Jump to content

The Official James Horner Thread


Recommended Posts

What would have been James Horner's next 3 projects revealed:

Avatar 2 for James Cameron

Hacksaw Ridge for Mel Gibson

and

12th Man for Harald Zwart

http://jameshorner-filmmusic.com/avatar-hacksaw-ridge-12th-man-an-unwritten-future/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whaaaaaaat?! (from Filmtracks)

Listen to this NPR interview with Antoine Fuqua about "Southpaw" (audio will be available at around 7PM Eastern Time): http://www.npr.org/2015/07/17/423899444/in-portrait-of-a-boxer-fuqua-takes-the-action-outside-the-ring

Towards the end he's asked about James Horner, who he says composed the score to Southpaw for free. Then he mentions that he recently received the score for "The Magnificent Seven" which Horner composed from the script.

Is this the first anyone has heard of this?

http://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=3028

Could this be the fourth project that was being mentioned in Jay's post?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whaaaaaaat?! (from Filmtracks)

Listen to this NPR interview with Antoine Fuqua about "Southpaw" (audio will be available at around 7PM Eastern Time): http://www.npr.org/2015/07/17/423899444/in-portrait-of-a-boxer-fuqua-takes-the-action-outside-the-ring

Towards the end he's asked about James Horner, who he says composed the score to Southpaw for free. Then he mentions that he recently received the score for "The Magnificent Seven" which Horner composed from the script.

Is this the first anyone has heard of this?

http://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=3028

Could this be the fourth project that was being mentioned in Jay's post?

Wow! I wonder how much he wrote...I admit I'm a little skeptical and feel like he might be exaggerating there. Like it's more a suite of themes, but even that would be something. Either way, seems like Fuqua would be keen to somehow use whatever material Horner wrote in his honor. He speaks so highly of him in that interview.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whaaaaaaat?! (from Filmtracks)

Listen to this NPR interview with Antoine Fuqua about "Southpaw" (audio will be available at around 7PM Eastern Time): http://www.npr.org/2015/07/17/423899444/in-portrait-of-a-boxer-fuqua-takes-the-action-outside-the-ring

Towards the end he's asked about James Horner, who he says composed the score to Southpaw for free. Then he mentions that he recently received the score for "The Magnificent Seven" which Horner composed from the script.

Is this the first anyone has heard of this?

http://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=3028

Could this be the fourth project that was being mentioned in Jay's post?

Wow! I wonder how much he wrote...I admit I'm a little skeptical and feel like he might be exaggerating there. Like it's more a suite of themes, but even that would be something. Either way, seems like Fuqua would be keen to somehow use whatever material Horner wrote in his honor. He speaks so highly of him in that interview.

Probably some demo themes/motifs that he mocked up and shipped to Fuqua.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From the sounds of it, Horner seemed to have written more than a demo. Fuqua mentioned that Horner's music team brought the score to him in Baton Rouge, so it could be a full piano sketch of the score. And likely mock-ups of the main themes.

A very interesting development indeed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People talk a lot in interviews. It would be a rather peculiar act: writing a complete score without a movie at hand - no timings, no nothing - and then shipping your written 1000-page score to a director who by all accounts neither reads nor plays music. I say it's urban legend and Horner probably sent him something that could be the thematic germ of a heavily doctored score in a year or so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Didn't Horner do the same for The 33? I think director Patricia Riggen said Horner presented her with the score as they wrapped shooting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People talk a lot in interviews. It would be a rather peculiar act: writing a complete score without a movie at hand - no timings, no nothing - and then shipping your written 1000-page score to a director who by all accounts neither reads nor plays music. I say it's urban legend and Horner probably sent him something that could be the thematic germ of a heavily doctored score in a year or so.

