Horner vs. Silvestri poll

[GerateWohl 4,343]

James Horner and Alan Silvestri are for me related in many ways. They became both famous in the 80s, they belong to the same generation of film composers, I would even say, there are some stylistic similarities. Particularly, they scored the same kind of movies. Which one do you favour?

I wanted to differentiate between the music on its own and its usage in the movies, because there might be great perfect scores which don't unfold much musical value out of the movie context.

[Edmilson 7,397]

As much as I love Silvestri, I have to go with Horner. But both are/were wonderful composers.

[Stark 312]

Silvestri writes (or sometimes writes) incredibly complex orchestral music, while Horner was absolutely unmatched at sheer emotion - so I put Silvestri for the first and Horner for the second.

[Thor 7,478]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

As much as I love Silvestri, I have to go with Horner. But both are/were wonderful composers.

 

Yes, this. While Silvestri has one score on my alltime top 10 (THE ABYSS), and Horner has none, I still consider Horner the more interesting composer overall.

[GerateWohl 4,343]

That is a really interesting result. I must confess, I have no opinion in this at all. I am only periferal familiar with the works of both composers.

Both are for me a hit and muss chance, both excited and disappointed me. So, I really couldn't give a vote here.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

6 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

James Horner and Alan Silvestri are for me related in many ways. They became both famous in the 80s, they belong to the same generation of film composers, I would even say, there are some stylistic similarities.

 

Don't forget they're brothers from different mothers (and fathers).

[Bespin 8,480]

I love both of them, but it's sure Silvestri write a way more complex and subtile music! And I love it!

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Silvestri has written the most interesting music in recent years, but there hasn't been much competition.

[Datameister 2,037]

I feel like I only really know a handful of each of their scores. There's a lot of their work I haven't explored. I'd say overall, I've gotten more enjoyment out of Horner's scores, but BTTF singlehandedly makes it feel like a draw to me. In any case, I'd agree that Horner was more emotionally direct, with an intensity that could verge on the melodramatic. From what I've heard, Silvestri tends to be a little bit more intricate and subtle.

[WampaRat 1,105]

Shoot. Super tough. I will say Silvestri never seemed as self serious as Horner (both with his music and as a person in his interviews). But boy can they both churn out a great tune and make you feel alive! I will say Silvestri seems overall to score closer to picture - he can get super Mickey Mousey with some projects. Which can make his albums tougher to listen to at times. Horner could also. But I think overall he had scored a bit broader. Perhaps he was a at a 65% on the “Staling meter” (as John Powell would put it) and Silvestri could be pushing 80%. 
 

Gah. I really don’t have an answer for this! Love them both.
“Both. Both is good.” 

[Edmilson 7,397]

Coincidentally, both composers worked for Marvel movies in 2012. So I guess one aditional that can be made is: what is the better score, Horner's TASM or Silvestri's The Avengers?

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Unlike Horner, Silvestri sounds like nobody else but Silvestri.

It's his greatest strength and weakness.

[Fancyarcher 350]

I actually find Silvestri's work overall fairly underrated, at least in certain circles. There's actually some interesting thematic work in a lot of his scores, beyond the bang and clang loud action scores he often gets known for, however I have a soft spot for a lot of Horner's work too. Dude practically helped define my childhood, and his music is still incredibly resonate today. Bit of a draw, but I guess I'll go with Silvestri 1, and Horner 2, in that order. 

[publicist 4,643]

Horner's on a different plane, education- and technique-wise. And both tended/tend to be lazy when afforded the opportunity.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

With Silvestri, you know what you're going to get: a Silvestri score.

With Horner, you never know WHO  you will get: Horner Goldsmith, Prokoviev, Britten...😉

 

Love ' em both!😍

[crocodile 7,990]

I like Silvestri but Horner wins.

 

Karol

[Richard Penna 3,675]

10 hours ago, WampaRat said:

Shoot. Super tough. I will say Silvestri never seemed as self serious as Horner (both with his music and as a person in his interviews). But boy can they both churn out a great tune and make you feel alive! I will say Silvestri seems overall to score closer to picture - he can get super Mickey Mousey with some projects. Which can make his albums tougher to listen to at times. Horner could also. But I think overall he had scored a bit broader. Perhaps he was a at a 65% on the “Staling meter” (as John Powell would put it) and Silvestri could be pushing 80%. 
 

Gah. I really don’t have an answer for this! Love them both.
“Both. Both is good.” 

 

This is very close to my assessment. Silvestri is often too stop-start and scoring, as you say, overly close to the picture.

 

But Horner took himself a bit overly seriously, and I feel that shone through in some of his more melodramatic music, which I could never get through. However, when he's good, he plays well.

 

I pretty much like them both equally, which is not say, not a huge amount - probably a small handful of scores from each. Hence for now I won't vote as I'm not sure who I prefer.

 

I commend @GerateWohl for one of the most sensible and discussion-provoking polls in a long time  

[Thor 7,478]

3 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

With Silvestri, you know what you're going to get: a Silvestri score.

With Horner, you never know WHO  you will get: Horner Goldsmith, Prokoviev, Britten...😉

 

Love ' em both!😍

 

Horner has plenty of trademarks of his own -- from crashing pianos to the layered string chord structure. I can probably recognize a Horner score within seconds. Silvestri too, but probably a few seconds more.

 

I did a tally of my collection -- appears I currently have 30 Silvestris and 73 Horners. I'm fortunate to have interviewed both; that's now crossed off my bucket list. Both are top 10 composers for me.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

It's horses for courses.

BRAINSTORM vs. FORREST GUMP? No contest. THE ABYSS Vs. SWING SHIFT? I know what gets my vote.

Both provide competent, listenable scores, which punters can enjoy away from the film. 

