. I would really like to appreciate these works more.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I think Hand of Fate is one of the first JNH tracks I ever came across and I quickly discovered his other M. Night scores, so I'm looking forward to this. It seems unusual to get a re-recording which is arranged and produced by the composer meaning we won't get any nasty mistakes or performance issues.

 

I can see why you wouldn't be into 6th Sense and Unbreakable - I'm not much into the latter, which is a very cold, 'clinical' sound to me, and I also never fully got onboard with the drum loop used in a few tracks.

[Knight of Ren 789]

JNH's collaborations with Shyamalan are some of my favorite scores ever, particularly The Village and Lady in the Water, so I was really looking forward to this album. I listened to it on Spotify and loved it! It really feels like a proper extension of the scores, not just copying what was there, but expanding and developing some ideas without the constraints of scoring to a scene.

 

The Village and Lady in the Water suites were brilliant and made me emotional a couple of times, in particular the track Ivy Saves Lucius. As for the others, it depends, because for example I prefer how the themes of Unbreakable are orchestrated in the original score, and the reduction to piano and strings does not work as well for me, but on the other side, it's so great hearing The Last Airbender in a much more subdued variation than the orchestral "epicness" of the original score, which I also love.

 

I know I will be giving this a lot more listens to the album and I will definitely buy the CD!

[Schilkeman 964]

I find myself missing Hahn on the other tracks. I wish he did the whole album with her, but it's nice. I'll try and get ahold of this when I can.

[GerateWohl 4,370]

Just got this and listened about half of it.

It is really an amazing album.

Of course my special love goes to the two tracks of my favourite "Unbreakable".

I will spend a lot of time with this.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I think it's a 5 star album if you're not familiar with these scores at all.

 

I've found it to be a mixture of pretty straight re-recordings in some cases (LitW being a bit 'plain' in that respect), and others where he's injected some nice newly-composed variations. In that sense Signs and The Village are the most interesting. Might be a purchase along the line if I find myself listening to it more.

[leeallen01 2,136]

Listening my way through now. Very slowly as I can't resist just replaying every piece over and over again as I go. 

 

It might be my own projected thoughts onto the music, but to me I really hear the difference in Hilary Hahn.

 

E.g. in the original score, she works perfectly as an innocent musical voice, as JNH described it as a mirroring with Bryce Dallas Howard; both being young women giving the voice to Ivy. But now as Hahn is 20 years older, I listen to her pieces differently. She feels like she's playing a 40 year old Ivy's voice in some kind of sequel to the Village. I can easily imagine current Bryce and Joaquin with a big family of lots of kids running around, still living in the Village today. It's wonderful.

[GerateWohl 4,370]

4 minutes ago, leeallen01 said:

E.g. in the original score, she works perfectly as an innocent musical voice, as JNH described it as a mirroring with Bryce Dallas Howard; both being young women giving the voice to Ivy. But now as Hahn is 20 years older, I listen to her pieces differently. She feels like she's playing a 40 year old Ivy's voice in some kind of sequel to the Village. I can easily imagine current Bryce and Joaquin with a big family of lots of kids running around, still living in the Village today. It's wonderful.

That's what I thought as well. Ok, JNH lowered some of her melodies by an octave. So, that sounds easily more mature. But still. 

[leeallen01 2,136]

This Album... lord have mercy.

 

I mean - 3:22... come on!

 

 

[Jay 37,369]

I listened to this today.  It's nice!

I thought it was a strange decision to open the album with the Signs tracks instead of ending with it.  Hand of Fate is such a great album closer!

[crocodile 8,017]

Very nice album, very subdued and autumnal.

 

Karol

[Jay 37,369]

Yes, the album is much more subdued than I was expecting!

 

It's interesting that these movies full of so much action, suspense, and thrills can lead to an album of such contemplation and calm.

[Bespin 8,483]

I'm listening to this exquisite album as I come back from the dead after spending the last 3 days grappling with a diabolical flu. Beautiful collaboration between Thibaudet and Newton Howard, highlighting the most ethereal passages from the soundtracks he composed for Shyamalan. I am going to live!

[leeallen01 2,136]

I just love being able to sit and listen in peace to the entire album. There are many times when I just want a calm experience with music, but have to keep changing and switching pieces if I truly want that. With this, I get to sit for over an hour and be connected to so many of JNH's masterworks and have no worries. 

[JTN 2,030]

Very nice album. I'll try to buy the CD, and I'll definitely revisit it a few times. 

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

Am I the only one who is very surprised by the beauty of the "After Earth" track. The only thing I remember from that score is very basic action music. I might have to revisit it in the future!

 

And together with Rachel Portman's Beyond The Screen, it's one of my favorite film music related albums of the year. They play very well together and is something I could easily play during dinner in the background. Wonderful stuff

[KK 3,307]

Eh. I thought the album was okay. It kind of strips out the magic and musicality of many of the original pieces. A lot of it now just feels like pretty chords for piano and strings. Some parts of it are nice, but stuff like the "Hands of Fate" arrangement is dreadfully boring. 

[LSH 969]

This is really gorgeous stuff. Lovely interpretions of what is already fantastic material.

