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JWFan James Horner Listening Party


Jay

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Has anyone got a chronological order for Titanic based on the material that's been officially released? I think the score would sound even better than it does in the correct order. It does have a great narrative.

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5544&page=20#entry607086

And this: http://chrono-score.blogspot.fr/2012/09/titanic.html

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Clear and Present Danger

Cocoon

The Mask of Zorro

A Beautiful Mind

The Spitfire Grill

Beyond Borders: not that well known I believe, but it's one of his best scores in my opinion.

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Having collecting film scores for nearly as long as Horner wrote them, I continue to be amazed at how often the music you're listening to matches up perfectly with real-life moments and situations as they're happening. This has been another beautifully fitting example. I had to wait until the end of the day to start with the playbacks--I put a moratorium on all other scores in the meantime (I usually listen for an hour or two while doing admin work), and I couldn't listen to Horner during that time for fear of the reaction it might engender. When I finally got away from things, I cued up my "Just James" playlist on shuffle--I have a "Just" list for all my favorite composers--and settled in to face the grief.

Turns out that, while it was a wonderfully emotional experience (as listening to his music usually is), it wasn't as completely heartbreaking as I thought it would be. Sure, tt was hard at times; I started with the two pieces I knew I had to listen to first, "Preparations for Battle" and "The Place Where Dreams Come True," but there really weren't that many tears and I had a smile on my face for much of the time. The man left such an amazing legacy for us. As masterful as Korngold was in being one of the forefathers of film music, he only scored 18 films. Horner gave us nearly 150 projects to revel in (though we're still waiting to properly revel in some of them, unfortunately). I spent time with the Ludlows, the ancient Scots, the 54th Regiment, the Apollo 13 astronauts, a Nelwyn and his Daikini companion, and many others I've gotten to know over the years. It was a great time, really.

As I was nearing home and the the point when I'd have to set it aside for a while, the finale and end credits from Star Trek II popped up. I found that very appropriate, more hopeful than Spock's actual death scene. But when Leonard Nimoy began reciting the ST creed . . . that's when it got to me. Having lost him so recently made it very affecting. This was followed by "Saying Goodbye To Those You So Love," and the whole Nash thing . . . wow. But then the last piece I had time for came up: "A New Beginning" from the Avatar sessions, the scene when Jake leaves his broken, human body and takes up his new form. It made an ideal ending for the run.

Then this morning I had it playing again. During the last ten minutes, on the bus from the parking lot, I was reading Joe Johnston's memorial comments. As I was reading the words of his recollection of Horner playing the Rocketeer theme on piano for him that first time, that piano began playing that theme in my ears. It was a perfectly synced moment. Nobody sitting around me could figure out why I had a gigantic smile plastered to my face and a tear in my eye all the way to the office (how do you explain something like that?).

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Apollo 13

Glorious!

A wonderful array of ideas here, but the whole score is very cohesive. "The Dark Side Of The Moon" is one of the best tracks of Horner's career. He really tapped into the emotions of the scene there. In fact, that one cue basically sums up the whole movie.

I love how immediately after the climax, the End Credits start with a sound unlike anything that had been in the score proper - the synth beat with the solo woman's wordless singing - and it fucking WORKS, its fantastic.

I listened to the hour-long promo, which I own on physical CD. I know there's been a recording session leak, but this program has been what I've listened to for 20 years and it sums up the score pretty well in my book!

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:music:House of Sand and Fog - Kind of a listless, wandering score. It has some beautiful pieces in it ("The Waves of the Caspian Sea," "Kathy's Night," "We Have Traveled So Far. . . ."), but I wouldn't say this is his best. In its usual wisdom, the Academy chose to nominate this while overlooking so many other works that better showcased his abilities.

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The Four Feathers really is a treasure... but only if you don't mind these wailing vocals. And I don't because they work fantastic with Horner's powerful ideas providing the backdrop.

The Making of a Fine Soldier ... The Mahdi ... The Letters ... Escape ... A Coward No Longer

Hornerrific !!! :yes:

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:music:House of Sand and Fog - Kind of a listless, wandering score. It has some beautiful pieces in it ("The Waves of the Caspian Sea," "Kathy's Night," "We Have Traveled So Far. . . ."), but I wouldn't say this is his best. In its usual wisdom, the Academy chose to nominate this while overlooking so many other works that better showcased his abilities.

Didn't Jerry like it?

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Brainstorm

I think this was my first time hearing this score? Anyways, its on Spotify so I wanted to check it out

https://open.spotify.com/album/2C6HjL3H3H1Xj2yrokBc6c

Nice score, but similar to a lot of his other scores from around this time, like Star Trek 2 and Aliens. Perhaps a few more listens will unveil some more layers for me. At 30 minutes, it was over before I had really found a groove in it. Here's hoping a specialty label can expand this to completion.