I listened to the NPR interview with Fuqua... it definitely doesn't sound like Horner just wrote a theme.

http://n.pr/1Gr8IsG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People talk a lot in interviews. It would be a rather peculiar act: writing a complete score without a movie at hand - no timings, no nothing - and then shipping your written 1000-page score to a director who by all accounts neither reads nor plays music. I say it's urban legend and Horner probably sent him something that could be the thematic germ of a heavily doctored score in a year or so.

We could be wrong on this—and I confess, I haven't listened to that interview yet—but I'm leaning more in this direction myself. Stories like this do tend to proliferate after the death of artists who were commissioned for, or are in the midst of, writing a new work. Again, that's not to say there might not be something to this . . . but it would very much surprise me (and, I'll admit, delight me) if this turned out to be more than a simple sketch or two of ideas Horner was thinking on during the earliest stages of the creative process.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. All i'm saying is that how these Horner scores usually are synched to picture it seems very unlikely that this process works like Fuqua has described it. This isn't some 70's Morricone with 3 pieces looped.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

THE 33: FIRST SCORE SAMPLES
20th Century Fox has released two clips, each containing footage from The 33, providing us with the first samples of James Horner's music.
http://jameshorner-filmmusic.com/the-33-first-score-samples/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SOUTHPAW may have been great, sadly it wasn't music. This sounds at least like there have been musical considerations instead of sound design's 3rd limp leg.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Yea, its great! The footage actually starts in Part 4, at 5:18, though Horner doesn't show up until 7:04

Pre-English accent!

Very cool to see. What a baby face he was but serious talent. Interesting that he doesn't have his accent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Check out the immortal Emil Richards doing his thing! Really cool.

Back when he still did. Tidbit: in FSM he once told how Horner became pricklish when Richards wouldn't lend him strange ethnic instruments (without Richards playing them, that is) and never called him again. This behaviour seems quite frequent, thinking how he ousted Shawn Murphy from his merry gang. Would be interesting to hear why he may have acted this way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Horner has always been notorious in the industry for being one of the most difficult persons to work with.

This is true - frequent stories of odd behavior. It seems like a recurring theme was brilliance, ego, shyness, and awkwardness. I think in retrospect with his tragic passing, pieces take on a bit more clarity in who he was but there are a few stories of rages in front of the orchestra, firing sections, and diva behavior from a very young age. A friend of mine knew him in high school and Horner was convinced from then that he would be a great composer and told everyone about it. It turns out he was right but that isn't an endearing quality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kitchen psychology tells me that he may have been too sheltered in his wunderkind tower and also that the mere fact of having to musically dress up so many inferior commerce products that ultimately ill-helped his reputation as brilliant talent - even if there were remarkable musical pieces in scores like PAGEMASTER or LAND BEFORE TIME, hardly anyone besides film music fans really took notice.

So i guess he probably was - or felt - very isolated in his profession (compared to pragmatists like Goldsmith, who may have been grouchy but never antagonized people like that, as far as i'm aware).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think a more constructive way to think about it is he had personality quirks/flaws that rubbed people the wrong way. These seem petty in context of the loss. During the grind and pressure on a production, the mundane annoyances and tiffs take on too much importance but are quickly forgotten given the significance of the loss.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He's hardly the only composer to have such stories circulate about him, even though they may be more plentiful for him than others. It's a good bet that any field where people are involved (so... everything) will yield instances and rumors of difficult personalities. Not a big deal, really, even if it's habitual and genuinely obnoxious. Easy to just let it go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe I just wasn't paying attention, but I seem to recall and don't really get why he spoke about sitting in on the Star Trek: The Motion Picture recording sessions and digging it, then shit-talked Goldsmith's score in another interview.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He insinuated over several interviews that he liked the more mysterious/impressionist parts but not the main theme (read: the Williams-inspired march approach). He did go on praising ALIEN in the same interview though and given his broad romantic approach on practically every big adventure movie he did we can only surmise that James Horner just wasn't a big fan of marches in these kind of movies but dug the strange, ethereal textures by Goldsmith.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.