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The Official James Horner Thread


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On 5/5/2019 at 7:33 PM, JoeinAR said:

Filmtracks credits Horner with more 5 star score in the modern era with one exception  and one tie. Williams is the exception, Goldsmith is the tie. 

 

Interestingly those are my top 3 favourite composers

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  • 3 months later...

Any The New World score fans here?

 

A few years ago one user on that now defunct forum posted an expanded edition for the score that combined the OST and a FYC released back then. It had some interesting material I haven't heard before, specially the supremely beautiful Nature and an expanded version of Rolfe Proposes. On the OST, this track ran for 4:30, but on the FYC it was expanded into two tracks, A New Life and again Rolfe Proposes, that together lasted almost 14 minutes.


And there's this unreleased cue that I extracted from the film, which is not present neither on the OST nor on the FYC, and on which Horner heavily borrows from the opening of "The River Crossing to Stalingrad" from Enemy at the Gates (which by itself was already inspired by the Main Titles from Braveheart):

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AyLHcQtcLnGIuN3THxLl-BQ15dEf0QEQ/view?usp=sharing

 

It would be interesting an expanded edition with the complete recordings. We don't know how many hours of material Horner recorded for this movie, but while it's certainly more than what is on the OST, I guess it's probably less than the 5 hours Zimmer recorded for The Thin Red Line, so it can be released in 2 or 3 discs. Yeah, I know, the movie was released in December 2005, but anyway...

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41 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Any The New World score fans here?

 

A few years ago one user on that now defunct forum posted an expanded edition for the score that combined the OST and a FYC released back then. It had some interesting material I haven't heard before, specially the supremely beautiful Nature and an expanded version of Rolfe Proposes. On the OST, this track ran for 4:30, but on the FYC it was expanded into two tracks, A New Life and again Rolfe Proposes, that together lasted almost 14 minutes.


And there's this unreleased cue that I extracted from the film, which is not present neither on the OST nor on the FYC, and on which Horner heavily borrows from the opening of "The River Crossing to Stalingrad" from Enemy at the Gates (which by itself was already inspired by the Main Titles from Braveheart):

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AyLHcQtcLnGIuN3THxLl-BQ15dEf0QEQ/view?usp=sharing

 

It would be interesting an expanded edition with the complete recordings. We don't know how many hours of material Horner recorded for this movie, but while it's certainly more than what is on the OST, I guess it's probably less than the 5 hours Zimmer recorded for The Thin Red Line, so it can be released in 2 or 3 discs. Yeah, I know, the movie was released in December 2005, but anyway...


I am the guy who made the combined FYC / OST album. 

I can't believe that was 8 years ago I did that. 
 

I titled that cue "Nature" because I didn't really care for the name "Forest Textures". 
Same with the cue "A New Life". I don't like the names "Rolfe Proposes 1" and "Rolfe Proposes 2" so I gave the former a new title. Just made sense at the time. 
 

Adding in the bird / vocal-less versions of cues as bonus tracks off the FYC seemed like the natural thing to do. 

Below is the custom back cover I'd done for the back of a theoretical CD years ago. 

The New World custom back cover.jpg

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Yeah they're off the FYC, though if you play them at a loud volume you can still hear the birds. More dialed down very low than completely removed. Westenra's vocals are entirely removed on that FYC though. 

So basically it's like this: 


disc 1


1. The New World (OST version)
2. First Landing 

3. Nature (Forest Textures on FYC)
4. A Flame Within
5. An Apparition in the Fields...
6. Journey Upriver
7. Of The Forest (Bird Demo on FYC)
8. Pocahontas and Smith (FYC has slightly longer oboe intro)
9. Forbidden Corn
10. A New Life (Rolfe Proposes 1 on FYC)
11. Rolfe Proposes (Rolfe Proposes 2 on FYC)

disc 2
 

1. Winter (edit of the OST track to give it an ending)
2. The Battle (edit of both OST and FYC tracks, combining them together for an extended version)
3. All is Lost 

4. A Dark Cloud is Forever Lifted
5. Listen To The Wind
6. The New World (FYC version)
7. Forbidden Corn (FYC version)
8. Rolfe Proposes (OST track)
9. All is Lost (ending taken from FYC)
10. A Dark Cloud is Forever Lifted (FYC version which cuts the opening piano intro)

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53 minutes ago, NL197 said:


I am the guy who made the combined FYC / OST album. 

