Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Arrangement
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Preferred Citation
Processing Information
Glossary
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Cinematic Arts Library
Title: James Newton Howard collection
Creator:
Howard, James Newton
Identifier/Call Number: 0075
Physical Description:
401.63 Linear Feet
272 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1987-2022
Abstract: Extensive collection of film music, television music, and related materials by musician/composer James Newton Howard from
1987 to the present.
Language of Material:
English
.
Biographical Note
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.
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.
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").
Conditions Governing Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.
Conditions Governing Use
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.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
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
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.
Glossary
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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Composers
Composition (Music) -- Archival resources
Film composers -- Archival resources
Motion picture music -- Archival resources
Scores
Television music -- Archival resources
Howard, James Newton -- Archives
John, Elton -- Archives