James Horner
James Roy Horner (born
August 14 1953 in
Los Angeles,
California) is an
American composer of orchestral music. He is noted for his effective integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of traditional
Irish (
Celtic) musical elements.
Horner's early years were spent in
London, where he attended the prestigious
Royal Academy of Music and studied under
György Ligeti. He received his
bachelor's degree in music from the
University of Southern California, and eventually earned his
masters and
doctorate at the
University of California, Los Angeles. After several scoring assignments with the
American Film Institute in the 1970s, he ended his teaching of
music theory at the UCLA and turned to film scoring.
Horner began his career by working for
B-movie director and producer
Roger Corman. 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 in the 1980s, including
Krull (
1983),
Cocoon (
1985),
Aliens (
1986, earning his first
Academy Award nomination),
Willow (
1988),
Glory and
Field of Dreams (both
1989).
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Horner also displayed a talent for writing 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),
Casper and
Balto (both
1995).
The year
1995 saw Horner produce no fewer than six scores, including his commercially successful and critically-acclaimed works for
Braveheart and
Apollo 13. But Horner's greatest financial success would come in
1997 with an enormously popular score to
Titanic, which became the best-selling instrumental soundtrack in history with over 24 million copies sold worldwide. That year, he won
Academy Awards for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for "
My Heart Will Go On" (which he co-wrote with
Will Jennings), in addition to three
Grammy Awards and two
Golden Globe Awards.
Since
Titanic, Horner has continued to score for major productions (including
The Perfect Storm,
A Beautiful Mind, and
The Legend of Zorro). Aside from the major projects, Horner periodically tackles smaller projects as well (such as
Iris,
The Missing, and
Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius). He frequently scores for the films of director
Ron Howard, a partnership that began with
Cocoon in 1985.
Recently Horner finished scoring
Steve Zaillian's film,
All the King's Men.
List of film scores
Apocalypto (
2006)
(in production; score will be recorded in October) The Good Shepherd (
2006)
(in production; score will be recorded in August)All the King's Men (
2006)
(film completed, but not yet released; score already recorded)The New World (
2005)
The Legend of Zorro (
2005)
Flightplan (
2005)
The Chumscrubber (
2005)
The Forgotten (
2004)
Troy (
2004)
Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius (
2004)
House of Sand and Fog (
2003;
Academy Award nomination for
Best Original Score)
The Missing (
2003)
The Four Feathers (
2002)
Windtalkers (
2002)
A Beautiful Mind (
2001; Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe nominations, Best Original Score)
Iris (
2001)
Enemy at the Gates (
2001)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (
2001)
The Perfect Storm (
2000)
Bicentennial Man (
1999)
Mighty Joe Young (
1998)
The Mask of Zorro (
1998)
Deep Impact (
1998)
Titanic (
1997; 2 Academy Awards, 2 Golden Globe awards, 4 Grammy awards)
The Devil's Own (
1997)
Courage Under Fire (
1996)
Ransom (
1996)
The Spitfire Grill (
1996)
Jumanji (
1995)
Jade (
1995)
Braveheart (
1995; Academy Award & Golden Globe nominations, Best Original Score)
Balto (
1995) (see
Balto Soundtrack)
Apollo 13 (
1995; Academy Award nomination)
Casper (
1995)
Legends of the Fall (
1994; Golden Globe nomination)
The Pagemaster (
1994)
Clear and Present Danger (
1994)
The Pelican Brief (
1993)
Swing Kids (
1993)
Once Upon a Forest (
1993)
The Man Without a Face (
1993)
Searching for Bobby Fischer (
1993)
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (
1993)
Thunderheart (
1992)
Sneakers (
1992)
Class Action (
1991)
The Rocketeer (
1991)
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (
1991)
Another 48 Hours (
1990)
I Love You to Death (
1990)
Glory (
1989; Grammy Award, Golden Globe nomination)
Field of Dreams (
1989; Academy Award nomination, 2 Grammy nominations)
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (
1989)
Cocoon: The Return (
1988)
The Land Before Time (
1988)
Willow (
1988)
Aliens (
1986; Academy Award nomination)
An American Tail (
1986; Academy Award nomination, 2 Grammy awards, Golden Globe nomination)
Captain EO (
1986)
The Name of the Rose (1986)
*Cocoon (1985)
*Star Trek: The Search for Spock (1984)
*Krull (1983)
*Brainstorm (1983)
*Gorky Park (1983)
*48 Hours (1982)
*Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
*Wolfen (1981)
*The Hand (1981)
*Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
*Humanoids from the Deep'' (
1980)
*Horner can be seen briefly in a
cameo appearance as a crewman in
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
*With over 24 million copies sold worldwide, Horner's score for
Titanic is third only to
Whitney Houston's
The Bodyguard soundtrack, which has worldwide sales of over 37 million and the
Bee Gees soundtrack to
Saturday Night Fever with 40 million.
*
Website by Sony Classical*
James Horner discography (Music City)*
JamesHorner.de - Fansite (in german)*
James Horner at the SoundtrackINFO project
