‘News of the World’ Composer James Newton Howard on Giving the Music ‘a Jagged, Tattered, Rough-Hewn Edge’

“When I get a call saying, ‘Do you want to do a Western?,’ my answer is always yes,” says “News of the World” composer James Newton Howard.

“I love Westerns.”Previous horse dramas for the eight-time Oscar nominee have included “Wyatt Earp” and “Hidalgo.” His collaboration with director Paul Greengrass was his first, and he visited the New Mexico location during shooting more than a year ago.“The New Mexico desert is always inspiring,” Howard says.

“The vistas are limitless and magnificent, and the silence was fantastic.

It was one of my few visits to a set that I really enjoyed.”Yet, Howard admits, “It took a while to find the voice of the movie.” Greengrass sought a “broken sound,” he says, reflecting the feeling of post-Civil War America, and asked for authentic 19th-century instruments to convey the period and South Texas locale.

Fiddles, guitars and banjos are heard, along with mandolin,

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