name | James Horner |
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size | 200px |
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background | non_performing_personnel |
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birth name | James Roy Horner |
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birth date | August 14, 1953 |
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instrument | piano |
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origin | Los Angeles, U.S. |
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genre | Film score |
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occupation | Composer |
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years active | 1979–present |
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associated acts | Will Jennings, Celine Dion, Sissel Kyrkjebø, Ian Underwood, Randy Kerber, Faith Hill, Josh Groban, Linda Ronstadt, Charlotte Church, Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Leona Lewis, Michael Jackson, London Philharmonic Orchestra}} |
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James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements. His score to the 1997 film ''Titanic'' remains the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time.
In addition, Horner has scored over 100 films, frequently collaborating with acclaimed directors such as James Cameron and Ron Howard. Other scores he worked on include those of ''Braveheart'', ''Willow'',
''Apollo 13'', ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'', ''Cocoon'', ''Legends of the Fall'', ''Aliens'', ''Glory'', ''The Mask of Zorro'', ''Field of Dreams'', ''Enemy at the Gates'', ''The Missing'', ''Sneakers'', ''Casper'', ''Troy'', ''An American Tail'', ''The Land Before Time'', ''The Rocketeer'', ''A Beautiful Mind'', ''Mighty Joe Young'', ''The Perfect Storm'', ''Avatar'', ''The Karate Kid'', and most recently, ''Black Gold.''
His body of work is notable for including the scores to the two highest-grossing films of all time; ''Titanic'' and ''Avatar'', both of which were directed by James Cameron.
Horner is a two-time Academy Award-winner, and has received a total of 10 Oscar nominations. He has won numerous other awards, including the Golden Globe Award and the Grammy Award.
Early life
Horner was born in Los Angeles, the son of
Austrian immigrants Joan (née Fraenkel) and
Harry Horner, who was a
production designer,
set designer and occasional film director.
Horner started playing piano at the age of five. His early years were spent in London, where he attended the Royal College of Music. He subsequently attended Verde Valley High School in Sedona, Arizona. He received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California, and eventually earned a master's and started working on his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles where he studied with Paul Chihara, among others. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970s, he finished his teaching of music theory at UCLA and turned to film scoring.
Film and television scoring
Horner's first major film score was for the 1979 film, ''
The Lady in Red''. He began his film scoring career by working for
B film director and producer
Roger Corman, with his first composer credit for Corman's big-budget ''
Battle Beyond the Stars''. His works steadily gained notice in Hollywood, which led him to take on larger projects. Horner made a breakthrough in 1982, when he had the chance to score for ''
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'', establishing himself as a mainstream composer.
Horner continued composing music for high-profile releases during the 1980s, including ''48 Hrs.'' (1982), ''Krull'' (1983), ''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'' (1984), ''Commando'' (1985), ''Cocoon'' (1985), ''Aliens'' (1986), ''Willow'' (1988), ''Glory'' and ''Field of Dreams'' (both 1989).
''Aliens'' earned Horner his first Academy Award nomination. He has been nominated an additional nine times since. Horner's scores have been sampled in film trailers for other films. The climax of the track ''Bishop's Countdown'' from his score for ''Aliens'' ranks fifth in the most commonly-used soundtrack cues for film trailers. Also, an unused fragment from ''Aliens'' was featured in a scene from ''Die Hard''. Several films whose scores were composed by Michael Kamen have had trailers featuring Horner's music; most notably, the music from ''Willow'' is substituted for the theme Kamen wrote for the 1993 remake of ''The Three Musketeers''. Horner also added his nominated Braveheart "For the Love of a Princess" single for Robert Zemeckis's Theatrical Trailer of ''Cast Away''.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Horner also wrote orchestral scores for children's films (particularly those produced by Amblin Entertainment), with credits for ''An American Tail'' (1986), ''The Land Before Time'' (1988), ''An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'' (1991), ''We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story'' (1993), and ''Casper'', ''Jumanji'', and ''Balto'' (all from 1995).
