I've loved soundtracks for as long as I can remember. There's something about them that I just love. But when I first listened to James Horner's music for Titanic, I realized that he had gone beyond anything other film composers have done. John Williams, Shirley Walker, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman...all of them created breathtaking music, but no one has ever made anything as indescribably beautiful as James did for Titanic. He became my favorite film composer almost immediately after that. No one could create such emotionally complex music as him. Absolutely _no one_ could do it like James. James Horner, I hope you are united with God in Heaven.
John Williams has 1000% created music as beautiful as James Horner (the piano theme from AI is a great example). But it's not a competition, they're both incredible composers who excelled/excel at their own styles.
Same here. Listening to his music is like having a conversation with an old friend. Even when he references himself, as he does quite often, I roll my eyes and think, "That's James for ya"....but definitely miss his music. When he put his mind to it, he created perfection.
It’s so surprising that the first time I watched titanic in mid 2015 , the music struck me so hard that I started crying even though I was only 13 years old at that time . Later some years when I got access to the internet I searched for the composer of that movie . And found out that he died the same time I ever heard his music . “ hymen to the sea “ will forever will be my favourite. His music was one of the reasons I started making music . Today date is ; 22/02/23 . Evening.
I had the privilege to play on a number of James’ scores and found him to be a very generous, creative, and thoughtful artist. Both he and his music will be sorely missed. Thank you for sharing this interview.
@@garykuovideos Thank you for your prompt response! Oh wow, that's impressive. The Jumanji score has just been re-mastered and was re-released by Intrada Records last week. Mine's in the post! I'll be able to hear your excellent work in boosted clarity. Did you perform on any film scores with other composers?
The irony is he was criticized of re-creating his scores, even though he could be astoundingly diverse in his compositional ability. But your post is correct, the industry is very risk-averse, very heavily based in the thinking that imitation=success somehow, killing so much adventurous creativity, resulting in so much of it sounding canned.
Was saddened to hear that he passed. He and Jerry Goldsmith were my two favorite film composers. Horner left us a lot of wonderful music. Rest In Peace.
pure genius! pure.....God gave to us this James Horner and to God he has returned......we have his genius here for us to enjoy and relish........blessings to your new journey at the table with your new spiritual family.........we will always love you for what you left us.....
Such a clever man, I have taken so much from this, I am so thankful that he took his time to express his feelings and gave core advice to all composers. My favourite composure from James was from the film brave heart, such a beautiful crafted film, he really did connect with that film, I listen to it quite regular and tear as we will never hear from this wonderful man again, he has left his legacy for us all to enjoy, thank you James, rest in peace you wonderful man.
Jack Horner was Jewish and was born in Los Angeles in 1953, the son of Joan Ruth (Frankel) and Harry Horner. He speaks with a Brtiish accent because he spent his teen years and college in UK. His father was a set designer and occasional art-director,who was born in Czechoslovakia, and moved to the United States in 1935 as the Nazis slowly took over Jewish life and culture in Europe. REST IN PEACE Jack Horner, Z'l
He's so calm and easy to process everything he speaks because he speaks with an easy pace. He is so relaxed not even bothered he won Oscars . Most talented people hate the gloss and glamour and our quite achievers. You cannot achieve much as an artist if you walk around with a big head. Humility is so important when your in art. So much to absorb from the simple things of life.
Just watched the interview today for the first time. Gosh! He really had to adapt to what the directors wanted from him. Good job Mr.Horner you are missed but not forgotten. Thanks for the beautiful music.
I cried when i heard a glimpse of his work in Avatar 2, with such emotional depth the scores of the first movie were it saddens me every time i listen to them, and the fact that we won't hear anything like it. His art is what would've cemented the sequels in eternity
It’s so surprising that the first time I watched titanic in mid 2015 , the music struck me so hard that I started crying even though I was only 13 years old at that time . Later some years when I got access to the internet I searched for the composer of that movie . And found out that he died the same time I ever heard his music . “ hymen to the sea “ will forever will be my favourite. His music was one of the reasons I started making music . Today date is ; 22/02/23 . Evening.
James Horner was a wonderful artist in TV/film music scoring, according to Nick Redman, Jon and Marilee Burlingame, Lem Dobbs, Jeff Bond, Bill Siddons, Nicholas Meyer, Naomi Judd, Larry Strickland, Miss Pat Carroll, Jodi and Ray Benson, Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo, Alicia Ballinger, Joyce Meyer, Molly Haskell Sarris, Arlene Dahl Rosen and Dr. Ruth Mandel. He'll always remember. God bless. RIP, James.
Mr. Horner. You have moved me like nothing Else through your music, and I want to thank you for the divine Music you have enriched my life with. May you RIP.
God I love this man so much. He has the most beautiful musical soul that touches everyone who hears his music. It’s always other worldly and I would have loved just spending 5 min in his presence. I wonder about all the beautiful music we won’t get to hear, that will never be because he’s gone. He’s just a beautiful beautiful man.
