On June 22, 2015, the film music world lost one of their greatest talents: composer James Horner. At the age of 61, he crashed his sports plane, the S312 Tucano, in Ventura County, north of Santa Barbara. With regard to his work, he left behind a powerful, comprehensive film musical legacy. I enjoy his music almost every day since my early youth – so, for more than two decades already.
On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of James Horner’s death, I wrote a three-part article for the online magazine FilmMusicJournal.ch, “A Playlist with Music by James Horner”. The article focuses on some of his compositions, which I particularly like to listen to. The full article can be downloaded as a PDF at the very beginning of this blog post (39 pages; in German only).
The article was published on FilmMusicJorunal.ch on 20, 22 and 26 June 2020 respectively. Here are the links to the individual articles:
- Part 1 – from “The Journey of Natty Gann” (1985) to “The Spitfire Grill” (1996)
- Part 2 – from “Titanic” (1997) to “Windtalkers” (2002)
- Part 3 – from “Beyond Borders” (2003) to “Wolf Totem” (2015)
The playlist
- “The Journey of Natty Gann” (1985) | Freight Train | 2:45
- “Cocoon” (1985) | The Ascension | 6:01
- “Willow” (1988) | Willow’s Theme | 3:54
- “Glory” (1989) | Closing Credits | 6:51
- “In Country” (1989) | Fallen Friends | 10:04
- “The Rocketeer” (1991) | Rocketeer to the Rescue / End Title | 6:30
- “A Far Off Place” (1993) | Epilogue / End Credits | 5:32
- “Legends of the Fall” (1994) | Samuel’s Death | 8:26
- “Casper” (1995) | Casper’s Lullaby | 5:39
- “Braveheart” (1995) | The Secret Wedding | 6:36
- “Apollo 13” (1995) | End Credits | 6:55
- “Balto” (1995) | The Journey Begins | 5:04
- “The Spitfire Grill” (1996) | Reading the Letters | 2:02
- “Titanic” (1997) | Titanic Suite | 19:05
- “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) | Elena and Esperanza | 8:20
- “Mighty Joe Young” (1998) | Dedication & Windsong | 9:44
- “Bicentennial Man” (1999) | The Machine Age | 3:32
- “The Perfect Storm” (2000) | Small Victories | 8:31
- “Enemy at the Gates” (2001) | Betrayal | 11:28
- “A Beautiful Mind” (2001) | Saying Goodbye to Those You So Love | 6:43
- “The Four Feathers” (2002) | The Mahdi | 10:47
- “Windtalkers” (2002) | Calling to the Wind | 10:33
- “Beyond Borders” (2003) | Ethiopia iii | 2:13
- “The Missing” (2003) | Dawn to Dusk; The Riderless Horse | 4:22
- “House of Sand and Fog” (2003) | We Have Traveled So Far, it’s Time to Return to Our Path | 9:05
- “Bobby Jones – Stroke of Genius” (2004) | St. Andrews | 6:17
- “Troy” (2004) | The Trojans Attack | 5:01
- “Flightplan” (2005) | So Vulnerable | 4:01
- “The Legend of Zorro” (2005) | The Train | 11:11
- “The New World” (2005) | The New World | 5:22
- “The Spiderwick Chronicles” (2008) | The Flight of the Griffin | 6:55
- “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” (2008) | Boys Playing Airplanes | 4:13
- “Avatar” (2009) | Jack’s First Flight | 4:50
- Flight Demonstration Music / Flight (2010 / 2014) | 12:20
- “Black Gold” (2011) | A Kingdom of Oil | 8:46
- “For Greater Glory” (2012) | Jose’s Martyrdom | 4:05
- “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012) | The Bridge | 5:15
- “Wolf Totem” (2015) | Return to the Wild | 9:52
About James Horner (1953–2015)
James Horner was born on August 14, 1953, in Los Angeles, California. The son of two-time Academy Award-winner and set designer Harry Horner grew up in London. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and received his master’s degree from the University of Southern California.
In the late 1970s, Horner wrote scores for some films of the American Film Institute (AFI). The works were well received and he liked to compose scores. He then began working for film producer Roger Corman, for whom he composed music for B-movies such as “Humanoids from the Deep” and “Battle Beyond the Stars” in 1980. His large-scale orchestral music for the latter drew Hollywood’s attention. Horner made his breakthrough in 1982 with “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”. This was followed by outstanding works for “Krull” (1983), “Brainstorm” (1983), “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984), “The Journey of Natty Gann” (1985) and “Aliens” (1986). “Aliens” marked the first collaboration with director James Cameron, for which he also composed music for “Titanic” in 1997 and “Avatar” in 2009. “Titanic” and “Avatar” became the most commercially successful films to this day; “Titanic” with over 30 million CDs sold worldwide even became the most successful orchestral soundtack album.
Over the course of his nearly 40-years career, James Horner wrote scores for well over 120 films – horror, adventure, thrillers, comedies, science fiction and animated films. For many of his more recent works, he worked not only for Hollywood but also for numerous European film productions. He recently wrote the music for “Wolf Totem” (2015), “Southpaw” (2015), “Living in the Age of Airplanes” (2015), “The 33” (2015) and the documentary “One Day in Auschwitz” (2015).
During his studies, James Horner also composed two concert works – “Conversations” (1976) and “Spectral Shimmers” (1977). His double concerto for violin and cello, “Pas de Deux” (2014), was recently premiered. On 27 March 2015, his new concert piece, “Collage: New Work for Four Horns” (2015), celebrated its world premiere in London, presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has received well over 40 awards for his work, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and five Grammys.
