Medley Improv of Perennial Musical Devices of James Horner

James Horner is the chief inspiration for the music that I write. This is a tribute to him and the musical devices that define his voice.

Though James may be seen to "simply reuse" devices, what he does reuse, he develops off of and into new elements. (Yet any given score of his is not mostly consisting of "reused" elements, anyway.)

I see the devices represented in this improvisation as timelessly beautiful and effective, giving the composer from whom they originated the absolute right to claim them as foundational to their voice.

Some referenced most recent and well-known films that James Horner has written music for include:

Bicentennial Man
A Beautiful Mind
Iris
The Missing
House of Sand and Fog
The Chumscrubber
The New World
The Life Before Her Eyes

Category:

Music

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[loopedrope]

your hands look like moon walking spiders :D

[timdb85]

@loopedrope hahaha you're right--I actually agree :)

[JoeSnyderwalk]

I bought the Avatar score.

Holy. Fucking. WOW! This is probably my new favorite Horner score (well, after Glory, which is a masterpiece of unparalleled beauty and which Avatar, by the way, lifts quite a bit). I take back everything I said about Horner not packing enough of a punch into his action music...the cue "War" forced me to eat my own words, and I was very happy to do so! Damn, that choral work is just supremely awesome!

If JH doesn't take home the Oscar, there's no justice left.

[timdb85]

@JoeSnyderwalk :) I agree with all of that! Unfortunately, he didn't win the Golden Globe--the score for "Up" won... Let's hope "the academy" has better taste. :P

[timdb85]

@judasishmael Hi, I completely agree.  And it makes for much more interesting listening that way. And I think Horner almost feels an obligation (and rightly so) to continue this over-arching epic film score; it is something that makes him stand out, creating such a large work that I'm sure he'll be remembered for in the history of film music.

[judasishmael]

@timdb85 I like to think that his is a song that is never complete. Reprised, reinvented, the renewed along side the brand new. An epic song that can lend indivituality to the films at hand, but also has a deep ancestry in and of itself.

ps-you sounded beautiful

[fecalacid55]

Can't forget The Rocketeer or Titanic though! :) But good job!

[JoeSnyderwalk]

You're right! The aforementioned four-note turn is actually an extremely clever little device, as it can be used as a trill, a motif, an entire theme or as a way to change key (such as about a minute into "Elora Danan" in Willow). But the way it's pounded in some of Horner's later action scores (Enemy at the Gates and Troy come to mind) does tend to give me headaches.

As for Avatar, I'm licking my chops. I've vowed not to go looking for clips online - I want to experience it in the film.

[timdb85]

Hey, thanks for the compliment and nice response! I think you may be surprised by the Avatar soundtrack in its epicness (although, the four-note turn comes into play, along with some Four Feathers material; other than that, it's actually pretty "original"). Also, I have to say that I find Horner to always be original; I think his "self-referencing" is really a way to just "build on" previous works, and to build on devices that are rock-solid.

[JoeSnyderwalk]

Ah yes, James Horner, the only composer who self-references more than Hans Zimmer. That four-note turn...

I do like some of Horner's work, especially his 80s stuff (Khan, Krull, Willow) or his lighter piano-based scores (I find A Beautiful Mind to be Horner's best 2000s score). But he simply doesn't pack quite as much punch into his large-scale orchestral scores as my two favorite composers, Hans Zimmer and Alan Silvestri.

You are very talented, BTW! Great listening-out of Horner's style!