# Score to "Signs" by James Newton Howard?



## David Enos (Jul 18, 2020)

Hello -

I was wondering if anyone had a link to buy the orchestral score (either in full or parts of it) for "Signs" by Janes Newton Howard? It's one of my favorites but i can't seem to find the score anywhere. Thanks in advance


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## dcoscina (Jul 18, 2020)

David Enos said:


> Hello -
> 
> I was wondering if anyone had a link to buy the orchestral score (either in full or parts of it) for "Signs" by Janes Newton Howard? It's one of my favorites but i can't seem to find the score anywhere. Thanks in advance


These full scores to film music are generally rare to come by and many aren’t available commercially. Omni Music Publishing has been doing great work in this area and have released several full scores including The Matrix, Willow, Basic Instinct and Total Just to name a few. You might get in contact with Tim from Omni about this score.


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## David Enos (Jul 18, 2020)

dcoscina said:


> These full scores to film music are generally rare to come by and many aren’t available commercially. Omni Music Publishing has been doing great work in this area and have released several full scores including The Matrix, Willow, Basic Instinct and Total Just to name a few. You might get in contact with Tim from Omni about this score.



Wow! The Matrix too huh? Love Don Davis' work on that. Thanks, I'll check it out!


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## dcoscina (Jul 18, 2020)

David Enos said:


> Wow! The Matrix too huh? Love Don Davis' work on that. Thanks, I'll check it out!


I have it and it’s amazing. Not inexpensive for customers outside the US I’m afraid because of shipping but the cost of the book itself is quite reasonable. A Hal Leonard Signature John Williams conductors score to say Star Wars which you only get a suite runs about the same as these entire scores from Omni.


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## JohnG (Jul 18, 2020)

David Enos said:


> It's one of my favorites



Mine too; really close to genius. I feel I learned a tremendous amount from that score about using solo and duet strings alongside the orchestra. In fact, I was thinking of that score's use of solos in one of the tracks on a recent album -- two violas, as it happened. Amazing how much extra dimension that adds.

And let's not even talk about how awesome his use of that simple cell is. If I remember right, the entire score features that one kernel and works it over.

A masterpiece of music; maybe that and "King Kong" and "Dinosaur" are right up in my most-admired JNH scores. Not so keen on the movie ("Signs"), but that's life as a film composer.


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## JohnG (Jul 18, 2020)

...and speaking of Omni, the dazzling, very complete score to "Back to the Future" is on there too. It's absolutely jammed with great ideas and wonderful orchestration. Really shows how far you can push modern players' abilities (range, speed -- everything).


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## Michael Antrum (Jul 18, 2020)

JohnG said:


> ...and speaking of Omni, the dazzling, very complete score to "Back to the Future" is on there too. It's absolutely jammed with great ideas and wonderful orchestration. Really shows how far you can push modern players' abilities (range, speed -- everything).



And the meanies won't ship it outside of North America.....


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## Sunny Schramm (Jul 18, 2020)

Signs Original Soundtrack, James Newton Howard - Qobuz


Unbegrenzt Signs Original Soundtrack von James Newton Howard anhören oder in Hi-Res Qualität auf Qobuz herunterladen. Abonnement ab 12,50€/Monat.




www.qobuz.com


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## JohnG (Jul 18, 2020)

Michael Antrum said:


> And the meanies won't ship it outside of North America.....



wonder why not? Maybe something to do with the intellectual property agreement?? Because shipping doesn't seem too hard for a book.


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## ChristopherDoucet (Jul 18, 2020)

I love OMNI for this reason! These scores are invaluable! I would love ANY JNH score. But if I had to choose, hands down, "King Kong", the range on that score is insane. If that score ever became available, I would probably be willing to pay up big time.


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## David Enos (Jul 18, 2020)

JohnG said:


> Mine too; really close to genius. I feel I learned a tremendous amount from that score about using solo and duet strings alongside the orchestra. In fact, I was thinking of that score's use of solos in one of the tracks on a recent album -- two violas, as it happened. Amazing how much extra dimension that adds.
> 
> And let's not even talk about how awesome his use of that simple cell is. If I remember right, the entire score features that one kernel and works it over.
> 
> A masterpiece of music; maybe that and "King Kong" and "Dinosaur" are right up in my most-admired JNH scores. Not so keen on the movie ("Signs"), but that's life as a film composer.