I can't believe that was 8 years ago I did that. 
 

I titled that cue "Nature" because I didn't really care for the name "Forest Textures". 
Same with the cue "A New Life". I don't like the names "Rolfe Proposes 1" and "Rolfe Proposes 2" so I gave the former a new title. Just made sense at the time. 
 

Adding in the bird / vocal-less versions of cues as bonus tracks off the FYC seemed like the natural thing to do. 

Below is the custom back cover I'd done for the back of a theoretical CD years ago. 

The New World custom back cover.jpg

 

Wow, thanks, you did a really great job on the score! I really appreciate the versions without those annoying birdsongs, and I love the new additions Nature/Forest Textures and the extended Rolfe Proposes.

 

The movie utilizes the former on a small scene featuring Smith and Pocahontas when the indians are bringing food to the British colony, and the latter extensively on the second half, when she thinks Smith has died and marries Rolfe.

 

The FYC is great, but I do wish Horner included the cue I posted above somewhere. Yeah, it's a new version of The River Crossing to Stalingrad, but I love that track from Enemy at the Gates, so the more the better :).

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46 minutes ago, Bellosh said:

6:12 onwards :crymore:

 

 

That cue is in the running for best thing the guy ever wrote.  The whole score has what it takes to be a symphonic concert staple.  

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  • 6 months later...
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  • 3 months later...
4 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

"The Greatest Composer"?

What the actual?

In his own head, maybe.

 

You sick bastard! You're the kinda person who makes this a terrible world to live in!

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All three of the Horner scores that didn't get OSTs at the time of release, but Intrada later debuted using abridged & arranged albums (Honey I Shrunk The Kids, The Journey of Natty Gann, Something Wicked This Way Comes) would make very welcome complete and chronological releases, IMO

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I don't think the labels draw up a chart of every score that exists ranked by "urgency" then do them all in that order. 

 

They license what they can license, they get elements when they show up, each project takes a different amount of time, each approval process is completely different from one another. Stuff just comes out when it's ready. 

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7 hours ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

I'd rather get the score for Captain EO and the THX trailer score recording sessions than Willow

 

Absolutely. It's amazing how seemingly every thread here turns into a discussion of expansions wants. There's still a considerable list of completely unreleased Horners, CAPTAIN EO being one of them. I did a thread over on FSM charting these unreleased gems (I haven't updated it in a while, so some corrections might be in order):

 

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=114840&forumID=1&archive=0

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The labels try just as hard to do completely unreleased scores as they do longer albums for scores that had one already.  Sometimes the stuff that never came out is just harder to get a license for, or the elements can't be found or whatever else.


Them working on an expansion isn't an indication that they consider it more "important" than a completely unreleased score.  They do what they can

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Horner's Amazing Spider-Man is not as good as his adventure scores from the 80s and 90s, but is still a decent score. It's basically a mix between A Beautiful Mind and the action music from Avatar. 

 

The movie, on the other hand, is horrible. Probably one of the worst movies he scored.

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55 minutes ago, Bespin said:

James Horner's Spider-Man, should I go there or not?

Definitely, it's a really great score and the main theme is super catchy too (although I have to admit that I think that Giacchino's captures the character better to some extent, Elfman's is great, but perhaps a bit too epic).

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  • 2 months later...

I don't know if it's been asked before, but according to experts, what are the "best" expanded scores of James Horner?

 

Not best in terms of your favourite ones, but which are the best in the sense that they bring so more much to the listening experience or the representativity of the score, comparing to the OST experience, so that they are kind of "essential".

 

A top 5, a top 10?

 

Tell me!

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