Newman Family Movie Music

If you ever paid attention to the music in the movies you probably heard the compositions of the Newman family. If talent can be inherited it happened in this family who all seemed to be in the right key. We all know the song called You Got a Friend in  Me from the Oscar nominated movie called Toy Story. That was Randy Newman’s creation. He is just one of a family of composers for the movies we should note. At 20^th Century Fox movie studios in the past the Newman name was God like. There was The Newman Scoring Stage dedicated in 1997. When Robert Redford knocked the lights out in the movie called The Natural the explosive music was Newman inspired. When Tim Robbins rose to   freedom in the movie called Shaw Shank Prison, Newman music was there.

Over the last 8 decades the Newman family achieved more than 90 Oscar nominations. Likely that distinction will never be repeated in Hollywood history. Even the fanfare that is the song whenever you see the beginning of a 20^th Century Fox movie is a Newman jingle. Alfred Newman back in 1953 was responsible for some of the biggest real orchestrated music in film. The film studio had regularly   paid orchestra members and he wrote the score for the movie How to Marry a Millionaire where Marilyn Monroe said she wouldn’t do the movie unless Alfred wrote the songs for the movie.  In his studio he conducted, wrote or scored the music for over 200 films. He alone had a stunning 45 Oscar nominations for his music. He won 9 Oscars.

There must be a music composing gene in his family because his brothers joined him in the business. They branched out to compose music for TV series like Daniel Boone. Alfred’s son David composed the music for the movie called Hoffa. When he is not composing scores he is conducting performances at the Hollywood Bowl of famous movie music. The music in a film is so important to setting the mood for any shot. Just filming a door can mean many things with different music added to the visual. Some sinister music written in a minor key can make any melody sad. Just try it with the all familiar song Jingle Bells but sing or play the beginning notes say in the key of C with repeated minor thirds or say a E flat instead of a E in the opening notes of the song and it is instantly transformed from a jolly song to sadness. Music is emotion.

Now the family invented a video program that warns the conductor when an exciting part of the film is coming as a warning sign to increase the intensity of the music accordingly. David’s younger brother Thomas Newman wrote the score for Pixar’s Wall-e. He wrote the James Bond score for Sky Fault and the movie score for the film called American Beauty. He was nominated for an Oscar 14 times. Alfred’s nephew Randy is probably the only Newman you know with his familiar voice in all his movie songs. He wrote the song called Short People and has been writing songs since childhood. He wrote the score for the movie called Ragtime that earned him the first of 20 Oscar nominations.

Marie Newman to a step sideways from movies but is a talented violinist and writes original classical compositions. Now the third generation of Newman’s are writing music too, Joey Newman is Alfred’s brother’s grandson. Already his music is winning awards including the score for the TV show called The Middle that has been airing for 10 seasons. They might not be a household name but their music has been in your heart. Will we ever see a generational family of commercially successful musicians again?