Friday, June 26, 2015

In Memory of James Horner (1953-2015)








James Horner (1953-2015)


To all fans of James Cameron and those who grew up with family movies from Don Bluth and Steven Spielberg, you will be saddened to hear that James Horner, the Oscar-winning composer of films such as "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", "Cocoon", "An American Tail", "Aliens", "Willow", "Field of Dreams", "Braveheart", "Apollo 13", "Titanic", "The Mask of Zorro", "A Beautiful Mind" and "Avatar" has been killed in a plane crash while aboard on a Short Tucano turboprop plane on June 22nd, 2015 at 61 years of age. I liked Horner's scores, especially in animated films and "Willow". Of his other music, I was never a big fan.

Horner began composing in pictures in the late 1970s after finishing with the American Film Institute, beginning with "The Lady in Red" and some B-movies for Roger Corman. In 1982, Horner got approached by director Nicholas Meyer to score the second film instalment of Star Trek, "The Wrath of Khan", and his career took off with more of his film compositions being in major motion pictures such as "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock", "Krull", "Brainstorm", "Cocoon", "The Land Before Time", "Willow", "Honey I Shrunk the Kids", "The Rocketeer" and others. Major films in his career include "An American Tail", "Aliens", "Field of Dreams", "Braveheart", "Apollo 13", "Titanic", "A Beautiful Mind", "House Of Sand And Fog", and "Avatar". Each of these earned Horner eight Academy Award nominations (save for "Titanic", which finally saw him receive two Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Song, which he shared with Celine Dion).

Horner's music has helped define modern movies with his contemporaries like John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Hans Zimmer. He brought magic to the movie experience and will be missed in some ways by anyone who enjoys hearing his scores.


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