By Geoff Welch, Curator, Harmony Hall
Film Composer Howard Shore Talked Movie Music Magic
Tuxedo Park resident, Howard Shore is a well-known composer of film scores including, among many, the popular “Lord of the Ring” trilogy Silence of the lambs, Naked Lunch, Philadelphia, Ed Wood, The Aviator, Hugo and the Hobbit. He also has composed a piano concerto a cello concerto, and an opera, The Fly. On Saturday, September 28, Shore gave a talk for the Tuxedo Park Library that was moved to the larger space of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, just inside the gates of Tuxedo Park, to accommodate more people. The church is stunning with its Tiffany and LaFarge stained glass windows. A modest sized screen and sound system was deployed to present a number of film clips, excerpts from orchestral performances and a lovely short documentary by Shore’s wife, Elisabeth.
Mr. Shore remarks were wonderfully revealing about the creative craft of a composer; one in this case, who is successful enough to have a historic home in Tuxedo Park and a separate studio in a historic building along Route 17. There is even a marvelous building called the Library on his grounds in Tuxedo Park equipped with a Steinway, Model B grand piano. After working in his home in a room with morning sun, he walks down a hill, accompanied by his two large companionable dogs, for his afternoon work session in the Library with a view of Wee Wah Lake. Mr. Shore credits the natural beauty and environment of Tuxedo Park with inspiring and improving his music since moving there twenty years ago.
Shore produces, on average, seven pages of music score written in pencil a day. He was asked why he didn’t use a computer program for music notation and he replied that was “like working in a box” to him. He enjoys the hand-crafted graphic nature of scoring by hand. He remarked how visually beautiful Mozart’s original scores are.
He stated that he often goes to the Metropolitan Opera and that Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle was an important influence for the altogether dozen hours of music Shore composed for the three Lord of the Rings films. In Shore’s view Wagner’s music evoking landscape scenery in the Ring Cycle was a historic step for music.
However, if I were to compare Shore to a previous composer, I would propose Joseph Haydn, who composed daily, was extremely productive, and achieved his greatest success in his 60’s. Shore is about to turn 67 in October. Haydn was also masterful in musically depicting nature as in his two late, great oratorios: The Creation and the Seasons.
Music and Image was a delightful community presentation and Howard Shore will be further helping local musical life by donating materials for a new music collection in the Tuxedo Park Public Library to be called The Howard Shore Music Education Collection.
Photos of Howard Shore and St. Mary’s Episcopal Church courtesy of Geoff Welch.
