2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
You must have heard the music of James Horner, because this incredible wizard from the world of music created soundtracks for the highest grossing films in the world. Scores for big-budget movies like Avatar, Titanic, Braveheart are all his credit.
His music is consciously and subconsciously known and loved by millions of people around the globe, although many of them do not even know his name…
Biography
The future brilliant composer James Roy Horner was born on August 14, 1953 in the creative family of Joan and Harry. James's father, Harry Horner, worked in filmmaking, creating stage layouts, directing individual scenes, and also acting as a director and financial manager for some films.
This partly influenced the future of his still very young son James, who from a young age expressed a desire to learn to play the keyboard. He was sent to the Royal College of Music in London, graduating with honors in piano and composition.
Later, James Horner, whose music will shake the world in the future, will defend his doctorate inUniversity of Southern California, and will temporarily stay there to teach academic theory and the art of arranging.
During his teaching career, James Horner tries to write academic works, but quickly becomes disillusioned with traditional forms of music and begins to actively experiment with the synthesis of various musical genres, building the main melody of the work in a classical style, as well as adding elements of folk and electronic music.
Career as a film composer
James Horner never consciously planned to be a composer. Looking for a job in the late 70s, he decided to write several works for films at the request of the students of the American Film Institute and began to create music for test and low-budget films. His first success as a composer was the score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, released in 1982.
After this talented composer was noticed by the creative community, and Horner began to receive lucrative offers from representatives of Hollywood bohemia.
James Horner's films, whose music enchanted people, are still relevant today both in terms of the storyline and in terms of combining what is happening in the frame with the sound track.
Two James
In 1986, James Cameron invites Horner to the creative team working on the film Aliens. Thanks to a non-standard vision and the ability to synthesize incompatible sounds, the composer creates a unique soundtrack, and in 1997 Cameron already understandswho will have to write the music for his new film "Titanic". Despite the fact that Cameron did not expect a commercial success from the film and was afraid of a complete failure in showing the picture in cinemas, attention was paid to every detail, including the music. Horner presented the director with a perfect sonic canvas, marked in 1998 by the Oscar for Best Music. In addition to this award, the film became the leader of the box office and only lost this place in 2009 to Cameron's Avatar.
Typically, the music for "Avatar" was also written by James Horner, bringing together linguists and music theorists to create a full-fledged cultural code of the races and peoples of the Cameron universe.
But against all odds, Titanic and James Horner's music for the film have become an incredible anthem to true love for all time.
Style
James Horner's composing style was based on the synthesis of traditional academic orchestral music with folk and electronic instruments. The composer widely used the whistle, bagpipes, harp, flute, MOOG synthesizers in his works, combining the musical harmonies of these instruments with orchestral passages.
The resulting style has become incredibly popular, it has inspired many talented composers around the world, it has become widespread both as a musical genre and as a special school of soundtrack writing in filmmaking.
Private life
James Horner led prettysecluded life in California with his family, consisting of his wife and two daughters. The composer did not like secular society, he almost did not appear at premieres, conferences and festivals, preferring work or family vacations to all this.
Death
June 22, 2015, James Horner was returning home on his private jet. The 61-year-old composer was an avid aviation enthusiast, he had his own fleet of five cars.
The plane crashed, as a result of which the legendary composer died. The cause of death has not been reliably established.
The wreckage of the plane was found over the Los Padros National Reserve.
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