Howe Records is pleased to announce the release of the Hugo — Original Score. Hugo marks the sixth collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and composer Howard Shore. Like Scorsese’s film, Shore’s score to Hugo is a love letter both to the French culture in the 1930s and to the groundbreaking early days of cinema.

Hugo tells the story of Hugo Cabret, a boy who lives behind the walls of a Parisian train station. Shore’s music is composed for two ensembles — one nested within the other — to create a sense of layering in the musical palette. Inside a full symphony orchestra resides a smaller ensemble, a sort of nimble French dance band that includes the ondes Martenot, musette, cimbalom, tack piano, gypsy guitar, upright bass, a 1930s trap-kit, and alto saxophone. “I wanted to match the depth of the sound to the depth of the image,” says Shore.

The Hugo score is based around a family of primary musical themes. “The themes are used for clarity of storytelling and they develop over the course of the film,” says the composer. The score’s central theme is a Parisian waltz that develops into the song “Coeur Volant.” Howard Shore invited renowned French singer Zaz to collaborate with Elizabeth Cotnoir and him on the song, which captures the lyrical essence of the world of Hugo.

The theme for Hugo’s quest begins the score with clocklike precision in piano octaves. A figure for strings, celesta, and ondes Martenot rotates downward through minor modes to depict the mysterious automaton that Hugo’s father left behind. The Station Inspector is portrayed by a marche comique featuring bassoon and striding snare drum, while the cinematic innovations of Georges Méliès — “Papa Georges” to Hugo and Isabelle — receive Shore’s most theatrical flourishes, which recreate the spirited energy of live theater orchestras and the very first film scores.

1. The Thief
2. The Chase
3. The Clocks
4. Snowfall
5. Hugo's Father
6. Ashes
7. The Station Inspector
8. Bookstore
9. The Movies
10. The Message
11. The Armoire
12. Purpose
13. The Plan
14. Trains
15. Papa Georges Made Movies
16. The Invention of Dreams
17. A Ghost in the Station
18. A Train Arrives in the Station
19. The Magician
20. Coeur Volant - Performed by Zaz
21. Winding it Up

Format: CD

HUGO

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