Unit 13-The 1980s to Present Day Part 2
Objective
- In Part 2 of this unit we will highlight more important composers from the 1980s through the present day
- Discuss composers' compositional style and approach in additional to characteristics similar to to film composers of the 40s and 50s
- Go behind the scenes of composers and the process of putting music to picture
James Newton Howard
- American-born composer (1951)
- Started piano lessons at age 4
- Worked extensively doing session work for Carly Simon, Diana Ross, Ringo Starr and others
- Joined the Elton John Band and toured with the group
- 65 films to his credit
- Has been nominated for an Oscar 5 times
- Style is extremely versatile
- ability create a different style of music for every score he writes
- Howard's scores are never easily identified as the products of his imagination "a musical chameleon" [music ex.]
John Debney
- American-born composer (1956)
- Played guitar and piano
- Started work at Disney in the music library
- Started off scoring for television shows such as Cagney and Lacey, Fame and The Young Riders
- Score for Cutthroat Island was written for 120-piece London Symphony and 60-voice choir
- Pays homage to Korngold
- Prefers to write his scores at the piano
- Was influenced by John Williams
- Is another musical chameleon with no definable style
- Composes from style to style and genre to genre with great success [music ex. Adventure Template]
Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer's approach to scoring Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Hans Zimmer owns and runs Remote Control Productions - A production house for composing music for film.
Steve Jablonsky
Paul Haslinger
Aaron Zigman [Ex. from Mr. Magorium's. See Magic/Fantasy Music Template]
Alexander Desplat [Ex. from Argo]
Alexander Desplat [Ex. from Argo]
Brian Tyler [Ex. from Fast Five and Action Template]
Michael Giacchinno's approach for composing for characters...
Marco Beltrami [ex. F-35 score and Action Template]
Woman Composers
The film music industry had been dominated by men from its earliest years
For sixty-nine years, women had never gained recognition by being awarded the Oscar.
For sixty-nine years, women had never gained recognition by being awarded the Oscar.
Rachel Portman
- Born in 1960
- British Composer
- Has a distinctive style: Employs a lot of solo clarinet, soprano saxophone, and strings in her scores.
- Prefers to do her own orchestrations
- First female to win an Academy Award for Emma (1996) [music ex.]
- Believes that a big percentage of the job in film composing is the psychology of people, getting to know what they really want.
- Filmography
Shirley Walker 1945-2006
- Was an American film and television composer and conductor.
- She was one of the few female film score composers working in Hollywood.
- Walker was the first female composer to earn a solo score credit on a major Hollywood motion picture and according to the Los Angeles Times, will be remembered as a pioneer for women in the film industry.
- She wrote her film scores entirely by hand.
- She always orchestrated and conducted her own scores by herself.
- Filmography
Debbie Wiseman
Born in 1963
British Composer
Only a handful of movie scores to her credit
Had originally worked exclusively in scoring for television
Filmography
British Composer
Only a handful of movie scores to her credit
Had originally worked exclusively in scoring for television
Filmography