James Newton Howard Reimagines His Scores For M. Night Shyamalan

James Newton Howard has reimagined some of his most iconic work. With “Night After Night: Music from the Movies of M. Night Shyamalan,” the composer has created eight new piano-centric suites and additional original material. The 21-track album features the work of pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Hilary Hahn, who reinterprets her music in The Village, and the orchestra, conducted by Gavin Greenway, features cellist Maya Beiser reimagining “An Event” from The Happening.

Howard scored eight of Shyamalan’s films, starting with The Sixth Sense in 1999 and continuing up to 2013’s After Earth. Often, the stories were about good versus evil, the light in the darkness. Often with stirring strings, Newton would evoke feelings of hope in moments of terror—a common theme in Shyamalan’s early post-9/11 work.

From the beginning, the filmmaker knew he had connected with Howard’s sense of storytelling. “In retrospect, the ability to blend genres, I think, is the most important thing,” Shyamalan said in a statement. “That is what interests me. There’s the thriller-and-scares part, and the adrenaline aspect, but there’s also an equally important emotionality. The composer has to be versatile, and he’s one of the rare, rare composers who can do all those things.”

“Night is an incredibly positive human being,” Howard added. “He was unfailingly supportive when I would start to get nervous, upset, or doubt what I was doing. And that is a huge thing.”

“Night After Night: Music from the Movies of M. Night Shyamalan” is more than a trip down memory lane for Howard and his fans. It’s a lovely piece of work, filled with haunting and soaring cues that scream sheer sincerity. Heartstrings are pulled, sometimes even torn to shreds in “Night After Night: Music from the Movies of M. Night Shyamalan.”

TRACKLISTING: 

1. Signs: The Cornfield
2. Signs: After You Were Born
3. Signs: Hand of Fate
4. The Village: Morning
5. The Village: Noah Visits
6. The Village: Ivy Saves Lucius
7. The Sixth Sense: Lonely Boy
8. The Sixth Sense: Ghost in the House
9. The Sixth Sense: Acceptance
10. Lady in the Water: Prologue
11. Lady in the Water: Charades
12. Lady in the Water: Story
13. Lady in the Water: Return to the Blue World
14. Unbreakable: Survivor
15. Unbreakable: Destiny
16. The Last Airbender
17. The Happening: An Event
18. The Happening: Harbinger
19. The Happening: Aftermath
20. After Earth
21. Flow Like Water [piano solo version, from The Last Airbender]