Jump to content

The Official James Horner Thread


Recommended Posts

53 minutes ago, Jean-Baptiste Martin said:

After the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 concerts due to the pandemic, the James Horner Film Music Association is pleased to announce that the 2022 concert will take place!

 

Its title: James Horner - The Emotionalist - The Concert

 

James Horner - The Emotionnalist - The Concert-500.jpg


It will take place in Szcecin, Poland (2 hours drive from Berlin) on May 13, 2022.


On the program: James Horner’s most famous film music but especially the two concert pieces Spectral Shimmers and A Forest Passage which have not been performed since 1979 and 2000 respectively.

A moving 20-minute tribute video divided into 3 parts will be shown between the music pieces. It was filmed in Calabasas at the composer’s home with his wife Sara and daughter Emily.

Other surprises are also planned.

All the information is available by following this link: http://jameshorner-filmmusic.com/may-13th-2022-james-horner-the-emotionalist-the-concert/

For those who can’t make it to the concert, a big surprise awaits you in the article.

You are allowed to talk about the surprise in the following posts, it’s just that I wanted 1 or 2 people to go read our article. :D

What a fantastic surprise!  Great news and I've blocked my calendar!  I can't help but mention how sad I still get as his loss.  He should be 69 now and still productive. :crymore:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Allow me to add, @Jean-Baptiste Martin that what you and your team have done to put this concert together, as part of a greater exercise to enshrine the memory and indelible contributions of an amazing film composer, is simply incredible. I can only imagine the effort involved to wrangle everything, to connect with so many relevant parties, to get venues and clear publishing and broadcast rights and God knows what else. What you're doing is a labor of love and the world will be the better for it.

 

Thank you for this. I'll definitely be watching on YouTube on the 13th.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, crocodile said:

Cool, that's a nice score.

 

Karol

Lovely news indeed. Will need to order it with the other recent Horner expansions I oddly haven’t yet got round to buying. I didn’t much care for Jumanji when it originally came out but it’s grown on me hugely over the years. Weirdly I remember exactly where I got it which was in the small, but beautiful French town of Dinan on a weekend away with my dad and a friend. Also got Alien3 at the same time as I recall. Alas said cd shop closed some years ago but a weirdly strong memory!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oddly this is one I never really 'got' outside of the 11 minute climax suite at the end. It's got all the ingredients for a fine action/fantasy score, but most it doesn't really do it for me. The cue for Parrish being chased on his bike at the start is also fun though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Parrish -- perish. Anyone ever thought about that 'easter egg' name?

 

JUMANJI has grown on me over the years, even though it's Horner pretty much by-the-numbers. But I just love that 90s style of his.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Just having watched it this morning, i will point out that his early concert piece Spectral Shimmers begins ca. at 44:40, and A Forest Passage at 01:51:08. The first is very much a finger exercise for later Horner and his penchant for quoting and mixing in classical pieces, mixing obvious nods to Beethoven and Strauss with more modern Ligeti - attentive listeners will notice that the Rosenkavalier quote from *batteries not included has its starting point exactly here.

 

A Forest Passage is unabashed Horner self-reworking in compact 10 minutes (much like his later 'First in Flight' would rework his 'Deep Impact' and 'Cocoon' tunes to great effect), as such it impersonates the concert's title by a meditative to heart-tugging journey through his 'Journey of Natty Gann', 'Willow', 'Courage Under Fire' and similar themes, including also the great trumpet/horn scherzo from 'Perfect Storm'.

 

As such concert evenings go, It fittingly was the most emotional by including the family and home footage (his daughter and wife were interviewed, there was in- and outside footage of his Calabasas home). Which is probably the project's biggest achievement, to tie the event so much to the composer and his inner world.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's what I wrote on FSM:

 

Kinda long post ahead.

I had a previous engagement last night, so I missed the live feed. However, I saw it today and was very impressed. If you’ll indulge me a little bit, I’ll relate some of my own personal observations of the evolution of this concert – as a bystander/observer, but with some connections to the people involved, especially the somewhat surprising “Norwegian connection” here. Feel free to correct me, Kim and others, if the details are off.

I think this whole thing started with the Vienna concert in 2013. It was certainly a highlight for me, especially my 11-minute breakfast interview with Horner himself on the top floor of a fancy hotel. But also because I met many other fans, in fact many of you, at the same event, with all the social stuff that ensued. Kim was also there, with a friend of his (who sadly passed away much too young).

But then came the proper “Norwegian connection” (disregarding for a moment the collaboration with Sissel on TITANIC) when Horner wrote “Pas de Deux” in 2014 for the two Norwegian soloists Mari and Håkon Samuelsen. I think that’s one of the reasons for why Horner came to Stavanger, Norway for a concert on May 13, 2015(?), conducted by Wigum(?). I can’t remember why I couldn’t attend, but I was probably at the Krakow film music festival at the time. Or maybe Cannes. Or somewhere else entirely. Either way, I regret it to this day, because it seemed like a fantastic event. You could even hang out with Horner himself as there was a boat trip out in the archipelago. I’m guessing this is where Kim connected with Sarah Horner. And then, of course, Horner passed away shortly thereafter. But the groundwork was laid for this concert.

I’ve never met conductor Torodd Wigum, but in addition to Kim, who I’ve met on a few occasions, I’ve also interacted with Johannes Leonard Rusten, one of the arrangers. I think we were in contact by e-mail in 2014 when we needed his score for the film SKUMRINGSLANDET for jury consideration. Nikoforos Chrysolaras, I hung out with during the Camille award days in Pula, Croatia, in – I think – 2018. So it’s been weird to watch this whole thing come together from people I more or less know. I could never envision a Horner/Norway connection this way.