[Incanus 5,715]

I have to say I really like this album. These are simply some of JNH's best scores and while I wish he had reworked his music even more for this kind of setting as he basically had a free hand to do whatever he wanted, I have to admit that the arrangements are wonderful. And I think he chose to remain quite faithful to the originals while still adding new additional touches, passages and flourishes for the soloists. It is a lovely album and gave me even a new appreciation for After Earth which didn't previously do much for me but the new suite from the score is powerful and uplifting in a way I can't remember the OST ever being.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

I had the same reaction to After Earth, a total highlight of this album even though the original score was the only JNH/Shyamalan collaboration I would call “fairly generic sounding”. I’ve been trying to find what corresponds to it on the original album. The opening seems to come from the cue “Kitai Finds Cypher”, but after that when it gets REALLY awesome I’m stumped. Anyone have any ideas? Perhaps it’s from a cue that went unreleased on album (maybe because choir was involved and they didn’t want to pay SAG fees?) or perhaps it’s some thematic material JNH composed for the film but which got rejected or something?

 

Does anyone have better insight into this?

 

Yavar

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I was similarly confused by After Earth. I made a suite when the score came out as most of that score is tiresome to me, and I recognise almost nothing in this suite.

 

Probably won't buy this as I'm primarily interested in a couple of tracks which add new compositions/interpretations, which so far are a few Signs and Village tracks. Although for the latter part of Hand of Fate, nothing will beat the warmth of the OST.

[Bespin 8,483]

I think many of us have come to the conclusion that James Newton Howard composed these suites in a very 'free' manner, with a clear intent to achieve an ethereal and moody result. Moreover, the album showcases two soloists, indicating that they must have interesting parts to play... I think we should therefore be lenient with these suites, the goal was not to represent the complete original scores.

[thestat 348]

The After Earth suite is especially awesome, especially as it comes with this brilliant bit of JNH 2010s when he navigated the landscape of simplistic HZ knock-offs and came up with this, somehow, and weirdly none of this theme appears in the NonN album>

 

[JTN 2,030]

On 22/10/2023 at 7:02 PM, JNHFan2000 said:

is something I could easily play during dinner in the background.

 

[crocodile 8,017]

On 22/09/2023 at 12:56 AM, Marian Schedenig said:

 

That's how I tend to think of Goldsmith's score for The Omen. Not a *bad* film by any stretch, but absolutely one that every time disappoints me because I don't think it lives up to its promises. A synopsis and Goldsmith's score one their own paint a much grander picture in my mind than the film actually delivers.

I agree with this completely.

 

Karol

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

On 01/11/2023 at 7:28 AM, crocodile said:

I agree with this completely.

 

Karol

 

On 22/09/2023 at 12:56 AM, Marian Schedenig said:

 

That's how I tend to think of Goldsmith's score for The Omen. Not a *bad* film by any stretch, but absolutely one that every time disappoints me because I don't think it lives up to its promises. A synopsis and Goldsmith's score one their own paint a much grander picture in my mind than the film actually delivers.

Also agree... it basically lifts the film to a level that it wouldn't have achieved on its own. Now Jaws is a vastly better film, but I always felt that both films totally deserved their Oscars for being the kind of scores that are both superb music but also elevate their respective films.

[GerateWohl 4,370]

In a way this disappointment of watching the actual movie after first listening to the score in advance even hits me with pretty good movies.

If you have a great score, the movie created in my head is mostly more glamorous than the actual move, at least in terms of music usage.

 

[Richard Penna 3,694]

The images in my head when I first heard Lady in the Water knocked the shit out of what the movie delivered. Particularly The Great Eatlon which, except for one or two moments (discovering the 'real' guardian, BDH being taken by that bird) was a fairly disappointing experience.

[1977 1,743]

52 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

In a way this disappointment of watching the actual movie after first listening to the score in advance even hits me with pretty good movies.

If you have a great score, the movie created in my head is mostly more glamorous than the actual move, at least in terms of music usage.

 

 

I had that with Jurassic Park. I read the book and listened to the score before watching the film, and although it was fantastic, I missed some of the subplots (such as the ticking timebomb aspect of the boat that was heading to the mainland with raptors in tow).

[Edmilson 7,466]

I'm a little mixed on the album... some re-imaginings of cues worked amazingly well (Signs, The Village), others are surprisingly good given that they're based on scores that aren't as beloved (The Happening, After Earth), but for some I wasn't a fan of.

 

Unbreakable is one of my top 10 JNH scores of all time, but I was disappointed that its re-imaginings were a little too "epic" for my taste and forgot all the wonderful melancholic material that I love so much (Carrying Audrey, Second Date).

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

Yeah I liked the Unbreakable selections but was similarly disappointed it wasn’t a longer four cue suite like other scores got.

 

The Happening was actually one of the most disappointing to me. I adore that score and consider it one of JNH’s very best for Shyamalan, thinking that most people really underrate it. But I was underwhelmed with the selection on album, despite being blown away by the score proper ever since I heard it in the film.

 

Yavar

[Cristian Lee 35]

Amazing album, it's perfect from start to finish! The new interpretations are great, every cue it's perfect and I'm glad that JNH went for a meditative and calm album without those suspense/horror cues from the original albums. 

[Thor 7,508]

I've probably listened to the album four times now. Really love it -- it has certainly made me appreciate the Shyamalan efforts more (even though one can argue that the reliance on the more beautiful parts of said scores don't make it quite representative as such).

[GerateWohl 4,370]

I watched yesterday Unbreakable again and was again inspired by the score. It always had a wonderful Miklós Rózsa sword and sandal religioso touch like Quo Vadis or Ben Hur for me and I really love it. Apart from the fact, that I adore the movie. From all creative aspects of a movie this is my favourite Shyamalan movie.

Like Yavar I regret that the Unbreakable suite is so short on the album. But still it covers probably the best parts in a beautiful way.