You would have applauded his work on Titanic , cheered when the characters made their entry in Braveheart , Jumanji and A Beautiful Mind , held your breath as he set the mood for The Amazing Spiderman and been in awe as he led you along on a magical journey in Avatar . American composer, conductor and orchestrator of film scores James Roy Horner, who passed away in a tragic accident recently, has etched his mark in history as the man behind the music for some of our favourite films from the 80s till today. Bengaluru’s musicians and singers recall some of his finest work.
The Four Feathers and Apocalypto
Ricky Kej
Composer
James Horner will always be the legendary composer because his themes were based on strong melodies and most of them have now set benchmarks in their respective film genres. His most remarkable scores for me will be Shekhar Kapoor’s The Four Feathers and Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto . Both feature the wonderful voice of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. These scores transcend the regular Hollywood score format and become almost spiritual or unworldly in essence. He was a fantastic musician in the traditional sense, was never afraid to experiment and also used technology effectively.
Casper
Pradip Ramanathan
Guitarist
My earliest memory of James Horner’s music was when I first watched Casper when I was about seven years old. I loved the main theme of that film, the one that showed up during all the emotional moments of the movie. What’s funny is that, more than a decade later, whenever I got hold of a piano, an instrument I almost never play, I’d randomly start playing that theme, and, no surprises, the people around me would recognise it. It’s easy to forget how great that soundtrack is in the midst of stuff like Braveheart and Titanic .
Zorro
Siddarth Abraham
Vocalist
One of my most memorable compositions of James Horner would be the theme from the movie Zorro . Zorro has always being a favourite character of mine since I was a child. The theme really brings out the mystery, charisma and dynamics of the character, like a great introduction of the character to the world. There’s a lot of work by James Horner that have also touched me along the way. It’s easy to see the amount of impact his work has created on movie buffs like me. There’s so much of effort and creativity he has brought to the movies I love. He will be missed.
Bicentennial Man
Willy Demoz
Drummer
My favourite James Horner score is for the movie Bicentennial Man . It is a very moving story about an android who slowly grows towards becoming a sentient being over the course of more than two generations, outliving the people he has grown to love. The score is beautiful, and really adds an extra dimension to the fantastic performances.
