James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was a professional purveyor of both Orchestral Bombing and Award Bait Songs. Born in Los Angeles, California, he was the son of the late set designer Harry Horner and the elder brother of filmmaker Christopher Horner. He wrote the score for numerous films, working alongside James Cameron for three of his most successful films. He composed the scores for many family and Animated Films before his commercial success scoring Titanic (1997).
Most of his work is known for his incorporation of the Ethereal Choir and Celtic instruments, string orchestras, rhythmic percussion, very multi-layered pieces, as well as synth sounds. However, listeners tired of his "cute" sound, heard most prominently on his scores for Titanic (1997), Legends of the Fall or Avatar, can find much more epic (and seminal) material in his music for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (his breakthrough within the industry), Krull, The Rocketeer and Willow, and dark, edgy and thrilling themes for the likes of Patriot Games, Gorky Park and Commando.
Known somewhat less fondly for reusing his music from previous films. Also along these lines, he had a habit of directly quoting themes and motives from 20th century Russian masters.
Horner, a private pilot in his spare time, was killed on June 22, 2015, when his airplane crashed near Santa Barbara, California. He was 61 years old.
Some of his scores include (reverse chronological order)
- The Magnificent Seven (2016) - Director Antoine Fuqua expected he would need another composer after Horner's death, but discovered he had already written part of the score and had intended to surprise him with it. The rest of the score was done by long-time friend and collaborator Simon Franglen.
- The 33 (2015) - this was the final score to be completed by Horner.
- South Paw (2015)
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
- The Karate Kid (2010)
- Avatar (2009) - Third and final collaboration with Cameron; after Horner's death, Simon Franglen succeeded him for the sequels.
- Apocalypto (2006)
- Flightplan (2005)
- The Legend of Zorro (2005)
- Troy (2004)
- The Missing (2003) - His final collaboration with Ron Howard.
- A Beautiful Mind (2001)
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000)
- The Perfect Storm (2000)
- Bicentennial Man (1999) - Second collaboration with Céline Dion following Titanic for the film's Award-Bait Song "Then You Look at Me".
- Mighty Joe Young (1998)
- The Mask of Zorro (1998) and its sequel (see above).
- Titanic (1997) - The defining film for Horner, much like Star Wars for John Williams.
- Ransom (1996) - A last-minute score he wrote when Howard Shore's original music for the film was rejected.
- Balto (1995)
- Jumanji (1995)
- Apollo 13 (1995)
- Casper (1995)
- Braveheart (1995)
- Legends of the Fall (1994)
- The Pagemaster (1994)
- We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993)
- Hocus Pocus (1993) - with John Debney (Horner did one theme while Debney did the rest of the film)
- Swing Kids (1993)
- Once Upon a Forest (1993)
- Unlawful Entry (1992)
- Patriot Games (1992)
- Thunderheart (1992)
- The Rocketeer (1991)
- I Love You to Death (1990)
- Glory (1989)
- Field of Dreams (1989)
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
- Red Heat (1988)
- Willow (1988)
- The Land Before Time (1988)
- *batteries not included (1987)
- An American Tail (1986) - Also its sequel Fievel Goes West (1991). It was the first score that won him some awards.
- Aliens (1986) - He had such a hellish time scoring this due to the movie's famously troubled production and initially swore he'd never work with Cameron again. However, he relented on this, and had better experiences with the other Cameron movies. The source of "Bishop's Countdown"; easily his most trailered piece.
- Heaven Help Us (1985)
- Commando (1985)
- Volunteers (1985)
- Cocoon (1985) His first collaboration with Ron Howard.
- The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) Replacing a score by Elmer Bernstein.
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
- Testament (1983)
- Krull (1983)
- Gorky Park (1983)
- Brainstorm (1983)
- 48 Hrs. (1982)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) This was his big break and launched him into the Hollywood scene; he later declined the offer to score later Trek movies (apart from the third one above). Debate still rages over whether his or Jerry Goldsmith's music is superior.
- Nicholas Meyer famously quipped that Horner was hired for Khan because they couldn't afford Goldsmith again, and then when he returned for the sixth film, he discovered he couldn't afford Horner.
- Wolfen (1981) Replacing a score by Craig Safan.
- Deadly Blessing (1981)
- Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - Ironically considering his later career, music from this film would be used in several other Roger Corman productions (Space Raiders, Sorceress, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom etc).note
Works for television include:
- Amazing Stories ("Alamo Jobe")
- CBS Evening News With Katie Couric (yep, that was him; the theme was replaced with the 1987 Trivers/Myers theme when Scott Pelley took over in 2011; he also did the theme for several other CBS divisions in that period)
- Fish Police (he not only did the theme for this short-lived cartoon,note and he also did one of his very few episodic TV scores for the pilot)
- Crossroads - he composed the theme music for this short-lived drama (9 episodes, which was still more than Fish Police!)Here's the theme in its pilot arrangement
. This is unrelated to this or this. And it predates this. - Tales from the Crypt ("Cutting Cards")
Tropes associated with this composer:
- Adventurous Irish Violins: Horner's score forTitanic (1997) celebrates the resilience and optimism of the Irish spirit with liberal and frequent use of this trope. It becomes especially heartwarming when you remember that Horner was himself Irish, and the RMS Titanic was an Irish ship. Having been built in Belfast, like its sister ships the Olympic and Britannic, many of the ship's crew and third class passengers were from that community, and the sinking hit them hard.
- Associated Composer: For James Cameron, Ron Howard, and Mel Gibson.
- Award-Bait Song: Warmly embraced this trope, remarkably more so than his peers, especially in animation. Witness his working with Charlotte Church, Céline Dion and Mariah Carey among others.
- Cherubic Choir: Apollo 13 includes sparse but dramatic examples as the astronauts re-enter the Earth's atmosphere while the whole world watches on. It becomes more prominent after they safely splash down.
- Orchestral Bombing:
- Horner's score for Aliens uses this a lot, particularly in the ambush of the Marines as they enter the hive and Ripley's escape with Newt from the exploding atmosphere processor.
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has both an epic Trek theme, along with Khan's, both of which come to a head in "Surprise Attack" and "Battle in the Mutara Nebula''.
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock reprises the theme from its predecessor and features a new, percussion-heavy Klingon theme, which would return in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Defector".
- Recurring Riff: Horner uses his unique theme from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan throughout the film. His "Spock" theme from the film is also upgraded into the main theme for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, which also uses snippets of the Wrath of Khan main theme.
- Recycled Trailer Music:
- Horner's score for the film The Rocketeer has probably been heard in trailers for other films by more moviegoers than ever saw the film itself.
- "Bishop's Countdown" from Aliens pops up a lot in trailers involving action sequences building up to a crescendo.
- Self-Plagiarism: As shown in this YouTube video, Horner had a habit of repeating melodies he'd already used in previous soundtracks of his.
- Theme Music Abandonment: None of the themes from Horner’s soundtrack for Aliens returned in any of the following films, despite "Bishop’s Countdown" becoming common Stock Trailer Music.