[Muad'Dib 1,801]

I'm giving the edge to Horner because his orchestrations feel a bit more balanced and complex, and his music really breathes. There's just no comparison to the feeling he can accomplish when he gives his all.

I mean, that dynamic range on Land Before Time (for example) is unmatched.

 

Silvestri seems to be a gig kinda guy. For him, most of the time, it's a job and he does it greatly. But I'd like him to do something outside of film (or theater), even if it's a couple of original jazz pieces -as one of his greater interests seems to be jazz. 

His soundtrack albums tend to drag more often than not, whereas with Horner there's a great deal of his albums that are just *perfect*. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,177]

I like some of Silvestri's stuff a lot - Back to the Future fits the film like a glove and is certainly part of what makes it so successful. But overall, he's always seemed like a composer who competently, but very literally, scores what's there on screen, often with a lot of Mickey Mousing, and usually without going "beyond" the film. As a result, his scores are often somewhat patchworky and in parts don't really hold my interest on album, even when the highlights are very musical. I've hardly heard anything by him in over 10 years (he mainly seems to do films I have no interest in), with the exception of his Captain America theme (which was performed at Hollywood in Vienna; I couldn't even remember it when the applause was over) and Ready Player One (competent in supporting the film, but aside from nice (though not really memorable) main and end titles, again mostly patchworky Mickey Mousing).

 

Horner, despite all his faults and the fact that I don't care that much about several of his big hits, certainly was a standout composer, and always scored the heart of the film, i.e. not so much what's *on* the screen but rather what's "behind" it. If some of his hits are musically on the "simpler" side, that's a choice - he certainly could to complex stuff, and a pronounced interest in avant garde music, which when applied I find much more interesting and complex than Silvestri's intricate Mickey Mousing. And as Thor said, despite all his (very often too obvious) influences, he had lots of tricks of his own in his bag, mainly on the more avant gardish side - e.g. piano percussion or rhythmic semi(?)-aleatoric brass clusters. Don Davis's The Matrix is full of them.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Horner's dead, @Smeltington. Accept it.

[Smeltington 1,436]

I accept it, but it will always be too soon to laugh about it. Also, you should know, I listened to the Pagemaster the other day and enjoyed it, so give yourself a pat on the back. I also checked out Land Before Time and I especially liked that one. Horner was very adventurous in his scores for animated/family films.

[Jay 37,322]

When I was younger, I thought Alan Silvestri scored Apollo 13 for some reason

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

13 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Horner's dead, @Smeltington. Accept it.

I challenge you to post something like this 6 1/2 years after JW has died... and to see what happens...

[Edmilson 7,397]

5 minutes ago, Jay said:

When I was younger, I thought Alan Silvestri scored Apollo 13 for some reason

The beginning of Portals sounds very Apollo 13-esque.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

When I was younger, I thought Alan Silvestri scored Apollo 13 for some reason

 

He did it for the money.

 

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I challenge you to post something like this 6 1/2 years after JW has died... and to see what happens...

 

He could have been a better guitarist.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

When I was younger, I thought Alan Silvestri scored Apollo 13 for some reason

They do sometimes sound similar when composing in an " Americana' style.

When Silvestri uses choir, like THE ABYSS, he sounds like Horner

[Bayesian 1,359]

For me, it’s easily Horner on both counts. I wish I was able to hear in Silvestri what others hear, but apart from a small handful of scores (BTTF, Mouse Hunt, Abyss…), I find him overrated. (I will give him credit for a decent Avengers theme and a lovely main theme for Forrest Gump. And some of his RP1 was pretty good, although I credit that to him trying to live up to JW.)

 

Horner, on the other hand, wrote countless memorable scores in the 80s and 90s and that alone is enough to cement him above Silvestri IMHO.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Silvestri writes great action music.

One of the few composers who can do it.

He gets props for that alone.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Is it true that Cameron wanted Horner to score THE ABYSS?

[badbu 123]

Horner is still one of the best composers ever! Love him and miss him…

[publicist 4,643]

6 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Is it true that Cameron wanted Horner to score THE ABYSS?

 

No way. It is common knowledge that after the debacle of 'Aliens', it took 'Titanic' to heal that rift (after Horner went after Cameron because he just wanted the assignmnt badly).

[GerateWohl 4,343]

Might be, that Horner is the "better", more well educated composer, maybe even the better film composer. But I would say, from the little, I know, that I can connect better to Silvestri's themes. Usually I am not able to remember any of Horner's themes. I hear it as pleasant supportive music in the movie, but nothing I would hum after a movie. For Silvestri it is different. But that might be just a matter of my personal taste.

[Thor 7,478]

1 hour ago, publicist said:

 

No way. It is common knowledge that after the debacle of 'Aliens', it took 'Titanic' to heal that rift (after Horner went after Cameron because he just wanted the assignmnt badly).

 

Yes. There's that old story about the main theme from THE ABYSS sounding like the opening of Horner's theme for BRAINSTORM, a similarity I've always found overrated, but you could argue there's an indirect Horner connection there, sort of. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Cameron probably temped ABYSS with Horner.

?

[Edmilson 7,397]

34 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

Cameron probably tempted

Yeah, it was very hard to resist that temptation... Lol

[bruce marshall 1,315]

13 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Yeah, it was very hard to resist that temptation... Lol

Good catch!

Damn predictive text!😡

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

I’d rather ponder which of the two would win in a boxing match. In which case, probably Silvestri. James seemed a bit scrawny. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

2 hours ago, Kasey Kockroach said:

I’d rather ponder which of the two would win in a boxing match. In which case, probably Silvestri. James seemed a bit scrawny. 

Italians always beat up Jews.

Traditionally.😝😜