Hello again, Gamespot!
This week's feature is a composer profile on James Newton Howard. As said several times in the past, James Newton Howard is definitely one of my favorite composers of all time. He has a very unique s-tyle, in that he doesn't really have a specific type of music he sticks to. Whereas other composers, such as Danny Elfman or Hans Zimmer, tend to have their own very specific type of music, Howard is able to go through many different feels of music in almost every one of his works. Whether it's the suspenseful themes of The Sixth Sense or the stunning violin beauty in The Village, the wonderfully magical instrumentation in Lady in the Water or the massively harmonic The Last Airbender, Howard proves his is capable in nearly every category of music there is to be found.
Howard began his career in scoring films at some point in the 1980s; the exact date is difficult to pinpoint as he scored relatively obscure films. While one can say that his first popular film scored was The Prince of Tides, the music was relatively nondescript in spite of the Academy Award nomination. As he began to move through Hollywood movies, he began scoring bigger films, including the relatively well-known film Waterworld. His work in said film was bombastic and exotic, garnering much attention.
From there, he continued scoring films, working on movies like religious horror film The Devil's Advocate and post-apocalyptic film The Postman. Here, Howard demonstrated his incredible ability with trying out new genres of music. In the score for The Devil's Advocate, Howard composed richly powerful religious music filled with magnificent choral beauty, and his fantasy/adventure work in The Postman features some exciting orchestral harmony. While none of these scores were perfect, they showed Howard had much potential, and it wasn't for a few years that he would demonstrate them.
In 1999, Howard met director M. Night Shyamalan, beginning a fruitful relationship. The first film they collaborated on, The Sixth Sense, was a supernatural drama concerning a boy who could see dead people. The film later became a c-lassic, with many considering it to be Shyamalan's crowning achievement. Howard's work for the movie was relatively predictable, often fading into the background. In some moments, however, it supported the film well and represented the characters well as well. In spite of a rather boring album compilation, the score was especially intriguing in the film and gained wide recognition, ultimately netting Howard honors from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for his work.
In 2000, Howard joined Disney for a 3-picture deal, and composed the score for Dinosaur. The score is fairly controversial due to its heavy similarities to Hans Zimmer's work in The Lion King, but nonetheless drew critical acclaim. In the same year, Shyamalan and Howard teamed up again for Unbreakable, where Howard returned to his heavily ambient s-tyle from The Sixth Sense, albeit with more orchestral instrumentation.
Following the success of Dinosaur, Howard scored Disney's next animated movie, Atlantis the next year. Again, another fantasy success, Howard became regarded to be one of Disney's best composers due to the magic and enjoyable feel to his music.
2002 brought Howard more success, ending his deal with Disney with a decent score to Treasure Planet. Despite its weaker mid-portion, the title theme was quite intriguing. Shyamalan and Howard teamed up yet again for Signs, another marginal improvement over their previous works. This time a sci-fi horror/thriller film, Howard was able to compose some truly awe-inspiring pieces, but due to the film's slow pace, ambient pieces were still inevitable.
Skipping forward to 2004, Howard was already widely recognized as a formidable composer. His schedule became increasingly difficult from 2004 to the present, scoring dozens of movies and managing to surprise the audience with his effective music each time. His fourth collaboration with Shyamalan, The Village, brought his ability to compose beautiful themes into the spotlight, as he wrote some gorgeous string themes.
2005 had him compose for two massive films: King Kong and Batman Begins. His work in King Kong is particularly noteworthy, as he was given a mere 6 weeks to write and record the music. Astoundingly, the score turned out incredibly well, and can be called one of his best works. While not as intelligent nor exciting as other scores of today, his work in King Kong was excellent considering the time constraints.
In 2006, he composed his greatest work: Lady in the Water. The fifth collaboration with Shyamalan brought an awful movie to theaters, but the music was beautiful, featuring glorious themes, with magical instrumentation and excellent choral work. The sheer beauty and consistency of the themes was remarkable, and cemented his image as one of the great composers of today. The same year he also composed Blood Diamond, another great score. While it doesn't reach the massive heights of Lady in the Water, Blood Diamond still featured some brilliant moments in it as well.
