KEEPING SCORE

Scoring Ed Zwick’s latest film, “Defiance,” was a very emotional experience for seven-time Oscar-nominated composer James Newton Howard.

“Defiance,” which opens Dec. 31 in limited release, is based on a true story of three Jewish brothers from west Belarus who, during World War II, built a village deep in the forest and managed to save 1,200 Jews from certain death in the Nazi concentration camps.

“I didn’t find out I was Jewish until my mid-30s,” Howard says. “My father died when I was young. He was Jewish. He had changed his name and he didn’t want me to know that. And my mother, I guess, decided it wasn’t important. I am Jewish and I identify as being Jewish. So to some extent, this was my story. As I became more immersed in the movie, it became more meaningful as it went on.”

The film wears its heart on its sleeve and so does Howard’s haunting score, especially the delicate main melody played by violinist Joshua Bell.

“I think that often times these days people are very afraid to compose music that is emotionally specific,” Howard says. “I think they are afraid of that sentimentality. I am actually quite proud of the work because I am all about the melody. To use melody to underscore an emotional moment in a movie, one doesn’t get to do it as much any more.”

-- Susan King