1995 saw Horner produce no fewer than six scores, including his commercially successful and critically acclaimed works for ''Braveheart'' and ''Apollo 13'', both of which earned him Academy Award nominations. Horner's greatest financial and critical success would come in 1997, with the score to the motion picture, ''Titanic''. The album became the best-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack in history, selling over 27 million copies worldwide.
At the 70th Academy Awards, Horner won Oscars for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for "My Heart Will Go On" (which he co-wrote with Will Jennings). In addition, Horner and Jennings won three Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for the soundtrack and ''My Heart Will Go On''. ''Titanic'' also marked the first time in ten years that Horner worked with director James Cameron (following the highly stressful scoring sessions for ''Aliens'', Horner declared that he would never work with Cameron again and described the experience of scoring the film ''Aliens'' as "a nightmare").
Since ''Titanic'', Horner has continued to score for major productions (including ''The Perfect Storm'', ''A Beautiful Mind'',
''Enemy At The Gates'', ''The Mask of Zorro'', ''The Legend of Zorro'', ''House of Sand and Fog'' and ''Bicentennial Man'').
Aside from scoring major productions, Horner periodically works on smaller projects such as ''Iris'', ''Radio'' and ''Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius''. He received his eighth and ninth Academy Award nominations for ''A Beautiful Mind'' (2001) and ''House of Sand and Fog'' (2003), but lost on both occasions to Howard Shore. He frequently collaborates with film director Ron Howard, a partnership that began with ''Cocoon'' in 1985. Coincidentally, Horner's end title music from ''Glory'' can be heard in the trailer for Howard's ''Backdraft''.
Horner composed the 2006-2011 theme music for the ''CBS Evening News''. The theme was introduced as part of the debut of Katie Couric as anchor on September 5, 2006. It has since been adopted by most other CBS News programs as well.
Horner recollaborated with James Cameron on the 2009 film ''Avatar'', which was released in December 2009 and has since become the highest grossing film of all time, surpassing ''Titanic'' (also directed by Cameron and scored by Horner).
Horner spent over two years working on the score for ''Avatar'', and did not take on any other projects during that time. Horner's work on ''Avatar'' earned him numerous award nominations, including his tenth Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe nomination, a BAFTA nomination, and a Grammy Award nomination, all of which he lost to Michael Giacchino for ''Up''.
Regarding the experience of scoring ''Avatar'', Horner said, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken... I work from four in the morning to about ten at night and that’s been my way of life since March. That's the world I'm in now and it makes you feel estranged from everything. I'll have to recover from that and get my head out of Avatar." It is currently unknown whether or not Horner will return as composer for the sequel(s) to ''Avatar''.
Horner recently composed the score for the film ''The Karate Kid'' replacing Atli Örvarsson. This is the first film Horner has worked on since ''Avatar''. The film was released in 2010.
Horner's next projects will be the score to ''The Song of Names'', which is due for release in 2011 and The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 Starring Andrew Garfield.
Critical debate
Horner has been criticised for transposing
hooks, orchestral
motifs, or larger passages from other scores of his own or of other composers. These contentions are points of fierce debates between supporters of Horner and his detractors.
List of scores
Film
1970s
1978 ''The Drought'' (for the American Film Institute)
1978 ''Fantasies'' (for the American Film Institute)
1978 ''Gist and Evans'' (for the American Film Institute)
1978 ''Landscapes'' (for the American Film Institute)
1978 ''Just for a Laugh'' (for the American Film Institute)
1978 ''The Watcher'' (for the American Film Institute)
1979 ''The Lady in Red''
1979 ''Up from the Depths''
1980s
1980 ''Humanoids from the Deep''
1980 ''Battle Beyond the Stars'' (score reused in later Roger Corman productions)
1981 ''Deadly Blessing''
1981 ''The Hand''
1981 ''Wolfen''
1981 ''The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper''
1982 ''48 Hrs.''
