Even with all the laurels Howard Shore has received in the past for his works in such films as The Lord Of The Rings,HUGO and Silence Of The Lambs he is and remains a true artist. This Canadian born songwriter got his start the same way all the Canadian stars of his time got their start… working for producer Lorne Micheals. Most notably he was the music composer of Saturday Night Live in the 70’s. During this time he also worked with cult film director David Cronenberg on his first major film The Brood. He later went on to score all of Cronenberg’s films except one.
During the 80’s and 90’s Howard Shore began taken on lighter projects like the score of Penny Marshall‘s Big, Chris Columbus‘s Mr’s Doubtfire, Tim Burton‘s Ed Wood, The Truth About Cat’s and Dog’s and Philadelphia,but that was short lived. His love for the macabre ran deep and he graciously lent his writing prowess to such disturbing films as David Fincher‘s Seven and Tarsem’s The Cell.
In the 2000’s Howard Shore would be sky rocketed to new heights when he was asked to score Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings. Not to downplay any of his previous works, but if there was ever a culmination of everything Howard has ever done it was his work in this film. Listening to the score you can see how Howard was able to explore elements of music that he’d previously never worked on before. As with anything great it had it’s setbacks. This came in the form of a clause long over looked by the Academy, but conveniently cropped it’s head when it came time for LOTR’S to submit their music for consideration.
Wikipedia: Shore’s score for The Two Towers was deemed ineligible for submission to the Academy, due to a new rule that disallowed the submission of scores which contained themes from previous work. This rule proved very unpopular, due to the fact that had it been present in earlier years, it would have invalidated various other sequel scores (such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones) from being nominated. As a result the Academy dispensed with this rule for future years.
Even with this minor set back Howard Shore was vindicated when the third film of the series “Return Of The King was nominated for eleven Academy awards all of which they took including two for best film score and best original song in a motion picture (Into The West-written by Annie Lennox,Howard Shore and Fran Walsh. I think we can call this back peddling on the part of the Academy.
In recent years Howard has built an incredible friendship with Martin Scorcese and has went on to score three his last films two of which were nominated for Academy’s, Golden Globes and Grammy’s HUGO and The Departed. Howard Shore’s career is a testament to who he is. He’s a composer who works on what he feels compelled to do. Evidence by his body of uncompromising work. Pushing himself musically, Howard has become one of the most well rounded composers in Hollywood and continues to bring a fresh new sound to all of his endeavors. Howard is currently working on The Hobbit due out on December 14th 2012.
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