2007 featured scores that weren't quite as amazing as the outstanding works in 2006, though Howard's works were still remarkable. Scoring yet another movie with water as a major theme to it, The Water Horse: Legends of the Deep wasn't a half bad fantasy score, though it was significantly weaker than Lady in the Water. While its Celtic influences were interesting, its themes weren't quite as strong. Also written in 2007 was the grossly neglected I Am Legend, a fantastically somber score that was all but completely muted in the film. The wonderful piano and string themes were stirring, and the synth-based action beats were fantastically fast-paced as well.
2008 was a stronger year than 2007, featuring yet another Shyamalan and Howard collaboration. The Happening was a much weaker score than Lady in the Water due to its massive string dissonance. While not completely unlistenable, the majority was difficult and highly disjointed, and not something one would want to listen to over and over again. The same year he also scored Defiance, a deep and mature score that would bring back memories of John William's incredible Schindler's List. Another collaboration with Hans Zimmer for The Dark Knight was written in the same year, a decidedly difficult but entertaining score.
2009 featured very little output from Howard, besides a jazzy score for Duplicity. While it was an impressive score due to its mimicry of jazz scores, an enjoyable listening experience it was not.
2010 was one of Howard's best years, due to the release of the incredible score to The Last Airbender. Howard proved once and for all that it was indeed possible to write a fantasy score that didn't liberally rip off Howard Shore's work from Lord of the Rings. The Last Airbender utilized forceful percussion and ethnic instrumentation meshed with modern day orchestral power to create one of the greatest scores of today. His other popular output that year, Salt and The Tourist, were both similar in that they both featured Angelina Jolie performing action stunts, and both also featured much action music. Chase Across DC in particular, from Salt, was a magnificent piece. The Tourist was a much less impressive work, though in context it did fit. Other works, like Nanny McPhee Returns and Love and Other Drugs weren't bad either. Nanny McPhee Returns was a surprisingly adept score for such a horrid movie, featuring some nice themes and decent string work. The work in Love and Other Drugs was unimpressive, but again fit.
This year has not been a great year for Howard, as his best work was Water for Elephants. While Water for Elephants wasn't a bad score at all, it was a little dry in comparison to Howard's other works. The frustrating ambience was plain annoying. Other scores, like Green Lantern, were simply awful in their boring feel. Surprising, due to the subject matter. Gnomeo and Juliet was also an underachieving animated film score. I sincerely hope Howard returns to form soon; his best works are absolutely amazing.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Howard's work is his ability to come up with fresh feels to his works, as aforementioned. For instance, his work in Defiance brings back the solo violin to represent the perils of the Jews during World War II, an idea first made famous by John Williams. Howard also manages to replicate Zimmer's proven feel in The Lion King, and uses the feel for Dinosaur. Duplicity successfully mimicked the jazz-oriented s-tyle of David Holmes. This year's Water for Elephant's reminds of Thomas Newman's s-tyles in works like Finding Nemo's main theme. Still other works, like Blood Diamond, feature Zimmer-like action beats in them, and Howard's Restoration manages to translate 17th century music to modern listeners in a fantastic way.
James Newton Howard can only be called a master at his art; not only is he capable of writing unique s-tyles to each of his works, but he is also capable of mimicking other composers' methods to amazing results and authenticity. Now, while some may say he has no skill because of this, it must also be admitted that his greatest works - Lady in the Water and The Last Airbender - are completely original. Howard has amassed many fans over the years, and I hope to see his works for movies some day win him worldwide recognition, whether it be through biased popularity contests like the Academy Awards, or through Grammies and Emmies. He more than deserves the attention.

Recommended Works:

1. Lady in the Water - If you enjoy obvious yet intelligent themes, beautiful instrumentation, and a truly magical feel, Lady in the Water is for you. My score: 10/10. Best tracks: Charades, Prologue, The Great Eatlon, Ripples in the Pool

2. The Last Airbender - If you can enjoy epic themes despite being buried inside various tracks, and love ethnic power and forceful percussion, The Last Airbender's outstanding score will snare you. My score: 10/10. Best tracks: Flow Like Water, Airbender Suite, Journey to the Northern Water Tribe

3. King Kong - If listenable scores are a must for you, then King Kong definitely tops James Newton Howard's usual suspense work. The beautiful piano solos and a distinct lack of painful dissonance make it one of the most purely enjoyable scores by him. My score: 9/10. Best tracks: Central Park, It's Deserted, Beauty Killed the Beast IV, Captured