Howard SHORE
Canadian composer Howard Shore is hailed as a monument of film music, with prestigious awards including 3 Oscars for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Paradoxically, such an extraordinary filmography may sometimes confine an artist in perpetual evolution who's constantly looking toward new musical grounds.
Shore graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston at a time when jazz was evolving, he went on tour as a saxophonist with "Lighthouse", a rock band which opened for Jimi Hendrix at Isle of Wight Festival and toured with Jefferson Airplane. The long hours spent on road, the stops in motels, are all opportunities to immerse himself, under the initiatory impulse of a member of the group, in the music of Webern, Schoenberg and other contemporary composers. In 1975, Howard Shore was one of the original creators of the legendary "Saturday Night Live" and became its first musical director. Here again, it is part of a period conducive to the creative effervescence of a television in full (r)evolution. It was at this time that he began collaborating with Canadian director David Cronenberg. He would go on to compose 15 of his film scores. So much music that remains, even today, an absolute reference for many young composers... At the end of the 1970s, the 7th Art was the field of all possibilities. It allowed him to develop a unique and inimitable style in perfect symbiosis with the innovative cinema of his accomplice and friend David Cronenberg. Each project is an opportunity for experimentation, and if the budget is sometimes limited, the freedom of creation is total and does not refuse anything, like his incredible score of Naked Lunch magnified by Ornette Coleman's saxophone. Howard Shore quickly attracted attention of independent and demanding directors, their productions allowed him to explore new ways to compose, especially for the orchestra, without taking inspiration from American stereotypes. He worked in close and often long-lasting relationships with, among others, Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, David Fincher, Jonathan Demme and Tim Burton. Throughout his compositions for film and concert, Howard Shore is in tune with his time, playing with references, universes, technical innovations, looking for the times that will last. It is with this in mind, a few years after his second collaboration with Arnaud Desplechin, that he is looking to Europe in search of new projects, new narratives, able to encourage a curious and innovative creation. |