Thomas Newton: How To Make An American Beauty

“I think there’s something divinely poetic about a field that’s unexplored; because you’re doing the best you can to try different things.” Thomas Newton was born on October 20, 1955. He went to school in Southern California. Graduated with a Masters from Yale in
Music. After graduation he played in bands and did some theatre work. He tried to steer away from his father’s shadow, but sometimes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The first movie that he would write a score for was Reckless (1984). Newman’s early works were mostly written for electronic instruments. He started working with acoustic instruments and synthesizers by the time The Lost Boys came out. The two movies that he scored for that I will be talking about are: American Beauty (1999) and How to Make an American Quilt (1995).

How To Make An American Quilt is a beautiful, romantic, nostalgic film about different experiences that a group of women have with love. It’s about a young, intelligent Finn (Winona Ryder) who returns to her grandmother’s house to finish her third attempt at a master’s thesis. She decides to come from Berkeley to spend the summer with her grandmother and great-aunt’s friends. While trying to finish her
thesis she is also deciding whether to marry her fiancé Sam (Dermot Mulroney). Finn’s grandmother and great-aunt and their friends decide to quilt a wedding quilt for Finn all the while telling tales of love and life experiences they had. The quilt patterns are all unique and represent the most intimate moments of all the characters lives. Youth, beauty, love and expectations of families are what this quilt is about. It’s a nostalgic fresh breath that sometime in our lives we all have to take.

The next film that I want to give you a little synopsis about is American Beauty. Lester Burham (Kevin Spacy) is suffering from a mid-life crisis, or is it a mid-life awakening. His wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is a real estate agent who’s obsessed with selling
houses and materialistic aspects of life, while their daughter Jane (Thora Birch) hates her body and her parents. Jane’s best friend Angela (Mena Suvari) is obsessed with sex and bragging about men’s desire for her. Lester develops an obsession with Angela, quits his
job, blackmails his boss for 60,000 and starts finding out what life is really about. Jane falls in love with next door neighbor Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) who films everything he sees and Carolyn starts having an affair with the real estate agent who seems to sell all the houses in the market.
So, why did I pick these two movies? Well, first of all I think it’s interesting that they are both dealing aspects of with life such as love, death, memories, quilting, filming; self-discovery. These two movies have several things in common. Thomas Newton is the composer for both, and that they are both life altering about changes in people’s lives. I think it’s interesting that he chose to do the music for both these films because they are dealing with topics concerning life. Listening to his music, I feel he has an amazing understanding of the romantic, nostalgic memories people hold and the cynical
satirical moments. His pieces aren’t very long. For American Beauty the actual length of the score was thirty seven minutes, for How To Make An American Quilt it was about twenty five minutes. Although he seems to be a minimalist I feel he uses his pieces well. His timing is impeccable. John Corigliano said “Minimalism is an example of music
I have great reservations about. I like the beautiful sounds, the hypnotic quality the attention on tiny changes that puts you into a trancelike state”. I think that when John Corigliano said this he must have been talking about Thomas Newton. This is the same exact feelings I have when I listen to his music. He flows with the images so well,
understanding the subtle hints of life’s moments, he has a way of adding this speck of intensity that makes you reexamine the images. He dives into the depths of emotions in a very simplistic sounding way. For example in American Beauty Thomas adds an underlying element, musical color, He adds sensuous and quirkiness to define the irony of the family’s dynamics. His use of lonesome soft pianos, detuned mandolins, tablas, kim-kim drums, bird calls, Appalachian dulcimers, lap steel guitars, ukuleles, violins, create the coloristic score. Unconventional score yet familiar feelings. There are many interesting layers of sounds and effects, which seem abstract but draw you into your own little world where you can relate. It brings me to Aaron Copland’s quote in The New York Times that said “Music can create a more convincing atmosphere of time and place”. In all this materialistic success that the family has, Thomas Newton uses his
musical structure to let you into their secrets. His music in this film relies a lot on the feelings of the characters. The situations that they are going through. He colorizes the intention of the characters and the effects of what happens to them with gloomy,
quirky, moody pieces. There seems to be a thematic sounding piano piece “Mental Boy” represents Lester’s world coming down and the romantic weirdness of Jane and Ricky’s relationship. Most of the tracks are stylistically similar. Newton creates a stylistic musical parody for the film. It’s perfect it creates this eerie, uncomfortableness to the suburban town they live in. It’s quite comical at times. The quirky use of the detuned mandolins, tablas, kim-kim drums, add to the plastic lifestyles that people live. He recognizes the character’s emotions and situations by underlying the psychological elements to the music. It’s effective because the music allows the dialogue to
pierce the audience, then the music kicks in the fill in whatever the audience needs to settle with. This film is filled with tense scenes and Newton let’s you look at them then digest them with a little sip of music. Making you crave more because the music gets something that you are coming to grips with. It teases you, gives you some
information then disappears before you are given the whole answer. Evaluate the tensions because when they are mentioned, it’s only for a second or two, then you are left with a tune. At the final scene, Lester sits at the table looking at a picture of his wife and
daughter, reexamining his life. He realizes it wasn’t all bad and then the music starts playing and somehow you know that he’s going to die.
You take his death in. A breath leaves your lips and you are left with the film’s soul mate; it’s music.

