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Hans Zimmer vs James Horner, who do you prefer of the two?  

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  1. 1. Hans Zimmer vs James Horner, who do you prefer of the two?



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"Best" is obviously a tricky term, perhaps "favourite" is better.

 

In either case, it's very difficult. Both are among my absolute top favourites. If push came to shove, though, I'd pick Zimmer. At the moment, he is my second favourite composer after Williams.

 

Good to see BEYOND RANGOON on your list. It is my favourite Zimmer score, and also on my top 10 favourite scores of all time.

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Difficult question. Both Zimmer and Horner were responsable for my love to film scores.

 

I'd say Horner is the better composer/musician, but Zimmer knows how to make an effective score in a movie.

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Horner. For all his repetition, the man knew how to milk every emotion from an orchestra and pull at your emotions.
 

Zimmer's not even a blip on my radar. 

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I dont know how much my vote can count. I voted Zimmer because I feel his work is just more diverse and purely based on music I enjoy his more.

But on the other hand Horner doesnt use his students to make tracks for him (as far as I know), so I admired Horner more.

 

Like Thor said, I am more voting for my favorite than whatever objective quality they have.

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To quote the ol' emperor (can't believe I'm pulling a STAR WARS reference): "Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen". That is, Horner winning by a landslide. That's OK, but I want to shelter and nurture the few hardcore Zimmer fans in this forum. We should form a clique.

 

I'm watching the Zimmer-voting people with much interest. All of you receive a star in my personal catalogue of messageboard people with great taste. MedigoScan and Aeane so far -- cool peeps! ;)

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I choose Horner just because he wrotes Avatar which is one of my favourite score.

Horner's best scores:

  • Avatar
  • Titanic
  • Aliens
  • Cocoon
  • *batteries not included
  • Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

Zimmer is really closed with

  • Dead Man's Chest
  • At the World's End
  • Inception
  • Gladiator
  • The Rock
  • Interstellar
  • WW84
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I don't have a strong leaning one way or the other. Both have/had some musical tendencies that can get on my nerves, and yet there are scores by both that take my breath away if I'm in the right mood. (Lion King and TWOK, I'm looking at you.)

 

I'll vote for Horner based on my current mild preference.

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I think if offered the choice to see one of them live, I'd go with Zimmer, but as composers and considering their bodies of work, Horner is the winner.

 

I saw Zimmer live in 2019. I've been to a lot of concerts, but that was really something special. The whole night just oozed joyousness. 

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For me this is an easy choice. I much prefer Horner. I sometimes really like Zimmer but usually I’m rather uninspired by him. He’s very hit and miss for me. And when he misses it often feels like mood music more than score. 

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3 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

I struggle to embrace Horner's style, so it's clearly Zimmer for me. The latter is also the more innovative composer.

 

That's true for the later Horner. In his early phase he could be cutting-edge. The Four Feathers was his last truly groundbreaking score (not all of it). He collided african/eastern and western styles in quite a fashion. And he had the chops to do that in a sophisticated way Zimmer could never dream of. 

 

Though i remain optimistic about Dune (and Wonder Woman wasn't shabby, either). 

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I don't know exactly when it happened, but some time in the last few years I crossed some line and now I can barely enjoy anything from Hans Zimmer anymore. There was a time in my life when I really loved what Hans was doing. Gladiator was my big intro to his music, I loved the Dark Knight trilogy, his Dad Vinci Code score. But then something changed and his music seems so cookie cutter to me now. Even the rare score that is distinct still comes across like very predictable Hans Zimmer sounds layered on top of each other.

 

For this reason, I prefer James Horner.

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On 8/8/2021 at 7:10 AM, publicist said:

Though i remain optimistic about Dune (and Wonder Woman wasn't shabby, either). 

 

The preview cues sadly weren't very promising...

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On 8/7/2021 at 11:46 AM, Thor said:

To quote the ol' emperor (can't believe I'm pulling a STAR WARS reference): "Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen". That is, Horner winning by a landslide. That's OK, but I want to shelter and nurture the few hardcore Zimmer fans in this forum. We should form a clique.

 

I'm watching the Zimmer-voting people with much interest. All of you receive a star in my personal catalogue of messageboard people with great taste. MedigoScan and Aeane so far -- cool peeps! ;)

 

I'm here too even though I voted for Horner. I love Zimmer's repertoire through and through, though. He knows how to squeeze the emotion out of soundtracks using very interesting orchestral textures, but I also love when he lets himself do a Zimmer-esque spin on a more traditional sounding score, ala the stuff he's done for Pirates and Sherlock Holmes or his recent animated film scores.

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