Totally agree


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## David Enos (Jul 18, 2020)

JohnG said:


> ...and speaking of Omni, the dazzling, very complete score to "Back to the Future" is on there too. It's absolutely jammed with great ideas and wonderful orchestration. Really shows how far you can push modern players' abilities (range, speed -- everything).


Loved that score too. The triadic movement from the 1/2 whole diminished scale at certain points was a precursor to the Predator score. Silvestri's another one of my favs


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## mikeh-375 (Jul 18, 2020)

yeah, Predator is excellent, Contact too.


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## David Enos (Jul 19, 2020)

mikeh-375 said:


> yeah, Predator is excellent, Contact too.


Yes! Forgot about Contact. Great score!


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## Michael Antrum (Jul 19, 2020)

I went to see JNH at the Royal Albert Hall a couple of years ago - I believe it was his first ever concert and IIRC HZ and David Yates were in the audience. They were screening extracts from his films as he conducted.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, my wife couldn't come at the last moment, so I took my youngest daughter, who was nine years old at the time, in her stead (with the promise of a visit to Harvey Nicks and Harrods the next day).

The highlight of the evening for me, was when during the performance of the Central Park cue from KK, I turned to see my daughter's eyes glistening with tears from the emotion of the music and the picture on the screen. (Take that One Direction !).

She told me next time there was a concert we were going to, she wanted to come too....

JNH - Top geezer.


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## JohnG (Jul 19, 2020)

Michael Antrum said:


> JNH - Top geezer.



A compliment, one assumes?


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## Michael Antrum (Jul 19, 2020)

JohnG said:


> A compliment, one assumes?



One would be correct in that assumption. It is a compliment of the highest order.


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## dcoscina (Jul 19, 2020)

@David Enos there is an excellent book written in an almost academic style that includes score examples and fairly deep analysis of this fantastic score. 

James Newton Howard's Signs: A Film Score Guide


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## dcoscina (Jul 19, 2020)

David Enos said:


> Loved that score too. The triadic movement from the 1/2 whole diminished scale at certain points was a precursor to the Predator score. Silvestri's another one of my favs


Silvestri used a lot of the Tritone in his seminal scores as well as the octatonic scale in Predator and even in BttF

Of course JN Howard used scordatura violin where he retuned the strings to emphasize the tritone on the open strings. It has that fiddle quality to its tone without the vibrato.


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## David Enos (Jul 19, 2020)

dcoscina said:


> @David Enos there is an excellent book written in an almost academic style that includes score examples and fairly deep analysis of this fantastic score.
> 
> James Newton Howard's Signs: A Film Score Guide



Yes, I saw it, thank you!


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## dcoscina (Jul 19, 2020)

I always felt JN Howard was one of the most intellectual composers out there. His Unbreakable score is one of the best super hero scores because it's so atypical but still heroic in a subdued way.


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## David Enos (Jul 19, 2020)

dcoscina said:


> I always felt JN Howard was one of the most intellectual composers out there. His Unbreakable score is one of the best super hero scores because it's so atypical but still heroic in a subdued way.


Agreed!


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## patrick76 (Jul 19, 2020)

dcoscina said:


> I always felt JN Howard was one of the most intellectual composers out there. His Unbreakable score is one of the best super hero scores because it's so atypical but still heroic in a subdued way.


I am a big fan of his work with M. Night Shyamalan. A great and signature output from JNH imho. I can't imagine the films without his music.


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## JohnG (Jul 19, 2020)

dcoscina said:


> I always felt JN Howard was one of the most intellectual composers out there.



Yes, but the way he applies his brain has such range! From "Dave" to "Michael Clayton" to "Dinosaur" to the Batman series with HZ -- absolutely stunning, sure-footed intellect, but with muscle. He's amazing.


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## I like music (Jul 19, 2020)

No love for Treasure Planet? One of my all-time favourites. 

Without that very music to introduce us to the wonderful story and the first few minutes of visuals, it would have been wrong. 

Sorry I can't help with the actual question but I hope you find the score


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## olvra (Jul 19, 2020)

JohnG said:


> Yes, but the way he applies his brain has such range! From "Dave" to "Michael Clayton" to "Dinosaur" to the Batman series with HZ -- absolutely stunning, sure-footed intellect, but with muscle. He's amazing.



I love Wyatt Earp


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## dcoscina (Jul 19, 2020)

olvra said:


> I love Wyatt Earp


Did you ever get the expanded release from LaLaLand Records? It’s amazing


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## David Enos (Jul 19, 2020)

patrick76 said:


> I am a big fan of his work with M. Night Shyamalan. A great and signature output from JNH imho. I can't imagine the films without his music.


