James Horner came along and broke into film scoring by delivering A-list music for bargain basement prices.
Roger Corman, the stingy, independent B-movie mogul, hired Horner to score Humanoids from the Deep and Battle Beyond the Stars for a laughably tiny budget. What Horner delivered made everybody in Hollywood sit up and take notice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mSgqMOKJho&list=PLH9C08qrQ7S4Vc1KhlqijNh137diNhJ42
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In a mere 2 year's time, Horner was given the opportunity to score big budget films such as STAR TREK II THE WRATH OF KHAN, KRULL, and BRAINSTORM, COCOON. He became a celebrated A-list composer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_xN0LOLG3I
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Teaming up with the legendary film Director James Cameron (a notorious slave-driver and perfectionist) James Horner produced a mammoth score to a ground-breaking Sci-Fi flick; ALIENS. Horner swore he'd never work with James Cameron again because it had almost killed him:)
A few years passed and Cameron came around to call, resulting in the international, runaway hit film
TITANIC which sold 27 million soundtrack albums and netted Horner 2 Academy Awards.
Again with Cameron, AVATAR joined the list of films ranked as the biggest box-office hits of all time.
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What James Horner could be counted on to deliver was emotionally moving, melodic film scores which could change gears and knock the audience over backwards. Wildly diverse subjects and styles soon followed.
WILLOW, FIELD OF DREAMS, HONEY--I SHRUNK THE KIDS, GLORY, THE ROCKETEER, PATRIOT GAMES, LEGENDS OF THE FALL, A BEAUTIFUL MIND
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For Mel Gibson's directorial debut, James Horner composed BRAVEHEART. Once again, the musical core of the emotion fully embodied a robust and unashamedly romantic film brilliantly illustrated by the orchestra.
And on. . . and on. . .
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My personal favorite among Horner's excellent film scores is THE ROCKETEER. In my opinion, it combines everything an exciting adventure should contain musically.
The orchestrations, arrangements, dynamics and performance of this music is brilliant in every way.
It begins with the wonderful theme expressed by piano and blossoms and develops from there by adding more and more instruments. About the 2:00 minute mark, Horner cranks it up and adds shimmering excitement with horns and violins. Soon, the entire ensemble begins exchanging melodic fragments and tossing them back and forth as each instrument group gets to have its say. The snare drums set the rhythm and the entire ensemble takes flight. The volume drops and a build up to the restatement of the countermelody in the French Horns is punctuated by rapid violin and xylophone scales until the safe landing.
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Most film music today avoids a strong melodic theme, instead relying on percussion and meandering chords.
I find it unimaginative and the sameness of one score compared with another is almost laughable--like a rubber stamp marked: action music.
I was deeply saddened by this 61-year-old composer's sudden death while flying his single-engine propeller airplane.
He had another two decades worth of genius to give all of us, as John Williams continues to provide. It is a tragic loss and I for one physically feel the loss.
I just wanted to chime in and publicly thank him for his work and bid him a fond farewell.
