Howard Shore
Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shoreis a Canadian composer who is notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. He won three Academy Awards for his work on the first trilogy, with one being for the original song "Into the West", an award he shared with Eurythmics lead vocalist Annie Lennox and Writer/Producer Fran Walsh, who wrote the lyrics. He is also...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth18 October 1946
CityToronto, Canada
CountryCanada
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.
'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.
I read all of the books by Tolkien, including 'The Hobbit,' when I was in my twenties, and his deep love of nature and all things green resonates deeply with me.
When you're working on film music, you're only working on 20, 30-minute sections at a time.
All of the silent films had live music accompaniment, so it's actually a very rich period in music.
Composing is sort of an intuitive act. You have to put yourself in the right frame of mind.
I'm interested in good collaborations and in working with directors who bring something new and interesting out of you.
You can find the whole world of a film in one instrument, or you can find a world of sound in the orchestra.
Theater and film are essentially the same - just different kinds of storytelling.
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.
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.
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.