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Howard Shore

Howard Shore Quotes

Film Score Composer

Howard Shore is a renowned film score composer, born on October 18, 1946. His works are known for their unique style and profound emotional grasp of cinema. Shore has earned a high reputation in the film music industry, having composed music for numerous classic films, including the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy and 'The Dark Knight'.

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All Film Way Composer Directors Ifs Stories Want Different Kind Thinking

Famous Howard Shore Quotes

“Theater and film are essentially the same - just different kinds of storytelling.”

Kind Different Film Theater Storytelling Different Kinds

Author:Howard Shore

“I live in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. and spend time in the West Village, where my wife Elizabeth Cotnoir, a writer-producer and documentary filmmaker, has an office.”

Wife Office West My Wife Producers Filmmaker Parks Village End Times Documentaries Spend Time Tuxedos

Author:Howard Shore

“Saturday Night Live was actually started with a show that Lorne Michaels and I did at a summer camp called Timberlane in Ontario when we were 14 and 15. We would do an improvisational show with music, comedy and acting.”

Shows Night Acting Comedy Summer Camps Saturday Saturday Night Saturday Night Live Summer Camp Ontario

Author:Howard Shore

“You can find the whole world of a film in one instrument, or you can find a world of sound in the orchestra.”

World Whole Film Sound Instruments Whole World Orchestra

Author:Howard Shore

“To make good films, you have to have a good relationship and good collaboration as composer-director, composer-editor, composer-production designer-actor because you're working with the actors on screen.”

Film Actors Directors Productions Screens Designer Editors Collaboration Composer Good Relationship Good Films

Author:Howard Shore

“I always go back to the original material. I want a good connection as the composer and writer of the score to the director and to the source material. It's really important.”

Want Important Materials Source Directors Connections Originals Score Composer

Author:Howard Shore

“Different directors have different techniques in the use of films. Cronenberg is very different in the way he works with film, and how he takes the audience into his films is different than how Peter Jackson would do that or Jon Stewart. So, if you go between those artists, you shift gears and you kind of fall into the working method of that film.”

Ifs Way Kind Different Use Film Artist Fall Audience Directors Method Technique Peter Gears

Author:Howard Shore

“Film music really is about point of view and you can shift it wherever you want really depending on how you look at it.”

Want Looks Film Views Point Of View Film Music

Author:Howard Shore

“Sometimes you want to use the music in a clarity way to explain something in the film.”

Way Want Sometimes Use Film Clarity

Author:Howard Shore

“You don't always want to be using the music in a way to express ideas inherent that are on the screen. You might want to work more around the fringes of the story, and work more with the subtext, and add more depth to the story through the use of music.”

Way Want Ideas Stories Use Might Add Depth Screens Inherent Fringe Subtext

Author:Howard Shore

“When you start on a new film, no matter how many you've done before that, I think I've done close to 80 films, but it's always kind of a fun adventure.”

Thinking Kind Matter Done Film Fun Adventure

Author:Howard Shore

“I like to do a lot of research on all of the films I work on. So, I like to read a lot. That's always an interesting part of it with me.”

Film Interesting Research

Author:Howard Shore

“I usually work with the director and it's just a collaboration between me and the one person. I think you make good movies that way. If the director and the composer can have this common goal and this excitement about making something great, then you're going to do something good.”

Ifs Thinking Way Persons Goal Common Directors Excitement Collaboration Composer Good Movie Common Goal

Author:Howard Shore

“I look at the film without any music or sound. I try to grasp the story from the screenplay. I try to write to the novel or book if there is one. I try to create music that's honest and true to my heart for the story.”

Ifs Writing Trying Looks Heart Book Stories Film Sound Novel Honest My Heart Screenplays

Author:Howard Shore

“When you're working on a film, it's intense and it's very all-consuming. There's not something in particular.”

Film Particular Intense Consuming

Author:Howard Shore

“I grew up in repertory theaters, so it was comedy one night, drama the next. I'm used to going from one to the other. And I worked for years in television as well. So, I like the interrelationship of it and having a good relationship with a group of artists creating something really where the sum is greater than all of our individual contributions, our parts.”

Years Wells Used Artist Night Next Individual Comedy Greater Groups Television Grew Drama Creating Grew Up Theater Contribution One Night Good Relationship Creating Something

Author:Howard Shore

“I had great inspiration from a Japanese composer named Toru Takemitsu. He wrote over 90 film scores and a lot of concert music, a lot of classical music, and he gave me a lot of inspiration, as well as composers from other countries.”

Wells Country Inspiration Film Score Concerts Composer Other Countries Classical Music Film Scores

Author:Howard Shore

“I have to feel something emotionally on the story to be able to write for it. I turn things down if I don't feel I'm really right to tell that particular story.”

Ifs Feels Writing Stories Able Turns Particular

Author:Howard Shore

“I never shied away from a challenge and I love doing big, epic films. They're interesting to me just on a pure music level, just in terms of the amount of music I could create for a symphony orchestra and chorus.”

Bigs Film Term Challenges Interesting Levels Amount Pure Epic Orchestra Symphony Chorus Symphony Orchestras

Author:Howard Shore

“Piano is very elegant. I also think it's a very truthful instrument.”

Thinking Instruments Piano Truthful Elegant

Author:Howard Shore

“The piano is really the featured instrument of a 10-piece chamber orchestra. The construction is the harmonic language.”

Language Pieces Instruments Piano Construction Orchestra Chamber

Author:Howard Shore

“I have kind of an intuitive feeling as a composer as to what would be appropriate for those groups and how to feature certain paths in a certain way, whether there was dialogue in a scene, or whether there was no dialogue and music was telling the story at that point.”

Way Kind Stories Feelings Would Be Certain Path Groups Scene Dialogue Features Appropriate Composer Intuitive

Author:Howard Shore

“The art of making films is a collaborative art. As a composer, you're always working with the cinematographer because he's so much the heart of the world they've created on film.”

World Heart Art Film Composer Always Working Cinematographers

Author:Howard Shore

“The techniques of different directors are very different, and people have different ways of expressing ideas in film. I'm happiest when working with a director as I would be if I were an actor. I'm wanting to provide a really good performance.”

People Ifs Way Ideas Different Would Be Film Actors Directors Performances Technique Different Ways Expressing Ideas

Author:Howard Shore

“The technology certainly changes. I think, in terms of making films, that's been the biggest change. But many things stay the same. I mean, there's still stories to be told. There are scripts that give you a good guide and insight into the film.”

Thinking Giving Mean Stills Stories Film Term Technology Scripts Insight Guides

Author:Howard Shore

“There are many things that have stayed consistent. But the biggest change, of course, is technology, the way it's used, the way films are shot, the format that they're shot in, and the way films, of course, are edited. It's very different than it was in the past.”

Way Different Past Film Used Courses Technology Shots Consistent Format Edited

Author:Howard Shore

“I've been writing music since I was 9. I took harmony and counterpoint classes when I was studying the clarinet. So, I've been writing for an awfully long time. It just became part of everyday life.”

Writing Long Class Study Long Time Harmony Everyday Everyday Life Writing Music Clarinet

Author:Howard Shore

“Music is essentially an emotional language, so you want to feel something from the relationships and build music based on those feelings.”

Want Feels Feelings Language Emotional Music Is

Author:Howard Shore

About the Author

Born: October 18, 1946
Known for: Film Score Composer
Quotes: 28

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