Personal quote We have a James Horner we all love and there is a James Horner we all hate, well at least try to ignore. Speaking directly of film music standards it is easy to point out that Horner has established himself with some of the best scores of the decades. And these are the big stylistic scores of the 80' and his more emotional epics of the 90'. Simply to say that Horner still has a lot of ideas inside of him. But the last couple of years there has been a downside and with each score there is another strong resemblance towards an earlier effort. Hornerisms and Horner borrowing it is called. Well, sometimes Horner can be so original you at least expect him to do it more often but it doesn't always happen. But one thing we have to mention, his re used ideas always function in the right style and manner, making him still so popular or controversial, you pick! Biography James Horner was born on August 14, 1953 and studied at the Royal College of Music in London. His career in the movie music world started with low budget horror assignments and 1980 was the start of what would become an impressive career. Battle Beyond the Stars and Humanoids from the Deep (now released in full quality) is ample proof of his talent. It took him two years after that to receive the first giant project, in the name of "to boldly go where no man has gone before". Star Trek II and III are still some of his most beloved scores of his career. Mainly at that time, Horner was doing a lot of science fiction and Krull and a bit of horror through it in Something Wicked this way Comes are proof of this testament. Cocoon started nonetheless the impressive list of assignments, including the likes of Aliens (Oscar nominated which is rare for a horror - action effort), Project X, Willow, Field of Dreams, Glory, The Rocketeer and Patriot Games all in a few years time. Horner is also known for his exquisite musical style in animation: An American Tail and its sequel, The Land Before Time, Once Upon a Forest, We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story, The Pagemaster and Balto. In those days Horner was the king and immense efforts such as Braveheart, Legends of the Fall, Apollo 13 and Titanic haven’t changed that one bit. Still, it was at this time that people began to loath the self-plagiarism and re use of themes, ideas and sometimes pure phrases of music. Horner began to lose his self-respect and the fan base was starting to shrink minimally, even if the scores and releases remained popular selling items. The Mask of Zorro is still considered unique but Mighty Joe Young, Bicentennial Man, The Perfect Storm, Enemy at the Gates and even Windtalkers have all been criticized one way or another. The Four Feathers was more unique then enjoyable even though it came at a time when Horner barely scored something other then war movies. Beyond Borders, Radio, The House of Sand and Fog and The Missing are more of Horner's affair while Troy shook up the music fanbase again, more concerning the rejection of Gabriel Yared's score then Horner's replacement outing in the end. The Forgotten is a terrible Horner outing and shows nothing of the potential that The Legend of Zorro only carries by name. The New World is along with the little The Chumscrubber and the moody Flightplan more Horner fare. With Apocalypto and All the King's Men Horner remains most popular, with every soundtrack release going for the unstoppable 80 minute marker. Let's not forget, Horner is a 7 time Oscar nominee and a 5 time Golden Globe nominee, of which he won both one Award for Original score and Song for the hit Titanic, fanbase speaking he is still respected for his talents but time and interest will start to minimize as long Horner remains doing what Horner has become famous for.
(overall impression) March, 1992 Each film is different and each film
allows you a freedom to compose what is appropriate for the film. March, 1992 I spent two days with the sounds effects people so I knew very much what they were doing. I knew that whatever I had to write, whatever I came up with couldn't be subtle. There wasn't going to be room for any cute flute solos or anything. It had to be really a lot of action music and a lot of sheer horse power form the orchestra. (on Aliens) February 15, 1995 Film music is this weird, demonic thing
where every score has to be absolutely different from any other score--or so the legal
paper says. But if you’re an artist it's impossible. February 15, 1995 I think people hire me for the slightly weird angle that I bring. Part of the trick is keeping it sort of simple; you have to give the impression of not that much music playing when there's really a lot. (overall impression) December 28, 1997 I actually don't think I steal from
myself. I really try not to. As a writer matures, one should develop a very distinctive
style in writing. One can be a complete chameleon for only so long. And even though you
work on different films, it is the same writer.
Links to Personal Webpages:
Highlight
of his career: |
The Works ллллл ллллл Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan лллл An American Tail: Star Trek 3: лллл Battle Beyond the Stars / Humanoids from the Deep ллл How the Grinch Stole Christmas "Promo" To Gillian on We're Back: ллл |
