James Horner RIP

Started by polkablues, June 22, 2015, 11:22:16 PM

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polkablues

Split from "Who's Next To Croak"


James Horner, in all likelihood.
My house, my rules, my coffee


Jeremy Blackman

Noooo....

I've talked about this before, but I was completely obsessed with his Braveheart and Titanic scores. Definitely must revisit those now. Braveheart in particular.

I need to listen to more of his work. What are other people's favorites?



Just Withnail

I was among the obsessives as well. There was a point in my childhood where I would pretty much only listen to soundtracks, and the big romantic ones were definite favorites. I quickly learned that Horner was a master at the romantic theme: Braveheart, Titanic, Legends of the Fall, Land Before Time, Apollo 13, I ate it all up, the closet romantic I was, headphones on, dreaming away.

There was one particular part of the Braveheart theme (just after 01:06 in the clip JB posted above), that completely destroyed me. That little break in the flow (God, I wish I had a musicians vocabulary), where you've been floating away, and suddenly it does two little jumps back and forth, a little jolt out of the flow. I would hum this little part over and over, eventually making up my own little lyrics (and how goddamn into-my-soul embarrassing they were).

Years later I heard Black is the color of my true love's hair for the first time, and lo and behold, the very same little jumpy back-and-forth is there! At least to my ears it sounds extremely similar. Listen here, at 00:17-ish.




I then started obsessing over that song, and it's still one of the pieces of music I hold most dear. A big part of that is how it throws my thoughts in the direction of being 11 years old. Listening to Black is the color, I'm secretly listening to Braveheart.

Jeremy Blackman

Have you listened to Gustav Holst's The Planets, by the way? It was massively influential on James Horner and John Williams. They even borrowed some of his melodies.

2:58 here:


picolas

if i had to pick one:



it's the epitome of STAKES! THRILLS! SUSPENSE!

his new world score has really endured for me too.