The Hunger Games (Original Motion Picture Score)
Music by James Newton Howard
With the worldwide release of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, here at Renovatio Records we have gone all the way back to Panem for the release of James Newton Howard’s score for the first film of the franchise, The Hunger Games, by director Gary Ross. Based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins, and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Wes Bentley, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, and Donald Sutherland, the film tells the tale of Katniss Everdeen, a girl living in a dystopian future where a male and female tribute are annually selected from impoverished districts to fight to the death in an televised gladiatorial event to amuse the elitist society of the capital of the nation. Katniss, from District 12, sees herself forced to participate in the game, and decides to team up with his male companion, Peeta Melark, in an attempt to boycott and expose the machinations and conspiratory intentions behind the event. Their actions eventually set the stage for rebellion and social upheaval, which are further explored in the sequels.
Even though the film received some criticism for its excessive use of shaky cam and its frenetic editing, the film was very well received by critics and audiences, praising its social commentaries and messages. It does not go too deep to reach reasonable conclusions, but The Hunger Games does touch on themes such as inequality, class divide, the evils of an authoritarian government, and the dangers of reality television. It cannot be denied that it is a classic science-fiction that manages to capture the dramatic violence and the raw emotion of its source novel.
As regards its music, The Hunger Games is a bit of a mess. Initially, director Gary Roos had decided to hire composer Danny Elfman and songwriter T-Bone Burnett to collaborate on what would be a score/song hybrid. However, this partnership dissolved due to alleged scheduling conflicts. Elfman would soon be replaced by James Newton Howard, who is known for producing excellent replacement scores in short periods of time –clear examples of this being King Kong (2005) and Waterworld (1995). Howard had three weeks to write an original score that would enhance the musical decisions already present in the film. In the end, out of the approximate 80 minutes of music that Howard wrote for The Hunger Games, only 30 to 40 minutes were actually used in the film, the rest being replaced by source music or plain silence. Nevertheless, Howard’s score is packed with intelligent thematic ideas and instrumentation.
Howard's aim was to focus mainly on Katniss’ emotions, so he resorted to his usual mannerisms to create an intimate score with a folksy, country sound, in line with Burnett’s style. The score makes interesting uses of instruments such as Celtic fiddle, acoustic guitar, cimbalom, dulcimer, ethnic flutes, and percussion, most of these accompanying Katniss’ personal moments in which she is longing for home. He introduces a dulcimer motif in the track “Capitol Ship”, which represents the idea of home and District 12 and is explored in several key moments of the film. A major idea for Katniss is a series of three note string phrases that can be heard in “Katniss Afoot”. This theme is recurrent throughout the theme, usually appearing whenever the character is out hunting, effectively denoting a notion of movement. Arguably the most alluring of Howard’s themes is a loss theme, presented in “Rue’s Farewell”. This theme is a classic James Newton Howard orchestral and emotional theme that will certainly appeal to his fans. A subtle tragedy theme is also introduced in “The Train”; this theme aims at the social commentary of the film, and as such, it is further explored during the sequels. For the evil Capitol, the score offers two themes. The first is a relentless series of rising four notes played by bass strings in the tracks “Reaping” and “The Countdown”. And the second is the Capitol Anthem, which is in fact the song “Horn of Plenty” composed by Win Butler and Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire, and arranged by Howard for the film. This theme is one of the key musical moments of the score, and its arrangement performed by the London Voices in the track “Chariot Ceremony” is sublime, with the sense of gravitas that any powerful tyrannical government would desire to inspire the masses. Howard also creates intriguing textures of electronics as heard on tracks like “Enter the Capitol”, “Training” and on action sequences such as “Booby Trap” and the abrasive “Mutts Attack”. All in all, Howard delivers an impressive score with several moments of melodrama, fine details, and diverse instrumental colors.
The score for The Hunger Games was released as an album in 2012 by LionsGate and Universal Republic Records, as a companion to a song compilation album that featured some of the songs used in the film. The score album, however, offered several filler cues that disrupted the musical experience, and omitted several cues of interest, resulting in many enthusiasts undeservedly labeling it as a disappointment. Renovatio Records has produced a new program with the standouts of the score, along with new unreleased music, that not only flows narratively, but also showcases the extensive thought Howard put into the music.
2. Capitol Ship (1:33)
3. Reaping (1:40)
4. The Train (1:33)
5. Enter The Capitol (2:56)
6. Chariot Ceremony (Horn Of Plenty) (3:04)
7. Katniss' Room (2:06)
8. Training (1:45)
9. The Countdown (1:58)
10. Survival (1:32)
11. Traitor Peeta (2:33)
12. Healing Katniss (3:08)
13. Booby Trap (3:11)
14. Rue's Farewell (5:01)
15. Taking Care Of Peeta (4:49)
16. Mutts Attack (5:16)
17. Returning Home (5:54)
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