I've come back to this interview again and again since 2013. I think it's the best interview of his career and one of the most interesting interviews i've ever seen. Thank you DP/30 and thank you James Horner.
Genious composer, wonderful sincere person! His music is magnificent, unique, it’s for the ages! His passing is the great loss for the whole world. R.I.P., Maestro. You’re continuing to live through your music.
I love, love, love, love, love this man's music. Love it. This interview is so insightful and meaningful. I wonder who James Cameron will hire to write the scores for the follow-up Avatar films.... Also, I wonder what he will title the films... Definitely not Avatar 2, 3, 4, etc....
As a amateur composer, I agree with him about how numerous writers of music are emerging with small levels of musical education. I'm the same way, but that's also why I'm at a university right now and I haven't had much education on theory or composition. Made me feel really small when he said that because it's true
Not just music education, sound education. Glad I went to univerrsity and studied sound design and Foley under the tutelage of a 57 year veteran! in Foley and mixing for TV and Film. So I like to think I'm not lumped in with that crowd Horner speaks of. In my work many indie film makers either think they can do it themselves or don't understand why I'm asking for such a high fee for knocking a few sounds together. Usually by the time they realise they've already blown their budget.
It's very surprising to hear James talk about "reading the filmmaker's body responses" when, as his wife said, he has Asperger's and could not read or connect to people's emotional reactions, and became more isolated than was healthy for him. All the while he was creating some of the most gorgeous, transcendent compostions on his own, completely connected to our collective heart, mind and soul. He turned out some of the most beautiful and moving music any of us have ever heard. Miss his genius forever.
This interview actually bummed me out because everything Horner is saying is unfortunately true. All we can do is hope for a resurgence or return to melodic, thematic orchestral scores similar to what happened in the 1970s.
Very insightful enjoyable interview. He's absolutely correct, beach in the day the composer was chosen based on their merit for bringing a lush thematic score to a movie in such a way that it was like another character in the film. These days I think we've skipped over to a generation of filmmakers who themselves are inspired by films and filmmakers who didn't quite grasp the concept of the composer. I remember Star Wars episode 2 totally re-edited all of John Williams music to such an offensive level that I was surprised he even came back to do episode 3. It'll come back the way it was done back in the day. It's not dead. Just dormant.
James Horner looks quite foreign in this cap, scarf, and sweater, a look that most men could not pull off; but on him there is just something incredibly cool about it. He seems somewhat sad in interviews.
He self-admittedly could hardly carry a tune. When he first shared My Heart Will Go On for Celine Dion, she almost rejected the job because his attempt to sing it was so bad.
Its amazing how little power film composers have in the film making project. I almost feel that composers should find a way to re-assert themselves as they truly are the experts when it comes to the musical tone and feel of the film - obviously with the appropriate amount of agreement between them and the director. But themes and melody are what we all go back to when we remember our favourite films, and I myself have noticed a themic/ melodic drought for most of the films I have seen over the last 5-10 years. We should not let technology dictate our artistry. Rather, it ought to support it.
23:42 This doesn't just sound like a discussion of business in movie scoring business, but more like relationship advice. I mean, James Cameron and James Horner totally broke up after Aliens, but after James Cameron saw Horner write for Braveheart, he appreciated Horner's abilities and hired him back for Titanic.
it's such a freak accident the way this talented and hard working composer died. just didn't make sense to me... RIP James you gave the world such beautiful music.
Well, it's 2018 and I'm sorry to report that, since this interview, NOTHING has changed in film music or pop music. Everything Horner said is even more relevant now then ever. The last original film scores I can actually remember is his Avatar score and UP, both from 2009. Thanks to these whack producers and superhero movies, film scores are basically dead. I knew I'd miss Horner when I heard he died because he was one of the few who noticed it and spoke out against it. Two years since his death, I miss him more and more. Even though I'm a writer, his scores (Land Before Time, Titanic, Braveheart, American Tail, etc), have inspired me so much and he inspired me to be more creative and original. RIP...
Gianna Ribo I recently shared this saying the exact same thing! It’s insane how relevant this interview is even now, like it was recorded yesterday. He is still one of the only A-List composers to actually speak out about the state of film music.
***** I agree. Zimmer hasn't composed a score solo for pretty much his entire career, yet he takes all the credit. Every one thinks he did the Batman trilogy, yet he barely did half. All the great stuff came from James Newton Howard. Zimmer is just a band name now, nothing more. Real, talented composers can compose an entire score on their own, like Williams, Horner, JN Howard, Giacchino, Silvestri, Newman, Desplat, Shore, Elfman, etc.
