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James Horner 1953-2015


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Does anyone know what scores of his have been completed but are awaiting posthumous release? It seems like there was another Gibson project and I definitely like what they did together.

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Does anyone know what scores of his have been completed but are awaiting posthumous release? It seems like there was another Gibson project and I definitely like what they did together.

His five 2015 scores are:

One Day In Auschwitz (January 25)

Wolf Totem (February 19)

Living In The Age of Airplanes (April 10)

Southpaw (July 24)

The 33 (November 13)

Though all were written and recorded in 2014.

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Hey, that's exactly the thing I meant. It's one of his most recongnisable traits. :)

Karol

Another one was the rolling chimes which was the equivalent to the rolling piano for his action material.

Beginning of this:

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I hope Living in the Age of Airplanes will get some sort of release (can be digital only). I do, however, understand why it would feel slightly inappropriate now...

Karol

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Track / timestamps?

(Of Horner doing it, I mean)

You have to know what he's referring to. Probably the most prominent/famous example comes at the end of the main title line at the opening of Field of Dreams. He usually played it as a sort of echoing fugue after a melodic line like that, though he would sometimes use it as an effect in itself (think of the late passages of "Goodbye and Godspeed" before the end credits begin in Deep Impact). Throughout his career, it was arguably his second-favorite affectation after the danger motif.

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Track / timestamps?

(Of Horner doing it, I mean)

Just one of many examples, at 0:10.

Gotcha. Yea I like when he does that.

That's really cool. I liked the stuff we heard in the trailer.

Karol

Me too

as Joe Johnson said, Horner excelled at flying music

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In the context of this quote, this promotional video is really painful to watch:

Karol

Watching this video, it becomes quite obvious he lost a lot of weight in the last few years. Not that he looked unhealthy after the weight loss, but does anyone know the cause of it?

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I mean there are just so many reasons why a person might lose weight....

I'm not saying there's any veracity to it, but I've heard more than one person mention the possibility that there was in fact some health issue at play, which would cast all of this in a bit of a different light.

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I hope Living in the Age of Airplanes will get some sort of release (can be digital only). I do, however, understand why it would feel slightly inappropriate now...

Karol

I think it could be a fitting tribute to the man and his passions.

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I'm not saying there's any veracity to it, but I've heard more than one person mention the possibility that there was in fact some health issue at play, which would cast all of this in a bit of a different light.

Yeah, as bad as it sounds I keep thinking this was no accident.

Nah. I don't buy it. It's just like internet forums to take the slightest "clue" (which may not be anything but a natural, benign change in a person) and attribute massively dramatic outcomes to it. There's no reason to think any such thing at this point, and it serves no decent purpose to assign motives based on total speculation to a respected figure who's just passed.

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I've been having this discussion with a bunch of folks today and no consensus can be reached. Is the characteristic "low rumbly piano chord" a Horner innovation? Or did someone else do it first?

I have a feeling George Crumb did it in Vox Balaenae. Will have to relisten again.

I wouldn't call it an affectation, it's just a recurring idea. We all have words and phrases we use time and time again, whether we invented them or not.

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Horner wore a scarf for a time and underneath you could see a long pit in some of the interviews, probably some kind of surgery.

As for the piano roll, i heard it in RUDY, too (02:17):

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I was checking our local news portal yesterday at work and hammer hit me. Rushed immediately to the JWFAN!

I just stopped working and start staring out of the window for the rest of my time at work...

So sad...

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Horner wore a scarf for a time and underneath you could see a long pit in some of the interviews, probably some kind of surgery.

As for the piano roll, i heard it in RUDY, too (02:17):

The Horner roll is a basically major chord in block voicing rolled/arpeggiated in the low register piano. That Jerry clip sounds like low brass doubled by a bass drum to me.

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Very sad news, he was my third favorite composer. I've recently became a father of twins and was playing Rocketeer and Land Before Time the other day for the boys, they seemed to like it, but who knows, they're very little.

Even sadder I think he still had it, in these times of fairly generic film music, Amazing Spiderman was one of the last times I came out of the theater humming the main theme.

Thank you Mr. Horner

Welcome back! Strange to see so many old posters return because of this.

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Yeah, as bad as it sounds I keep thinking this was no accident.

I've thought about this, myself... I really hope that's not the case.

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Very sad news, he was my third favorite composer. I've recently became a father of twins and was playing Rocketeer and Land Before Time the other day for the boys, they seemed to like it, but who knows, they're very little.

Even sadder I think he still had it, in these times of fairly generic film music, Amazing Spiderman was one of the last times I came out of the theater humming the main theme.

Thank you Mr. Horner

Welcome back! Strange to see so many old posters return because of this.

Well, you know, I felt I had to write something even in my poor english which probably has gotten worse now that I don't get any sleep, and this board seemed like the best place to do it. He wrote some of my favorite scores. It's funny how a celebrity death can get to you, I still remember very well the day Ayrton Senna, the F1 driver, died and I was like 11. And the day George Harrison died too, although with him pretty much the writing was on the wall.

Anyway, thanks! I don't expect to be posting much, life with one month twins is quite chaotic.

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This scene in A Beautiful Mind...my god...it makes you realize what a brilliant musical dramatist we lost.

1:08-1:58 is just so well done. It hits every beat of the scene without being overbearing, it gives you the sensation of having the brain lightbulb with John Nash. It doesn't compete with his voice range while still being clearly audible. It even follows the pace of the dialogue. Brilliant!

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This scene in A Beautiful Mind...my god...it makes you realize what a brilliant musical dramatist we lost.

1:08-1:58 is just so well done. It hits every beat of the scene without being overbearing, it gives you the sensation of having the brain lightbulb with John Nash. It doesn't compete with his voice range while still being clearly audible. It even follows the pace of the dialogue. Brilliant!

Outstanding example. Horner nailed it. But it's also so subtle that it's easy to miss if you're not paying close attention.

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So I'm watching Field of Dreams tonight. It just hit me that I'm 36, just like Ray Kinsella. If this hadn't happened, I likely never would have watched this film while being 36. Life is weird sometimes....... :(

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Very sad news, he was my third favorite composer. I've recently became a father of twins and was playing Rocketeer and Land Before Time the other day for the boys, they seemed to like it, but who knows, they're very little.

Even sadder I think he still had it, in these times of fairly generic film music, Amazing Spiderman was one of the last times I came out of the theater humming the main theme.

Thank you Mr. Horner

Welcome back! Strange to see so many old posters return because of this.
Well, you know, I felt I had to write something even in my poor english which probably has gotten worse now that I don't get any sleep, and this board seemed like the best place to do it. He wrote some of my favorite scores. It's funny how a celebrity death can get to you, I still remember very well the day Ayrton Senna, the F1 driver, died and I was like 11. And the day George Harrison died too, although with him pretty much the writing was on the wall.

Anyway, thanks! I don't expect to be posting much, life with one month twins is quite chaotic.

Your English is perfect, at least in written form. Understandable that you have other priorities, but it's good to know you haven't completely disappeared!
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James Horner Was Our Greatest Middlebrow Composer

SIGH...
Edit: Ah, it was the same guy who wrote that Giacchino's Jurassic World was a masterpiece, I now remember him -
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"James Horner wasn't a great composer, but he was effective."

Isn't that a Williams quote about Psycho?

Not that I am aware?

I actually found a cache of the tweet, in case anyone was interested. The comments are pretty amusing, people shitting on Slate.

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