1982 ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''
1983 ''The Dresser''
1983 ''Gorky Park''
1983 ''Testament''
1983 ''Uncommon Valor''
1983 ''Brainstorm''
1983 ''Krull''
1983 ''Something Wicked This Way Comes''
1984 ''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock''
1984 ''The Stone Boy''
1985 ''The Journey of Natty Gann''
1985 ''Volunteers''
1985 ''Commando''
1985 ''Cocoon''
1985 ''Heaven Help Us''
1986 ''The Name of the Rose''
1986 ''Off Beat''
1986 ''Where the River Runs Black''
1986 ''An American Tail (Oscar Nominee)''
1986 ''Aliens (Golden Globe & Oscar Nominee)''
1987 ''P.K. and the Kid''
1987 ''Project X''
1987 ''*batteries not included''
1988 ''The Land Before Time''
1988 ''Vibes''
1988 ''Cocoon: The Return''
1988 ''Red Heat''
1988 ''Willow''
1989 ''Dad''
1989 ''Field of Dreams (Oscar Nominee)''
1989 ''Glory (Golden Globe Nominee)''
1989 ''In Country''
1989 ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids''
1990s
1990 ''I Love You to Death''
1990 ''Another 48 Hours''
1991 ''An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (Golden Globe Nominee)''
1991 ''Once Around''
1991 ''The Rocketeer''
1991 ''Class Action''
1992 ''Thunderheart''
1992 ''Sneakers''
1992 ''Unlawful Entry''
1992 ''Patriot Games''
1993 ''Bopha!''
1993 ''House of Cards''
1993 ''Jack the Bear''
1993 ''The Man Without a Face''
1993 ''Once Upon a Forest''
1993 ''Hocus Pocus'' (Sarah's Theme)
1993 ''Searching for Bobby Fischer''
1993 ''Swing Kids''
1993 ''We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story''
1993 ''The Pelican Brief''
1993 ''A Far Off Place''
1994 ''Legends of the Fall (Golden Globe Nominee)''
1994 ''The Pagemaster''
1994 ''Clear and Present Danger''
1995 ''Jade''
1995 ''Balto''
1995 ''Jumanji''
1995 ''Apollo 13 (Oscar nominee)''
1995 ''Casper''
1995 ''Braveheart (Golden Globe, BAFTA & Oscar Nominee)''
1996 ''Ransom''
1996 ''To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday''
1996 ''Courage Under Fire''
1996 ''The Spitfire Grill''
1997 ''Titanic (Golden Globe, Grammy & Oscar Winner, BAFTA nominee)''
1997 ''The Devil's Own''
1998 ''Mighty Joe Young''
1998 ''The Mask of Zorro''
1998 ''Deep Impact''
1999 ''Bicentennial Man''
2000s
2000 ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas''
2000 ''The Perfect Storm''
2001 ''Iris''
2001 ''A Beautiful Mind (Golden Globe & Oscar Nominee)''
2001 ''Enemy at the Gates''
2002 ''The Four Feathers''
2002 ''Windtalkers''
2003 ''House of Sand and Fog (Oscar Nominee)''
2003 ''The Missing''
2003 ''Beyond Borders''
2003 ''Radio''
2004 ''The Forgotten''
2004 ''Troy''
2004 ''Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius''
2005 ''The Chumscrubber''
2005 ''Flightplan''
2005 ''The Legend of Zorro''
2005 ''The New World''
2006 ''Apocalypto''
2006 ''All the King's Men''
2007 ''The Life Before Her Eyes''
2008 ''The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas''
2008 ''The Spiderwick Chronicles''
2009 ''Avatar (Golden Globe, BAFTA & Oscar Nominee)''
2010s
2010 ''The Karate Kid''
2011 ''Black Gold''
2012 ''Cristiada''
2012 ''The Amazing Spider-Man''
2013 ''The Song of Names''
Television
1981 ''A Few Days in Weasel Creek''
1982 ''A Piano for Mrs. Cimino''
1983 ''Between Friends''
1985 ''Amazing Stories'' (Episode: "Alamo Jobe")
1985 ''Faerie Tale Theatre'' (Episode: "The Pied Piper of Hamelin")
1985 ''Surviving''
1990 ''Tales from the Crypt'' (Episode: "Cutting Cards")
1990 ''Extreme Close-Up''
1992 ''Crossroads'' (theme)
1992 ''Fish Police'' (theme and pilot episode)
2000 ''Freedom Song''
2006 ''CBS Evening News''
Short films
1985 ''Let's Go''
1986 ''Captain EO'' (Epcot Center)
1989 ''Tummy Trouble''
1991 ''Norman and the Killer''
Concert works
1976: "Conversations"
1977: "Spectral Shimmers"
1998: "Titanic Suite"
2000: "A Forest Passage"
Miscellaneous works
Logo music for Universal Pictures (1990–1997), Lionsgate, Icon Productions and CBS Films.
