Ah, the summer blockbuster. It’s a great American tradition—all those stars, all that action, all that popcorn.
But why deal with larger-than-life price tags and sticky movie-theater floors when you can stay home and take your ears to the movies on The American Sound?
We're celebrating the Summer Festival of American Film Music all through August on The American Sound, 6 p.m. Saturdays and 7 p.m. Tuesdays on Classical 101. This year’s festival features scores by some of film music's biggest stars: John Williams, Max Steiner, Leonard Bernstein and, this week, James Newton Howard.
Released after M. Night Shyamalan’s remarkable film The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan’s The Village (2004) proved controversial by the mixed reviews it received, most notably for a surprise ending that some have claimed was not as effective as it might have been.
Regardless of your feelings about the rest of the film, James Newton Howard’s score for The Village is a masterpiece of American film music. It's squarely in the tradition of Erich Korngold’s lush post-Romantic film scores and inspired by the likes of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams—who wrote his share of movie music—and American-film-music legend John Williams.
And it doesn’t hurt that the recording of Howard’s music for The Village features the flawless and resplendent playing of violinist Hilary Hahn with the Hollywood Studio Symphony.
Don’t miss the first installment of The American Sound’s Summer Festival of American Film Music, 6 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Tuesday on Classical 101.
