Personal quote Coming from the long list of Newman composers, it is probably David that is the most underrated of them all. Still, his lists starts to improve with better titles then before, and true he delivered some excellent scores for smaller known projects nonetheless. And this makes him the respected composer in fans circles for quite some time. Probably the biggest asset of his scores are the entertaining main themes and his adventurous knack he inserts inside them. But in order to be fully appreciated things have to change big time and some have stated that he deserves much more respect, one of them has been Jerry Goldsmith. I would kill myself if someone questioned the knowledge of our true magic film composer in the first place. Biography David Newman is the son of Alfred Newman, the brother of Thomas, the cousin of Randy and the nephew of Lionel and Emil and was born in Los Angeles on 11 March 1954. He started working in the film music industry scoring the animated Frankenweenie. His first real features were the horror low budgets The Kindred and Critters. His movie credits were far from hitting any box office standard but Throw Momma from the Train, The War of the Roses and both Bill and Ted movies were small successes. Other family titles involved in are The Flintstones, The Nutty Professor and its sequel, Operation Dumbo Drop, the animation feature Anastasia (that received a first Oscar nomination for David), the drama Brokedown Palace, Galaxy Quest and 102 Dalmatians. Slightly the more serious work starts to happen and also proving that David Newman simply was ignored far too long. Lately comedy and drama are top priority for him, making him a rather busy artist in Hollywood, with Ice Age being a small highlight of that list. Sadly for most fans, David Newman stayed in the realm of comedy scoring and the humorous gags worked in the movie but not always on disc, Cat in the Hat, Daddy Day Care and Scooby-Doo were examples of this. Scooby-Doo 2 and a bunch of average comedies (like Man of the House) are Newman's more recent works, but the highly celebrated Serenity is a difference in tone if a bit disappointing on album. Norbit of Eddie Murphy is his latest.
There's a very beautiful moment, a nice
orchestra cue, which¹s colored completely differently, something you haven't heard for an
hour. It gives a whole different sense of what the movie is about and, retrospectively,
where it was going. Generally when a movie is good, your music
ends up being better. In Brokedown it's more like 90%
electronic; I don't mean just synth sounds, I mean a tapestry of samples, sounds, organic
contemporary techniques, along with the orchestra, which gives you the ability to
emotionally delineate a scene that might have many issues going on in it simultaneously.
This technique worked very well in Brokedown because it blended in with the songs so well.
The music doesn¹t so much sound like song, score, song. It felt more unified. October 13, 2005 Composing is a daunting - and for me, "noble" - undertaking. I am a person that honors craft, training, and education, so I just didn't feel ready until that time. I think that the impulse to compose is something that is ingrained in a person, regardless of their upbringing or education. But for me, I wanted to be as ready as possible. (overall impression) October 13, 2005 I am not all that interested in having film music on CDs. For me it has to be a certain kind of movie. Comedies are just not good soundtrack candidates. (on his under representing of soundtrack CD's)
Highlight of his
career: |
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