In How To Make An American Quilt, Newton does the same thing. The beginning theme is very poetic and romantic. Just a feeling of harmonious memories of love. Themes to sit on your rocking chair to as you are recounting a lush moment of your past. . Sounds created by the oboe , string, piano, harp and woodwinds. It highlights the emotions, the experiences, the images. This man knows his stuff. The theme starts when Ellen Burstyn starts recalling a love affair. It’s very sad and nostalgic. The Harp and piano adds to the empty feelings, the longing of wanting to be back in that romantic moment. The simple chord adds a lyrical releasing sound. There are a lot of emotional and lustful elements that the music adds. Thomas Newton once again leaves silences when needed. He lets you feel and understand the tense moments completely and then lets you settle it with some musical score. He once again lets you analyze the images and scenes in the film. Whenever the storytelling begins the music plays to let you know that a story is getting told, that it’s a memory.

There is a scene with Finn (Winona Ryder) going to the public pool with her aunt and grandmother. An American rock song comes on which brings them together. It’s a way of connecting generations. Connecting them so they can understand each other more.
There are some songs that come on that seem like “regretful tunes”. There is a scene when one of the grandmother’s friends is telling her story of when she went swimming when she was younger and this very lyrical tune comes on. It’s emotional and sad, giving you hint that even though it started out hopeful, things didn’t end all well.
Whenever a vivid memory starts playing, Newton let’s the music kick in to add to the moment. He builds up a very longing piece. Something filled with the emotions of eternal searching, dissatisfaction and discontent. The music lets us see that all these women just went through life changing moments, all at different stages of their life. Youth is one thing that they all shared, the youthful hope that life would offer so much more that what they got. Not to make that they don’t appreciate what they have, just that life led them another way. Once again the soundtrack is one that focuses on people’s struggles
and desires. Newton must be attached to this theme, because it shows through his work. Bitter thoughts, sweet dreams, we all have them; Newton captures them with a breathtaking score that fills your soul and makes you want to be young again. Or go back to whenever your happiest moment was. His music plays with the happiest moment. He
takes that thought in more in this film than in American Beauty. There he concentrated on the moments when things were getting sour. He focuses on the beauty and intimacy of these love stories. Newton is great at having his music being the Signifier of emotion
and narrative cueing. In these two films he uses his skills and timing well. First you must understand humans’ emotions, limitations, desires and mistakes and he gives very good narrative cues. Tells you what’s coming next, or at least hints at it without spoiling the goods. In an interview he said that point of color is very important to him. He picks an instrument and builds up to it. His scores are usually unconventional. He also uses a lot of piano motifs. Must be the element of loneliness and longing that piano sounds can do. He holds a great importance to the relationship between sound and music. He finds the relationship of those moments when you mix sound and music together interesting. I think that also his minimalist approach is very smart. Films that are overdosing on sounds or music take away any effect that the music or sound might have on the film. He does a good job at finding the balance. With him the music just flows and rings a memory, touches a chord that just makes it abstract but still leaves you with an emotional reaction. I think of Newton as the people’s composer because I feel he understands human beings so well. Frank Zappa (or Elvis Costello!)once said “Writing about music is like dancing about Architecture” , you can’t really do it sometimes. There aren’t enough words to talk about how music makes someone feel. Sometimes it’s indescribable the way twins have their own language and no one else understands them. Music is a universal language that sometimes is just internally felt. Thomas Newton can tell you this through is work.