James Horner: Beyond “Titanic”

James Horner (1953-2015)

If you examine lists of best-selling movie soundtrack albums you’ll pretty quickly notice that most are song compilations. For example, The Big Chill (1983), featuring chart toppers from the 60s and 70s, or When Harry Met Sally (1989), withHarry Connick Jr. crooning through the great American songbook.

“It’s a rarity when a soundtrack of (almost) exclusively original film music appears on the best seller charts”

It’s a rarity when a soundtrack of (almost) exclusively original film music appears on the charts. One of the few to accomplish the feat was James Horner with his score for Titanic (1997). Titanic’s mega-hit status and the inclusion of Celine Dion’s recording of My Heart Will Go On (co-written by Horner) are part of the reason for the success of the album, but that’s not the whole story.

Titanic, 1997

One of the trademarks of Horner’s style was the integration of electronic and choral elements to his scores. These and some strategically applied Celtic music motifs matched up well to the film’s theme and epic elements.

Of course, Horner wasn’t an unknown by the time he composed Titanic’s score. He’d chalked up five Academy Award nominations already, for scores as diverse as Aliens (1987) and Field of Dreams (1990), and was much in demand for high-profile films in a range of genres.

Horner was sometimes accused of being derivative and borrowing a bit freely from the classical repertoire (charges often leveled at film composers), there’s no doubt he left behind a solid body of work before his untimely death in a 2015 plane crash.

We’ll hear music from James Horners and other composers in this week’s edition of The Silver Screen Soundtrack Hour - “Blockbusters: The 1990s.”

Produced and hosted by Ken Nail, The Silver Screen Soundtrack Hour airs on Charlottesvilleclassical.org every Thursday at 9 AM and 6 PM, plus Saturdays at Noon. Visit our Facebook page, or contact Ken on Twitter at @ken_classical.