THX trailer "Cimarron"
Music for the P-51 aerobatic flight team "The Horsemen"
Awards and nominations
Horner has received 10 Academy Award nominations, 8 for
Best Original Music Score, and twice for
Best Original Song. Out of these nominations, Horner has won two Oscars, for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for ''
Titanic''.
Horner has also received five Golden Globe nominations, all in the category of Best Original Score, winning one, for ''Titanic'', as well as seven Grammy Award nominations, winning for ''Glory'' (Best Score), ''An American Tail'' and ''Titanic'', the latter two being in the category of Best Song. He has also received three BAFTA nominations, but has not won any.
{| style="width:100%;"
|- valign="top"
| style="width:50%;"|
; Academy Award
1987: ''Aliens'' (Best Original Score)
1987: "Somewhere Out There" (from: ''An American Tail'', Best Original Song)
1990: ''Field of Dreams'' (Best Original Score)
1996: ''Apollo 13'' (Best Original Dramatic Score)
1996: ''Braveheart'' (Best Original Dramatic Score)
1998: "My Heart Will Go On" (from: ''Titanic'', Best Original Song, Winner)
1998: ''Titanic'' (Best Original Dramatic Score, Winner)
2002: ''A Beautiful Mind'' (Best Original Score)
2004: ''House Of Sand And Fog'' (Best Original Score)
2010: ''Avatar'' (Best Original Score)
| style="width:50%;"|
; Golden Globe
1987: "Somewhere Out There" (from: ''An American Tail'', Best Original Song)
1990: ''Glory'' (Best Original Score)
1992: "Dreams To Dream" (from: ''An American Tail: Fievel Goes West'', Best Original Song)
1995: ''Legends of the Fall'' (Best Original Score)
1996: ''Braveheart'' (Best Original Score)
1998: "My Heart Will Go On" (from: ''Titanic'', Best Original Song, Winner)
1998: ''Titanic'' (Best Original Score, Winner)
2002: ''A Beautiful Mind'' (Best Original Score)
2009: ''Avatar'' (Best Original Score)
|}
{| style="width:100%;"
|- valign="top"
| style="width:50%;"|
; Grammy
1988: ''An American Tail''
1988: "Somewhere Out There" (from: ''An American Tail'', Winner)
1990: ''Field of Dreams''
1991: ''Glory'' (Winner)
1996: "Whatever You Imagine" (from: ''The Pagemaster'')
1999: "My Heart Will Go On" (from: ''Titanic'', Winner)
2003: ''A Beautiful Mind''
| style="width:50%;"|
; Satellite Awards
1998: "My Heart Will Go On" (from: ''Titanic'', Winner)
1998: ''Titanic'' (Winner)
2002: "All Love Can Be" (from: ''A Beautiful Mind'', Winner)
2002: ''A Beautiful Mind''
2004: ''The Missing''
|}
; BAFTA Awards
1995: ''Braveheart''
1997: ''Titanic''
2009: ''Avatar'' (Award for Best Sound Engineer assisted by Rumen Lishkov)
AFI
Horner's scores for the following films were nominated for
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores:
''Apollo 13'' (1995)
''Braveheart'' (1995)
''Field of Dreams'' (1989)
''Glory'' (1989)
''Titanic'' (1997)
References
External links
James Horner interview (1983) from CinemaScore magazine
Category:1953 births
Category:American composers
Category:American film score composers
Category:American people of Austrian descent
Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters
Category:Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
Category:Saturn Award winners
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Living people
Category:People from Los Angeles, California
Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Category:University of Southern California alumni
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zh:詹姆斯·霍纳