{"id":33407,"date":"2015-06-23T01:23:47","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T08:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=33407"},"modified":"2015-06-23T11:27:42","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T18:27:42","slug":"james-horner-composer-for-star-trek-aliens-an-american-tail-braveheart-titanic-and-many-more-has-passed-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2015\/06\/james-horner-composer-for-star-trek-aliens-an-american-tail-braveheart-titanic-and-many-more-has-passed-away.html","title":{"rendered":"James Horner, composer for Star Trek<\/i>, Aliens<\/i>, An American Tail<\/i>, Braveheart<\/i>, Titanic<\/i> and many more, has passed away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"jameshorner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sad, sad news. James Horner, who composed the music for well over a hundred films \u2014 winning two Oscars and co-writing hit songs like \u2018Somewhere Out There\u2019 and \u2018My Heart Will Go On\u2019 along the way \u2014 passed away in a plane crash yesterday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Horner has IMDb credits going back to 1978, but I first discovered him when he wrote the score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan<\/i> in 1982. He went on to write the score for its sequel, The Search for Spock<\/i>, as well. I wrote about his contributions to those films in a series of posts I did on \u201cmusic for Klingons\u201d two years ago, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When I started collecting movie soundtracks in the mid-1980s, Horner was one of my heroes. His action cues were exciting, and his emotional cues could move me to tears \u2014 and sometimes he went straight from action to emotion without skipping a beat, not least in tracks like \u2018Genesis Countdown<\/a>\u2019, which charts the final moments of Captain Spock\u2019s life as he saves his friends from certain destruction in Star Trek II<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Horner\u2019s versatility was amply demonstrated when, in 1987, he got his first two Oscar nominations<\/a> for two radically different films: the sci-fi horror film Aliens<\/i>, the music for which has been featured in countless action-movie trailers since, and the animated An American Tail<\/i>, which spawned the hit single \u2018Somewhere Out There<\/a>\u2019. (Horner lost to \u2019Round Midnight<\/i> and Top Gun<\/i>\u2019s \u2018Take My Breath Away\u2019, respectively.)<\/p>\n

As it happens, all of the Horner-scored films I have mentioned so far were follow-ups to films that had been scored by Jerry Goldsmith (Star Trek: The Motion Picture<\/i>, Alien<\/i> and Don Bluth\u2019s non-Disney debut The Secret of NIMH<\/i>). And what\u2019s interesting is how Goldsmith\u2019s scores were great, but Horner\u2019s were great too, and Horner\u2019s scores assisted the follow-up films in establishing their own distinctive identities.<\/p>\n

Horner would go on to receive eight more nominations \u2014 including, of course, two for 1997\u2019s Titanic<\/i>, both of which he won: best original dramatic score, and best original song (shared with lyricist Will Jennings), for \u2018My Heart Will Go On<\/a>\u2019. But before he became known for that feminist romance, his other nominated scores included 1989\u2019s Field of Dreams<\/i>, which has a well-earned reputation for making grown men cry, and 1995\u2019s Braveheart<\/i>, which brought Celtic themes to the big screen in a big way.<\/p>\n

I must confess I have never spent much time in the company of Braveheart<\/i> or Titanic<\/i>. I was always much more inclined to listen to Horner\u2019s themes for 1985\u2019s Cocoon<\/i>, 1986\u2019s The Name of the Rose<\/i> (\u2018The Confession<\/a>\u2019 is one of my favorite tracks from any music genre ever<\/i>), 1989\u2019s Glory<\/i>, 1991\u2019s The Rocketeer<\/i> and 1993\u2019s Swing Kids<\/i>.<\/p>\n

By the mid-1990s, I had cooled to Horner somewhat. By now, I could detect recurring patterns in his music, and at times it felt like he was phoning it in. Plus, with the arrival of the internet, I soon discovered that there were many soundtrack buffs who didn\u2019t like Horner at all<\/i>, and regarded him as something of a serial plagiarist.<\/p>\n

Well, I never went that<\/i> negative on him. When a man scores three or four movies per year, you can\u2019t expect everything<\/i> he does to be brilliant, or fresh.<\/p>\n

And the fact is, he did write some brilliant scores.<\/p>\n

Many thanks, Mr Horner. My condolences to your loved ones. And memory eternal.<\/p>\n

P.S.: Since I write about Bible movies so much, I should probably note that Horner, to my knowledge, never scored any. Interestingly, he did score three of Mel Gibson\u2019s four directorial efforts \u2014 The Man without a Face<\/i>, Braveheart<\/i> and Apocalypto<\/i> \u2014 but he did not, for whatever reason, score The Passion of the Christ<\/i>. I wonder why not.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The image at the top of this post is from a featurette<\/a> on the <\/i>Aliens DVD.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Horner put his definitive stamp on at least two major sci-fi franchises, and he co-wrote a hit song for an animated film three years before the Disney renaissance. 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