Newman has been nominated for 15 Academy Awards and 4 Golden Globes, and has won 2 BAFTAs, 6 Grammys and an Emmy Award. Newman was honored with the Richard Kirk award at the 2000 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music.
Born in Los Angeles, California, he is the youngest son of Martha Louis Montgomery (1920–2005) and composer Alfred Newman (1900–1970), who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score nine times. He is a member of a film-scoring dynasty in Hollywood that includes his father Alfred, brother David Newman, sister Maria Newman, uncles Lionel Newman and Emil Newman, cousin Randy Newman (also known as a singer and songwriter), and his first cousin, once removed, Joey Newman. His paternal grandparents were Russian immigrants, and his mother was from Mississippi.
During their upbringing, Martha herded her sons into violin lessons in the San Fernando Valley every weekend. Newman later studied composition and orchestration for two years at the University of Southern California, before transferring to Yale University, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1977 and a Master of Music in 1978. While at Yale, he met composer Stephen Sondheim, who became an early mentor.
Newman and his wife, Ann Marie, have three children. They reside in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
At first, Newman was more interested in musical theater than in film composition, working with Sondheim in Broadway plays. Lionel, who succeeded Alfred as music director for 20th Century Fox, gave Thomas his first scoring assignment on a 1979 episode of the series The Paper Chase. In 1983, John Williams, who was a friend of both Alfred and Lionel, invited Newman to work on Return of the Jedi, orchestrating the scene where Darth Vader dies. Afterwards Newman met in New York producer Scott Rudin, who invited him to compose the score for Reckless (1984). Newman said that he thought "it was a tough job, at first" for requiring him to "develop vocabularies and a sense of procedure", only getting comfortable with writing scores "and not fraudulent in my efforts" after 8 years.
In 1992, Newman composed the score to Martin Brest's film Scent of a Woman.
In 1994, he got his first Academy Award nominations with the scores to The Shawshank Redemption and Little Women. He also scored the film The War. In 1996, he scored Diane Keaton's Unstrung Heroes, receiving yet another Oscar nomination. In 1998, he scored Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer as well as Meet Joe Black. In 1999, Newman composed the score to Sam Mendes' first feature film American Beauty, created using mainly percussion instruments. Newman believed the score helped move the film along without disturbing the "moral ambiguity" of the script, saying "It was a real delicate balancing act in terms of what music worked to preserve that." This was his first collaboration with Mendes, and he would go on to score all of the director's subsequent films except for the comedy-drama Away We Go, which featured songs instead of a score. He received a fourth Oscar nomination for this score, and although he lost again (to John Corigliano for The Red Violin), he did receive a Grammy and a BAFTA.
His critical and commercial success has continued in the following years with his scores for films such as Meet Joe Black, The Green Mile, Erin Brockovich, In the Bedroom and The Salton Sea. He was nominated consecutively for a further three Academy Awards, for Road to Perdition (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004). However, he lost on each occasion to Elliot Goldenthal (for Frida), Howard Shore (for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), and Jan A. P. Kaczmarek (for Finding Neverland) respectively.
He was again nominated for an Oscar for scoring Steven Soderbergh's The Good German (2006). At the Oscar ceremony, he appeared in the opening segment by Errol Morris, who jokingly stated that Newman had been nominated for and failed to win an Oscar eight times. Newman replied: "No, I've failed seven but this will be my eighth", and indeed, he again lost, this time to Gustavo Santaolalla for Babel.
His first score since The Good German was for the 2008 animated film WALL-E, collaborating for the second time with director Andrew Stanton (with the first collaboration being Finding Nemo). The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (as had Nemo). Newman received two Oscar nominations: one for Best Original Score, and another for Best Original Song for "Down to Earth", which he co-wrote with Peter Gabriel. He was nominated in the Original Score category with two other veteran composers, James Newton-Howard and Danny Elfman, both of whom have also been nominated for several Oscars but each time unsuccessfully. Newman lost both the score and song nominations to A R Rahman for his work on Slumdog Millionaire. He and Peter Gabriel did however win a Grammy for "Down to Earth".