So…for the concert itself. First of all, I was struck by the professionalism of it all. Somehow, I never expected that, don’t know why. Loved those beautiful segments with Sarah and Emily. The sunset mood shots, the drone shots, the genuine talk, all very professional and probably a bit expensive.

The performance and program itself was great (I’ve never been particularly concerned with the occasional flub, and there weren’t really that many of them in the first place), although the Horner nerd in me will always prefer the osbcure over the well-known. But to get to hear “Spectral Shimmers” was awesome – as others have alluded to, a very post-modern piece that inverts and re-organizes the classical quotes. “A Forest Passage” was very nice. I don’t get why people call it a hodgepodge of his different styles; for me, it’s a very precise and consistent piece. True, it sounds like a melodic film piece, but that’s not a drawback. Loved the simplicity of the stage's mise-en-scene -- just colour changes, not projection or anything. A proper concert.

All in all, I’m extremely impressed that you all got to get this off the ground (and Kim, I had no idea you could write/read/arrange music). It’s a beautiful testament to who he was, and deserves to be recorded for posterity. Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The concert was absolutely fantastic!  I heard some music I hadn't heard before resulting in me checking out the soundtrack after the concert.  Wonderful and diverse program and it could have gone on for four more hours if you stuck IV's in the musicians arms.  Wonderful concert and still reminded of how missed he is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, I had an emergency leading to forgetting every thing I had to do at the end of this week, and missed concert and the YouTube link altogether :(

 

Has anyone archived the Youtube concert somehow and would share it privately to me? (I'll buy the album when/if it comes out anyway, of course, but the feedback here really makes me want to watch it all)

I have been on a Horner "rediscovey" of late, and miss him more than ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Coco314 said:

Man, I had an emergency leading to forgetting every thing I had to do at the end of this week, and missed concert and the YouTube link altogether :(

I can help out, just have to figure out how since it’s > 2 GB…

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
On 23/06/2022 at 6:51 AM, Jean-Baptiste Martin said:
Here is the full performance of A Forest Passage from the concert in Szczecin, Poland, on 13th May 2022.

Thank you to Sara and Emily Horner, and the Szczecin Philharmonic for granting permission to publish the recording.

Enjoy!
 

 

Wow, that is a literal smörgåsbord of Hornerisms... almost sounds like a 'best of' medley. It's still an absolute delight to hear however. Coaxed a tear to my eye. 

 

I also noticed that you posted this on the 7th anniversary of Horner's passing. I'm ashamed to admit that it completely slipped by me. :(

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Every Horner collection should include Legends, even if it's just the OST, which has most of the highlights anyway

 

A JH collection without LotF is like a Williams collection without ET, or a Zimmer one without Gladiator

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw the film.

Why " should" I have to have it in my collection?

 

Your comment is akin to the " No true [ fill in the composer] fan would fail to own [ fill in name of film score].

 

I think my Horner collection is a pretty good representation of his best work from all phases of his career!

 

It's all good!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

I saw the film.

Why " should" I have to have it in my collection?

 

Your comment is akin to the " No true [ fill in the composer] fan would fail to own [ fill in name of film score].

 

I think my Horner collection is a pretty good representation of his best work from all phases of his career!

 

It's all good!

You realize I was half-joking, right? And that, in real life, I couldn't care less about which score is lacking in anyone's collection - it's not my CDs or my money.

 

I think that sometimes you take the stuff you read here on JWFan way too seriously. Everyone is here to get informed about the film music world, discussing scores and, most of all, have fun! Which is why I also don't take it too personally what I read here.

 

I'm not trying to pick a fight or to escalate the situation like in other threads, just giving you a friendly advice: there's no need to get mad with anyone here at the forum, we're all here to have fun.

 

Here's what I'd do: if anyone criticizes me for not having any given score, I'd either not care and probably just react with a :eh: emoji, or just make another joke. I wouldn't be sad or angry with the poster, because I don't take it too seriously. Like, whatever dude, it's my collection, not yours.

 

TLDR: just relax. It's just a forum for film music fans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m more curious as to how the CDs are sorted.  Not alphabetically, not by film release or CD release date.  Maybe it’s random and I’m trying find order.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

EDmilson,

 

I wasn't mad and i.know.you were half- joking.

But, there are some arrogant types, mostly on FSM who say things like that all the time.

I was really talking to THEM!

59 minutes ago, bruckhorn said:

I’m more curious as to how the CDs are sorted.  Not alphabetically, not by film release or CD release date.  Maybe it’s random and I’m trying find order.

 

I have my own patented system- what LOOKS good I e. 1.

INTRADA spines and STAR TREK scores and scores about wolves and scores about schizophrenic geniuses😅

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone a fan of Red Heat? Love Horner’s urban sound and this is a cool mix complete with a Russian flavor. A guilty pleasure for me. Wonder if there is much unreleased. Hoping it is on a labels radar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't have Legends of the Fall. Worse: I don't LIKE LotF. Or Braveheart. Come at me! 😁

 

Or just inform me. I never knew how much I like Deep Impact or Perfect Storm until recently. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

JWFan should allow two different reactions to the same post, because then I'd react with a :angryfire: to this:

 

17 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I don't have Legends of the Fall. Worse: I don't LIKE LotF. Or Braveheart. Come at me! 😁

 

 

 And with a :lovethis: to this:

 

17 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I never knew how much I like Deep Impact or Perfect Storm until recently. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

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.