Thing with Zimmer is: he WANTS to collaborate with people, he wants to bring in other people to see what they got, and also help those people out getting work. That's how he got started. He got started in this business helping out another composer(can't remember the name from the top of my head), just like that, for a while. Also those people get brought in to write the additional bits of music, most is still Zimmer. He CAN write a score on his own, and has done so for most of his career, so saying he hasn't composed an score solo for basically his entire career is complete misguided bullshit. He wrote, perhaps, his greatest score solo. As for Batman, for the first two, Netwon-Howard did the quiter tracks & Zimmer did the action. Rises is all Zimmer and, likely, co. (which is actually my personal favorite, and deserves more credit from people who dislike his Batman scores). Hardly barely half. I haven't liked a lot of Zimmer's scores recently, but he get's, ignoring his fan(boy)s, too little credit for what he does. He's a phenomenal producer, but that aside, as someone who writes a lot of music himself, he has great ideas for what to use in his scores. He took a sledgehammer to a steamtrain for Lone Ranger, that's briliant. Used a bunch of pedal-guitars as a string-section for Man of Steel, brililant. Those are things I've not seen any other film composer think of, and it deserves a lot more credit. Not to forget Horner, not unlike Zimmer, rips himself off constantly, perhaps even more, the 3-note danger motif he uses everywhere and lifted from Rachmaninov being the most obvious. Sorry for the long reply, but sometimes I get really annoyed by the snobbish attitude (and false-fact critisism) towards Zimmer, by some.
eloquent man! Iris is an undiscovered gem IMO. Incidentally, he seems to have lost a lot of weight in recent years, then in the close up I notice a massive scar on his neck (hence the scarf?). Maybe it's related... Hope he's OK
James is absolutely right! Hans Zimmer and his cult are taking over! Now that James has passed and John Williams will most likely retire after Star Wars, we will only have a few "true" orchestral composers which include Danny Elfman, Alexandre Desplat, Michael Giacchino and hopefully Ennio Morricone.
acrazyutuber13 Even JNH is getting more and more Zimmer-like. Thomas Newman could be the next John Williams. John Powell is also a wonderful composer now.
I agree with you, but many composers use DAWs and VSTs simply just to write the music, that way the director can easier push the composer in the right direction. The final product is always played by a professional orchestra and recorded by professional sound engineers. High budget movies always has the real thing!
If I ever become a film director/screenwriter, I would have James Horner on my list of composers to hire to write and compose a score for a film project I would be working on. In fact, I have a movie idea in mind that was like a Epic Fantasy-Adventure thriller that would have visual effects on the same level as Avatar and Inception combined. For a movie like that, I would ask Horner to write a score that was like a mixture of the score from Braveheart and the score from Casper!
James Horner is the kind of person who actually does not care about the film much. There have always been very different two kinds of movie music composers: those who read the script, understand the movie, and compose the music to complement the scenes, and those who compose music out of personal sentiment or outside inspiration that had nothing to do with the film, which could then be a very beautiful addition to the film, although there is no guarantee of that to work. Hornes is the latter.
A very interesting and enjoyable interview but the camera seemed more interested in keeping the tree trunks behind Mr. Horner in focus rather than Mr. Horner himself.
Please change your subject title. He discuses movie music in general, not really Avatar until the middle of the interview......nevermind...........Excellent interview.
Great, insightful interview. I couldn't disagree more about Zimmer's TDK score though, to me it's always stood out amongst fans. Perhaps the BATMAN BEGINS score wasn't too memorable? I think people who don't seek out music schooling/education will always lack alot/kind of "miss out" on other opportunities but sometimes a song you thought took MONTHS to write/record/produce may have taken a few HOURS by an unknown, so music will always be subjective in that sense. If it sounds good, it is good. Found it surprising that Horner didn't care for films growing up, seems kind of odd to create for something you have no interest in but he's certainly made a career for himself so I can't bash that!
This interviewer should take a course in elocution. He is ever so irritating. All those 'uh, hahs, 'right' and 'you knows'. Despite all this, Jamie got his answers out with clarity.
Great interview. Some judgement are a little narrowminded in my opinion. For example Zimmer and Newton-Howard said early on that they agreed NOT to make an easily hummable score for the Dark Knight, exactly beause the films weren't easy films. Horner points to formulaic filmmaking. If anything in filmscoring is formulaic, it's humable tunes.
You don´t seem to know very much about what Horner looks for in movies or how his process works. What initially made Horner hooked on writing scores for films was the marriage between the picture and music and how music could enhance what´s seen on screen and what´s in the script. Just look at how he spots his movies. If he didn´t understand his movies then he wouldn´t be able to make the calls that he does in terms of where to put music and how to orchestrate his themes to specific situations.
Me sentí como si estuviera hablando con el... los mismos pensamientos y la ideología que tiene sobre el estilo de cada compositor, esa huella y el lo nuevo y burlo que pide el nuevo comercio.... James Horner eres lo mejor
Did the cameraman get a zoom camera for Xmas , if the subject is interesting enough , which James Horner was , why the hell zoom in and out all the time ?
I understand that he 'works' as a part of the crew during the production, but when I listen to his end result, if I can pick very easily distinguishable rather long, repeating pieces from Titanic and Troy, then he could not really catch the sentiment of the film. From the way he is addressing the films, you can see that he does not really hold the modern production process in a very high regard. I still love him absolutely for what he did in Braveheart cannot be matched, but he is not John Barry
