In a neat pun the "Night After Night" album is a showcase of "Music from the movies of M. Night Shyamalan". The composer James Newton Howard has collaborated with the writer/director M. Night Shyamalan since early in the latter's career starting with his breakthrough film "The Sixth Sense", and their continuing partnership is one of the most notable between filmmaker and composer in the industry. Shyamalan's films are distinctive genre movies, with a strong sci-fi, horror or supernatural element, and frequently employing devices like plot twists where the audience is at first unsure about what is happening.
Since the album is about this composer-director partnership it is right that both participate in setting the scene in the album sleevenotes, introduce us to the music and what it means to them. Howard explains that each film is represented on the album by suites of music reworked to be piano-centric, giving something of a consistency to the tone. Jean-Yves Thibaudet plays these piano parts, Hilary Hahn plays the violin part particularly in The Village and she was the violin soloist on the original film score too. And Maya Beiser plays the Cello solo parts where required, rounding off a distinguished trio of soloists, and the conductor is Gavin Greenaway throughout the album. It's good to hear score highlights put together like this, since it helps to understand how Howard shapes the music for these story worlds, and what skills he brings to bear. The answer in part is a great skill in mood setting. Of course Howard has chosen and adapted this particular selection, so let's take a deeper dive into this album to better understand the essential elements of these scores.
The album starts with "Signs" which is mysterious with a slow burning mystery/suspense atmosphere and a touch of wonder. The movie turns darker towards the end, but this is not apparent in the album suite. Then "The Village" has a folk violin theme which is later joined by a piano, a similar mood is played out on woodwind with harp & piano interjections, until the cello brings a sense of greater urgency. In all this has the serenity of "The Lark Ascending". The Suite representing "The Sixth Sense" has the woodwind portray a child-like innocence against a background of piano and harp. A sense of sadness prevails until something more mysterious emerges. In all the mood is one of loneliness with something unresolved. "Lady in the Water" opens with angelic voices and strings with arpeggios on woodwind and piano. The suite closes with a feeling of resigned resolution with clarinet, piano, strings and horns.
"Unbreakable" is introduced on folksy piano, with a chord progression having a feeling of unresolved wistfulness. A flowing piano brings in a greater sense of purpose though the cello remains sad until a grand string/orchestral interlude suggests something more powerful, before this apparent confidence pulls back to a personal introspection. "The Last Airbender" mostly avoids melody with Einaudi-style falling figures on piano, strings and woods. "The Happening" quickly becomes disturbing in the form of something like a Hitchcockian suspense/horror movie, sounding atonal in places with rhythmic figues and cello string slaps. This evolves into something distinctly eerie. In "After Earth" (a Will Smith movie) the piano plays a "song without words" though slightly disturbing as though we're in the twilight zone, then rising figures build and then fade. "Flow Like Water" is an extended track from "The Last Airbender" with familiar piano figures as though representing falling water.
As stated earlier Howard excels at mood setting, but as we see in these Shyamalan scores it is the controlled evolution of those moods that leads to a great skill in musical story-telling, expertly supporting the on-screen stories. This wonderful album is available on CD and for download at the following links: Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. On youtube you can view the album Short Trailer and the Long Trailer and you will find there's a series of additional trailers featuring dirrect aspects of the album.
Signs:
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