Howard Shore
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| Howard Shore | |
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| Born | Howard Leslie Shore October 18, 1946 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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| Years active | 1978–Present |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Cotnoir (1990–Present) |
Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is a Canadian composer, orchestrator, conductor and music producer. He was the first band leader on Saturday Night Live.[citation needed] He composed the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and the scores to most of David Cronenberg's films. He is also a prolific composer of concert works; his first opera, The Fly, based on the plot (though not the score) of Cronenberg's 1986 film premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 2 July 2008.[1] He is the uncle of composer Ryan Shore.[2]
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[edit] Early career
He was born to a Jewish family in Toronto, Canada, and studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston after graduating from Forest Hill Collegiate Institute. From 1969 to 1972, he performed with the group Lighthouse. In 1970 he was the music director of Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz's short-lived TV program The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour. Shore wrote the music for Canadian magician Doug Henning's magical/musical Spellbound in 1974, and he was the musical director for Lorne Michaels' hugely influential late-night NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980, appearing in many musical sketches, including Howard Shore and His All-Nurse Band, and dressed as a beekeeper for a John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd performance of the Slim Harpo classic I'm a King Bee. Shore also suggested the name for The Blues Brothers to Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.
[edit] Successes
Shore has written the music for such various major film productions as the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, The Silence of the Lambs, Mrs. Doubtfire, Philadelphia, Ed Wood, Se7en, Dogma, High Fidelity, Panic Room, The Departed and The Aviator, the last of which earned him a Golden Globe. Since The Brood in 1979, he has been a consistent collaborator with David Cronenberg, scoring all his subsequent films except The Dead Zone (1983, scored by Michael Kamen). His score for Cronenberg's Naked Lunch is notable for his collaboration with famed avant-garde jazz musician Ornette Coleman, who debunks Shore's work.[citation needed]
[edit] The Lord of the Rings
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Since 2004, he has toured the world conducting local orchestras in the performance of his new symphonic arrangement of his highly acclaimed Lord of the Rings scores. The new work is entitled The Lord of the Rings: Symphony in Six Movements. There are two movements for each of the movies, and an intermission between the second and third (or first and second, in some cases) movements. The concert presentation of the symphony also includes projected still images relating the music being performed to scenes from the films. Recently, however, Shore has been busy with other projects, leaving other conductors including Markus Huber, Alexander Mickelthwaite, and John Mauceri to lead the orchestras. April 24, 2008 marked the North American Live to Projection debut of Fellowship of the Ring, with the score performed live by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ludwig Wicki. Wicki also conducted the Filene Center Orchestra at the Wolf Trap Farm Park in Vienna, Virginia on May 21 and 22, 2008 in the U.S. premiere of the Fellowship of the Ring Live to Projection.
Shore will return to the themes of Middle-earth when he scores The Hobbit film duology, to be released in 2011 and 2012[3].
[edit] King Kong
Although Shore was originally commissioned to compose the soundtrack for King Kong (indeed, he had already recorded most of the music), he was later replaced by James Newton Howard due to "differing creative aspirations for the score" on his and the filmmakers' parts. This was a mutual agreement between him and Peter Jackson.
Despite this, Shore has a cameo near the end of King Kong as the conductor of the pit orchestra in the theater.
[edit] Miscellany
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (March 2009) |
- Shore makes a cameo appearance on film in The Return of the King (extended edition) as a Guard of Rohan, during the drinking game at Edoras.
- Shore was played by Neil Portnow in the 1989 film version of Bob Woodward's book Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi.
- Shore was commissioned by Macy's to write a Fanfare for the Store's 150th anniversary featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Wanamaker Organ, the world's largest playing pipe organ. The work was debuted in the Grand Court of Macy's Philadelphia Store on September 27, 2008 in a concert that drew reviews from most of the major East Coast newspapers.
- Included in the soundtrack to the film "The Departed", was a version of the song "Comfortably Numb", written in part by Roger Waters. Shore later collaborated with Waters on the song "Hello, I Love You" for the soundtrack of the film "The Last Mimzy".
[edit] Selected filmography
- The Brood (1979)
- Scanners (1981)
- Videodrome (1983)
- After Hours (1985)
- The Fly (1986)
- Big (1988)
- Dead Ringers (1988)
- Naked Lunch (1991)
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
- Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
- Philadelphia (1993)
- The Client (1994)
- Ed Wood (1994)
- Nobody's Fool (1994)
- Moonlight and Valentino (1995)
- Se7en (1995)
- Crash (1996)
- That Thing You Do! (1996)
- The Game (1997)
- Cop Land (1997)
- eXistenZ (1999)
- Analyze This (1999)
- Dogma (1999)
- High Fidelity (2000)
- The Cell (2000)
- The Yards (2000)
- The Score (2001)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
- Gangs of New York (2002)
- Panic Room (2002)
- Spider (2002)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
- The Aviator (2004)
- A History of Violence (2005)
- The Departed (2006)
- Soul of the Ultimate Nation (MMORPG) (2007)
- The Last Mimzy (2007)
- Eastern Promises (2007)
- Doubt (2008)
- The Betrayal (2008)
[edit] Awards
- Shore won the 2002, 2003 and 2004 Grammies for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for his scores to The Lord of the Rings films, and the 2004 Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for Into the West from The Return of the King.
- He won back-to-back Golden Globes in 2003 and 2004 for The Return of the King and The Aviator, respectively.
- Shore won the 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Score (for The Fellowship of the Ring) and the 2003 Oscar for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, both for The Return of the King.
- On June 11, 2007, Shore was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from York University in Toronto for "his sweeping artistic vision"[4].
- Shore has also been honored with awards from The National Board of Review, Recording Academy Honors, The Broadcast Film Critics, Chicago Film Critics, The British Academy of Film And Television Arts, Genie Award, World Soundtrack Award, New York's Gotham Award, and The Saturn Award for Science Fiction.
- Shore is the first recipient of the Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for a Science Fiction Feature Film for The Last Mimzy.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Howard Shore at the Internet Movie Database
- Howard Shore at Soundtrackguide.net
- Howard Shore at The Danish Filmmusic Society (DFS)
- Howard Shore Interview at Tracksounds