In 2008, Newman scored Towelhead and Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road and in 2009 he scored Brothers. In 2011 he scored The Help, The Debt, The Iron Lady, and The Adjustment Bureau.
In 2012, Newman scored The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. He also scored the 23rd James Bond movie Skyfall, directed by his longtime collaborator Sam Mendes, which celebrates the film franchise's 50th anniversary. His work on this film earned him his eleventh Oscar nomination and a second BAFTA win. During 2013, he scored Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects and Saving Mr. Banks. The latter score was very well received by film music critics, earning Newman BAFTA and Oscar nominations for the second consecutive year, both of which he lost to Steven Price for Gravity.
Newman's 2014 projects included The Judge and Get on Up. He scored 2015's The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, marking the first time Newman has scored a sequel to a film he also wrote the score for.
In 2016, Newman scored the motion picture Passengers starring Andy Garcia, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt.
Newman likes to vary the instrumentation in his scores, ranging from full orchestra to percussion-only music. He is also fond of incorporating unusual instruments such as the zither, hurdy-gurdy, psaltery and hammered dulcimer, or unexpected sounds, like Aboriginal chants and the chirping of cicadas. The composer declared that he has "an interest in mundane experimentation."
At Last
Thomas Newman Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
My lonely days are over and life is like a song, oh yeah
At last the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up clover the night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill I've never known, oh yeah
And here we are in Heaven
For you are mine at last
The lyrics to Thomas Newman's "At Last" express the feelings of someone who has finally found love and their life has changed for the better. The first line, "At last my love has come along" implies that the person has been waiting for a long time for this moment to arrive. It signifies that they have gone through a period of loneliness and despair, and now finally the wait is over.
The second line, "My lonely days are over and life is like a song" further depicts the person's state of mind. They feel happy and content, as if everything is now in place in their life. The use of the phrase "life is like a song" suggests that the person feels joyous and ecstatic, similar to how a song sonically sounds happy.
The next two lines, "At last, the skies above are blue / My heart was wrapped up clover the night I looked at you" showcase a tremendous emotional shift in the person's life. The love has made them see a clearer, brighter, and sunnier world. The phrase "My heart was wrapped up clover" shows that the person's heart was protected from any harm as soon as they looked at their lover.
The chorus of the song talks about the dream and thrill the person experiences in their newfound love. The line "I found a dream that I could speak to / A dream that I can call my own" is a symbol of hope and desire that has been realised finally. The person has found someone they want to spend their life with, and it's incredibly special. The last two lines of the chorus, "I found a thrill to press my cheek to / A thrill I've never known, oh yeah" describes the physical and emotional connection the individual feels with their lover.
The final verse, "You smiled, you smiled oh and then the spell was cast / And here we are in Heaven / For you are mine at last" shows that the person has found their soulmate, and everything seems perfect in their life. The use of the word "spell" emphasizes the importance and the power of the moment when the person first set eyes on their lover. This moment changed everything for the better, and it almost feels mystical. In conclusion, the lyrics to Thomas Newman's "At Last" truly convey optimism, the gratitude of finding love and hope.
Line by Line Meaning
At last my love has come along
Finally, I have found the person I love and have been waiting for
My lonely days are over and life is like a song, oh yeah
I am no longer alone and my life feels complete and joyful
At last the skies above are blue
The world around me finally seems bright and optimistic
My heart was wrapped up clover the night I looked at you
From the moment I saw you, I felt my heart full of happiness and luck
I found a dream that I could speak to
I discovered a dream that I could finally express and share with someone
A dream that I can call my own
The dream I found is now mine to cherish and hold on to
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
I experienced a sensation of excitement and pleasure that I had never felt before
A thrill I've never known, oh yeah
This thrill was a new and exhilarating experience for me
You smiled, you smiled oh and then the spell was cast
Your smile enchanted me and created a magical connection between us
And here we are in Heaven
This moment feels like I am in paradise
For you are mine at last
Having you in my life now makes me complete and fulfilled
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Harry Warren, Mack Gordon
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind