James Newton Howard is an American film composer, orchestrator and music producer. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards.
labels: Private Music
genres: free jazz, film score
awards: Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music, Grammy Awards, Classic Brit Awards
plays: piano, flute, guitar
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Howard was born in Los Angeles to Samuel Howard (né Horowitz) and Joan Howard (née Royall). He is from a musical family; his grandmother was a violinist. His father was Jewish but he did not want his children to know he was, so he changed his last name from Horowitz to Howard.
After Howard left college, he joined a short-lived rock band called Mama Lion. The band was led by Neil Merryweather (bass, backing vocals) and featured lead singer Lynn Carey, Coffi Hall on drums, and Rick Gaxiola on guitar. Mama Lion recorded two full-length albums. Members of Mama Lion also formed the band Heavy Cruiser with Merryweather now on lead vocals, recording two albums whose genre was closer to hard rock but also displayed psychedelic and progressive influences. He then worked for a couple of years as a session musician with artists including Diana Ross, Ringo Starr, and Harry Nilsson. In the early 70s, he described himself as being "dirt poor", until his big break in 1975 when his manager got him an audition with Elton...
"The Hanging Tree" is a song by Suzanne Collins, James Newton Howard, and Wesley Schultz from the band the Lumineers, featuring vocals from American actress Jennifer Lawrence. The song was released by Republic Records on December 9, 2014, as the second single from the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014).
It was first included in the film's score album but was later added to the digital extended edition of the film's soundtrack. "The Hanging Tree" is a folk ballad that features orchestral strings and a choir.
"The Hanging Tree" was written by Suzanne Collins and originally appeared in her novel Mockingjay (2010); Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz from American indie folk band the Lumineers composed the track while production was handled by James Newton Howard.
"The Hanging Tree" is composed in the key of A minor with a "moderately, somewhat freely" tempo of 88 beats per minute. Lawrence's vocals span a range of E3 to E4 and its chord progression follows a basic sequence of A5–Am–Asus–F/A. It is a folk ballad, accompanied with orchestral strings and a choir. Chris Payne of The Hollywood Reporter called it a "minimal folk sing-a-long".
"The Hanging Tree" received positive reviews from music critics, with several critics complimenting its effectiveness as a murder ballad. Jeff Baker, writing for OregonLive.com called the song the best part of the film. Baker complimented Lawrence for turning the track into a "murder ballad that calls back to her Kentucky roots". Stereogum writer Gabriella Tully Claymore called it a "creepy-as-hell take on classic Americana murder ballads". Stephanie Merry from The Washington Post praised Lawrence's vocal delivery, commenting that her "raspy voice [matches] the dark narrative and Appalachian style of the music". Petrana Radulovic from Polygon believed that the marketing of the film and the club remix of "The Hanging Tree" contradicted...
"The Hanging Tree" is played by producers to contestants in the hit British reality television series The Traitors prior to the 'Roundtable' section of the format, with the eeriness of the song used to add tension to the game.