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Anyone else think James Horner is better than John Williams?


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Who the hell are Horner's Dynamic Range and Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya?! Why do we have two guys that constantly change their names?! No wonder they get mixed up by people! They both can be referred to as "the guy that always changes his username"!

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Williams has one advantage over Horner. He didn't die in a plane crash but he almost did back in 2001.

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Was Williams supposed to fly back to the bad bad town on the morning of 9/11?

 

2 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

Who the hell are Horner's Dynamic Range and Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya?! Why do we have two guys that constantly change their names?! No wonder they get mixed up by people! They both can be referred to as "the guy that always changes his username"!

 

Just who the hell are you?

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I think Horner was better at:

 

- Evoking emotion in general through his music

- Choral writing 

- Ethnic music

 

And JW:

 

- Action music 

- Integration of leitmotifs

- Concert arrangements of his music

- Americana 

- Orchestrations 

 

I think Horner was far more adaptable than JW but I think the overal quality of JW’s writing is better. 

 

It’s also worth noting that Horner may have not even reached his peak.

 

Can’t we just love them both?

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4 minutes ago, Horner's Dynamic Range said:

You never know when some lunatic will come along with a sadistic choice!

 

Somebody’s gonna make a “Titanic vs. ET” poll and the ensuing wars will break JWFan asunder

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Depends on what you mean by "better".

 

If you mean better in terms of compositional technique, then the answer is no.

 

But if you mean better in terms of expressing raw emotion then the answer is also no.

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Just now, Loert said:

Depends on what you mean by "better".

 

If you mean better in terms of compositional technique, then the answer is no.

 

But if you mean better in terms of expressing raw emotion then the answer is also no.

 

Yeah I've been seeing all these people talk about how Horner was better at expressing emotions like it's some self-evident thing and I'm like, "You cray cray"

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In my lifetime it has been Williams Goldsmith and Horner in that order. And I mean that over Herrman Newman Steiner Tiomkin and all the other early film greats.

William Goldsmith and Horner have No contemporaries. Certainly none in the current crop of so called talent.

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I confessedly often like to conceive stories for Kasey, Nikita, Slam, Boober and Iris in my head while listening to film scores. 

Kasey and Iris while listening to Lando's Closet from Solo, for example. :P

It's long been my main judge for whether or not I like a score. Can I imagine a solid story to this music? Then it's good.

 

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On 7/9/2018 at 12:22 PM, Loert said:

Depends on what you mean by "better".

 

If you mean better in terms of compositional technique, then the answer is no.

 

But if you mean better in terms of expressing raw emotion then the answer is also no.

Williams leaves me almost devoid of emotion more often than not. 

 

Complex, recognizable, but emotional? Not to me it isn't. To each their own. 

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On 7/9/2018 at 3:46 AM, Alex said:

Can’t we just love them both?

 

Exactly this. I in fact do. I also love Barry, Goldsmith, Bernstein, Poledouris, Silvestri and others without feeling the need to rank or compare them to one another.

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Just never been the way my brain processes music.  I'm in it for the musical narrative.

 

At most, my imagination will conjure images.  But usually not involving characters.  For some reason, a recurring image which enters my head time and time again is a solitary tree in a foggy, snow covered field.  I sometimes wish I was an artist so I could paint it.

 

Obviously, that image usually occurs to me while listening to slower, more contemplative music.

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Have you guys ever been in situations where people have tried to grandstand on their imagination, trying to put you down because you're not as "imaginative" as they are? Something like "You only see _colors_ when you listen to music? When _I_ listen to music, I see all kinds of visuals and stories." I've had stuff like this happen to me before, I'm just asking if you guys can relate.

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Just now, Disco Stu said:

Sometimes I'm really dull and just visualize the orchestra playing.  Sometimes with myself as the conductor.

When stories aren't playing in my head, I just imagine this.

Image result for mickey the band concert

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2 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Sometimes I'm really dull and just visualize the orchestra playing.  Sometimes with myself as the conductor.

 

Really livin' up to the name Stu, there.

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11 hours ago, NL197 said:

Williams leaves me almost devoid of emotion more often than not. 

 

Complex, recognizable, but emotional? Not to me it isn't. To each their own. 

 

There's a kind of...phoniness (?) to a lot of Williams' music that tends to annoy me. It's like he's saying musically that this is what it's supposed to sound like. When Horner composed, it was more real.

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Just now, Horner's Dynamic Range said:

 

There's a kind of...phoniness (?) to a lot of Williams' music that tends to annoy me. It's like he's saying musically that this is what it's supposed to sound like. When Horner composed, it was more real.

 

Stole the punctuation right from my brain while I was reading this post. I don't even know where you're coming from at all with this post.

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Williams music has sounded too stuffy to me. Like he needed to loosen his collar or somethin'. I've figured I just need a break from his stuff for awhile (except his shark and dinosaur music, I'll never need a break from that).

 

Open the window, mister Ross, there's a draft in here!

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