James Newton Howard collection, 1987-2023

Summary

Abstract:

Extensive collection of film music, television music, and related materials by musician/composer James Newton Howard from 1987 to the present.

Extent:

406.83 Linear Feet 276 boxes

Language:

English .

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder# or item name], James Newton Howard collection, Collection no. 0075, Cinematic Arts Library, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Background

Scope and content:

Orchestrations, sketches, orchestra parts, and related materials of musician/composer James Newton Howard. The collection contains limited materials from the early part of Howard's career in the music industry, and extensive materials from his later endeavors in the film industry and television industry. The collection ranges from the mid-1980s to the present.

Biographical / historical:

James Newton Howard was born on June 9, 1951, in Los Angeles, CA. His career as a professional musician began in the early 1970s after finishing his piano studies at the University of Southern California. In 1975 James joined the band of one of the most popular artists of all time, Elton John, and later went on to collaborate with many other famous musicians. In the late 1980s, he turned his attention to composing film music beginning with the comedy Head Office in 1986. Since that time, he has composed the music for such films as The Prince of Tides (1991), The Fugitive, (1993), The Village (2004), Michael Clayton (2007), and Defiance (2008), all of which have received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score. He has established a reputation as one of Hollywood's elite film composers and with each new project, he continues to set new standards for his craft.

Processing information:

The USC Libraries Special Collections unit transferred custody of the James Newton Howard collection to the USC Libraries Cinematic Arts Library on November 22, 2021. The collection's box labels still list Special Collections as the holding repository.

Arrangement:

The James Newton Howard collection is divided into three series: Film Music, Television Music, Concert Works, and Other Works. Each series is further broken down into subseries based on the project title, and each subseries is broken down to the file level based on the type of material contained in each. Film Music and Television Music are arranged chronologically, while Other Works is arranged alphabetically. Larger scores are contained in the LF (Large Film) boxes, while smaller scores are contained in the SF (Small Film) boxes. Some of the boxes containing material described under smaller series have corresponding box prefixes (e.g. "OW" for "Other Works").

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related resources

Other descriptive data:

Booth Score - A copy of orchestrations for the control booth at a recording session.

Breakdown Sheet - A list of all the music to be played at a recording session.

Conductor Score - A copy of orchestrations for the conductor at a recording session. This score often contains original annotations of changes made to the music during the recording session.

Engineer Score - A copy of orchestrations for the sound engineer at a recording session.

Holographic Sketches - Sketches that are in the original handwriting of the composer.

Librarian Score - A copy of orchestrations for the copyist to reference at a recording session.

Orchestrations - The final drafts of composed music produced by the orchestrator. This music is then given to the copyist to produce parts for studio musicians.

Parts - Music that is extracted from the orchestrations and printed for individual musicians of an orchestra to play during a recording session.

Prerecord Parts - Music that is recorded prior to a recording session and combined with music recorded at the session.

Sketches - The early drafts of composed music given to the orchestrator by the composer.

Source Music - Music already in existence that is used again for a later project.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Composers
Composition (Music) -- Archival resources
Film composers -- Archival resources
Motion picture music -- Archival resources
Television music -- Archival resources
scores (documents for music)

Restrictions:

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.

Terms of access:

Students and researchers may use materials from this collection in a USC Libraries reading room only. Due to copyright restrictions, under no circumstances may anything from this collection be copied or reproduced in any way without written permission from the copyright owner. However, reproductions MAY be used by USC faculty members in the classroom for academic purposes under the fair use provision of copyright law, provided that sufficient advance notice is given to the Cinematic Arts Library.

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder# or item name], James Newton Howard collection, Collection no. 0075, Cinematic Arts Library, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Location of this collection:

University of Southern California, Cinematic Arts Library

Cinematic Arts Library

Doheny Memorial Library, Room G4

Los Angeles, CA 90089-0185, US

Contact:

(213) 740-8383

ctlibarc@usc.edu

Website