Absolutely!


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## JohnG (Jul 19, 2020)

I like music said:


> No love for Treasure Planet? One of my all-time favourites.



it's a stunning score that elevates the movie. musically rich, especially for that genre


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## dcoscina (Jul 19, 2020)

Falling Down is a personal favourite as well as Grand Canyon. And The Village which plays more like an extended concert work than a film score. Lady in the Water also has several standout cues. Wyatt Earp might be his triumph deluxe however due to its sprawling, grand thematic statements and a generous running time for Howard to develop his various themes.


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## brek (Jul 19, 2020)

Easy to overlook because the movie bombed, but Last Airbender has a nice score.


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## Tatu (Jul 20, 2020)

One of my first "mockups" was from Waterworld, which I programmed on a keyboard with 4 or 5 tracks to do so.

I'm currently doing a mockup / fragment from Signs (The Hand of Fate, Part 1), which is one of my favourite in the JNH repertoire!


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## dcoscina (Jul 20, 2020)

Tatu said:


> One of my first "mockups" was from Waterworld, which I programmed on a keyboard with 4 or 5 tracks to do so.
> 
> I'm currently doing a mockup / fragment from Signs (The Hand of Fate, Part 1), which is one of my favourite in the JNH repertoire!


I would think that would be a good mock up to do because that cue is comprised of a lot of short arts. I'm reading that book on SIGNS that I posted a link to earlier and the degree with which the author gets into the process of the orchestration and what Pete Anthony and Brad Dechter did transcribing Howard's MIDI mock-ups is really fascinating. Like how Anthony took the short wind figure in Hand of Fate Pt2 from a group patch and spread that figure around the solo winds to create this effect of being surrounded by that wind figure. Neat! It's a worthwhile read. 

OT- I also have Korngold's Aventures of Robin Hood and Danny Elfman's Batman from the same series. I highly recommend these for musicians as they are deeply analytical though I'd say the Batman one seems to spend most of its time trying to legitimize Elfman's compositional abilities... weird... I mean the guy had help for sure but all film composers do. And it bears his stylistic stamp and frankly I don't care who wrote what... it's a great score. period. Sorry, back to our regularly scheduled program...


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## Tatu (Jul 20, 2020)

dcoscina said:


> I would think that would be a good mock up to do because that cue is comprised of a lot of short arts. I'm reading that book on SIGNS that I posted a link to earlier and the degree with which the author gets into the process of the orchestration and what Pete Anthony and Brad Dechter did transcribing Howard's MIDI mock-ups is really fascinating. Like how Anthony took the short wind figure in Hand of Fate Pt2 from a group patch and spread that figure around the solo winds to create this effect of being surrounded by that wind figure. Neat! It's a worthwhile read.


Yeah, that constant stream of pulsing instruments (short arts!) is beautiful. There's at least two harps, a piano, woodwinds coming and going and a couple of violins with plenty of double stops going all over the place, and later on strings join in on the fun. It'll be an interesting excerise to make them work together in context; horn clusters and other, long and sustained stuff and segments with big, brassy stabs.

I need to check that book out!


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## Michael Antrum (Jul 20, 2020)

It was a terrible movie, and it had a terrible name too. I’m afraid I never gave it a chance so you telling me the score is worth visiting is appreciated.


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## olvra (Jul 20, 2020)

dcoscina said:


> Did you ever get the expanded release from LaLaLand Records? It’s amazing



I usually don't go deep on listening to film scores since John Powell told us not to 

BUT, some music is just too beautiful to follow my rules, JNH's is one. Thanks for the suggestion, David* @dcoscina


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## Tatu (Jul 21, 2020)

Michael Antrum said:


> It was a terrible movie, and it had a terrible name too. I’m afraid I never gave it a chance so you telling me the score is worth visiting is appreciated.


I recommend all JNH scores from Shyamalans awfull movies. They're the highlight of them; Signs, The Village, The Last Airbender, Lady in the Water (!!!)

Just listen to this:


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## Altauria (Jul 22, 2020)

olvra said:


> I usually don't go deep on listening to film scores since John Powell told us not to



I took it to mean that we shouldn't get so precious and puritanical towards film scores, rather than to literally "stop [email protected]&*%^g listening to [film music]." More like - tread carefully/mindfully, and don't forget about all the other great music being produced throughout the world.


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## Architekton (Jul 22, 2020)

Love Signs, great movie. And the score fitted perfectly. If anyone has some mock ups, I am eager to hear them.


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