Dear James Newton Howard,
The first time I heard your music, and realized it was you, was when I watched The Village. This is one of my favorite movies because of its soundtrack. Your use of strings makes the music in the movie calming, yet eerie. It's amazing, it really is. I also really appreciate the fact that you have done the music for most of M. Night Shyamalan's films. I would even go as far as to say that, without your music, the movies wouldn't be as good as they are.
I think one of the best parts of movies are the soundtracks behind them and you do an amazing job with it. Right now, I'm listening to the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them soundtrack and when I found out that you did the music, after I saw it for the first time, I immediately thought, "So, that's why the movie was so good!" I also recognized your music at the end of Maleficent. I don't know how, but while listening to one of the songs in the credits, I was like, "Is this...is this James Newton Howard?" I waited until the song credits and saw that it was you and I was like, "I knew it!"
A lot of my favorite movies to watch, you've done the soundtracks for. I already mentioned the M. Night Shyamalan films, and then Fantastic Beasts and Maleficent, but I also really enjoyed the soundtrack of I Am Legend, The Hunger Games movies, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The music in them are all different, but there are certain similarities in which I think makes you stand out. For one, as I said before, the strings. Another thing are the build-ups. No one does a build-up quite as nicely as you do.
If I were to make a movie or two, I would definitely insist that you do the soundtrack for it. I think you really capture the feel and story of the movie and put it into the music, which I could never do in my wildest dreams. You are an amazing composer and I wish that every movie featured you as the face behind the music, but let's face it, there aren't enough hours in the day for you to do the music for every movie.
Anyway, I'm going to stop blabbering on about how much I love your music now, but I do hope you compose a lot more amazing soundtracks in the future. I am assuming you will be doing all of the Fantastic Beasts soundtracks, so I am looking forward to listening to those as well.
Sincerely,
A Major Fan
P.S. I love your quote: "Composing is a natural fit. As far as the creative process goes, I'd rather do this than anything else, by far. Something different happened to me when I started to write music to images. It was an excitement and connection and a sense of being in the right place that I never had before."
