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I first met Tom Newman in a small office on Wilshire Boulevard in LA sometime in 1998. He struck me as gentle, wry, and self-deprecating to a fault. I already knew he was incredibly gifted. He agreed to write the music for American Beauty. He wrote a sensational score. The other day I watched him across a crowded orchestral stage at Abbey Road and realised it had been 21 years. The view of him standing at the podium is now as familiar to me as saying "action". Tom is still all the things described above, except he is more gifted than I originally thought. On top of which, I can now also count him as a friend. This score for 1917 is wonderful. The fruits, I suppose, of 21 years of collaboration. I hope you enjoy it. - Sam Mendes.