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The Four Feathers really is a treasure... but only if you don't mind these wailing vocals. And I don't because they work fantastic with Horner's powerful ideas providing the backdrop.

The Making of a Fine Soldier ... The Mahdi ... The Letters ... Escape ... A Coward No Longer

Hornerrific !!! :yes:

The wailing and ethnic elements are among the best parts of the score! I think this one was Horner's last daring work.

I think I'll play this one soon.

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The Mask of Zorro

Wow! I haven't listened to this in like ten years. It's kind of like everything from Horner's bag of tricks thrown into a blender with flamenco music.... and doing so makes the entire score feel fresh and new! This was a lot of fun with good action music, good villain music, good love theme, good main theme, and the fun spanish flair throughout. Awesome!

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The Mask of Zorro

Wow! I haven't listened to this in like ten years. It's kind of like everything from Horner's bag of tricks thrown into a blender with flamenco music.... and doing so makes the entire score feel fresh and new! This was a lot of fun with good action music, good villain music, good love theme, good main theme, and the fun spanish flair throughout. Awesome!

He did such a good job on these two films. I don't think I would've considered him the right choice for the assignment if I were looking at it ahead of time, but man, did he nail it.

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I've actually never heard the sequel score before!

I found it in my CD collection though; Must have picked it up used along the way somewhere. I also found I had Legends of the Fall, Courage Under Fire, Troy, and Fievel Goes West in my collection!

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But who are you, you who looks too much like LeBlanc with your avatar?

I'm now cursed to compile googledocs of middling Giacchino scores while forgetting about Horner's best rotting away in a trunk.

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I agree with you btw that it contains a lot of stylistic touches from his works of that period, without having much of it's own identity. But thats just based on the CD. I havent seen the film in about 15 years.

Doesn't that go for most of his scores, at least from that time? Parts are always similar. Sometimes very similar. But Brainstorm has a few things that set it apart. The classical leanings are original to it I believe, and the avantgarde touches seem more integrated than in the companion scores.

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According to Krok, it's superior to the original.

It reuses a lot of stuff from Mask, though.

It's more clever in its execution and orchestration. Feels more Spanish in its thematic variations. Sometime simple counter line can work miracles.

But yeah, it's mostly elaboration on the same material.

Karol

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For Christmas years ago I was given a 2 disc collection done by Nic Raine branded "Titanic: Best of James Horner" and so I went through this today. Funny in a sad way how these tracks make you melancholy or thoughtful in light of the news. A track from Man Without a Face "Lookout Point/End Titles" or Legends of the Fall "The Ludlows" and so on. Yet a favourite is Russian Streets from Red Heat, always like the sound.

And then return to Titanic. Listening to A Building Panic followed by A Promise Kept and felt then the hairs stand up on end, the eyes moisten.

Re-listens to Hard to Starboard/Unable to Stay,Unwilling to Leave/The Sinking and Death of Titanic. All capturing as aforementioned the desperate night of April 15th 1912.

Daren't listen to A Perfect Storm, especially Rogue Wave.

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Listening to "The Chumscrubber"

It will put most of you to sleep, but if you ever wanted a really atmospheric, quirky, creepy Sneakers, "The Chumscrubber" is your man!

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Brainstorm

I think this was my first time hearing this score? Anyways, its on Spotify so I wanted to check it out

https://open.spotify.com/album/2C6HjL3H3H1Xj2yrokBc6c

Nice score, but similar to a lot of his other scores from around this time, like Star Trek 2 and Aliens.

Brainstorm is one of Horner's masterpieces and the second score of his I purchased back in 1983, right after TWOK. Similar to Aliens? I would say that Aliens is too similar to Horner's previous scores. As good as that score is, when Aliens was released it was obvious that it rehashed many of his older works, in a way no other film composer had done before.

Here's one my favorite Horner tracks... 1:14 to 2:46 Wow!

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But Brainstorm has a few things that set it apart. The classical leanings are original to it I believe

You mean the allusion to Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem in Lillian's Heart Attack?

The piano/chamber stuff.

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:music:House of Sand and Fog - Kind of a listless, wandering score. It has some beautiful pieces in it ("The Waves of the Caspian Sea," "Kathy's Night," "We Have Traveled So Far. . . ."), but I wouldn't say this is his best. In its usual wisdom, the Academy chose to nominate this while overlooking so many other works that better showcased his abilities.

I think the lack of thematic direction beyond Behrani's theme is part of what makes it such an effective score. Also, I think it's his best use of synths ("An Older Life" and "The Dreams of Kings" are gorgeous.) Really, I love every track on the album except "Break-In."

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This is a wonderful thread, thanks everyone for sharing.

Here is a cue that is not mentioned very often, but in my opinion is one of the finest that James ever wrote. A heart-pounding and extremely emotional cue to the most heartbreaking scene in the film. The music captures the emotions of the scene perfectly. Sublime.

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