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Biography
Use mdy dates|date=August 2011cleanup-reorganize|date=January 2011Infobox musical artist | name = James Horner| image =| caption = Horner at the premiere of Troy (film)|Troy , 2004. deletable image-caption|Wednesday, 26 October 2011| size = 200px| background = non_performing_personnel| birth_name = James Roy Horner| alias =| birth_date = birth date and age|1953|8|14| death_date =| origin = Los Angeles, U.S.| genre = Film score | occupation = Composer| years_active = 1979–present| label =| 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 James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer, Orchestration|orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music . He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film score s, and for frequent use of Celtic music|Celtic musical elements . His score to the 1997 film Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic remains the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time. http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2002/2002-03-26-celine-dion.htm USA Today coverage of Horner's work
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 (film)|Braveheart , Willow (film)|Willow , Apollo 13 (film)|Apollo 13 , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Cocoon (film)|Cocoon , Legends of the Fall , Aliens (film)|Aliens , Glory (1989 film)|Glory , The Mask of Zorro , Field of Dreams , Enemy at the Gates , The Missing , Sneakers , Casper (film)|Casper , Troy (film)|Troy , An American Tail , The Land Before Time , The Rocketeer (film)|The Rocketeer , A Beautiful Mind (film)|A Beautiful Mind , Mighty Joe Young (1998 film)|Mighty Joe Young , The Perfect Storm (film)|The Perfect Storm , Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar , and most recently, The Karate Kid (2010 film)|The Karate Kid .
His body of work is notable for including the scores to the two highest-grossing films of all time; Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic and Avatar (2009 film)|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 Austria n immigrants Joan (née Fraenkel) and Harry Horner , who was a production designer , set designer and occasional film director., also known as "Big balls Johnson" http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Ha-Ja/Horner-Harry.html Harry Horner's films as art 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.MacDonald, Laurence E. The invisible art of film music: a comprehensive history . Ardsley House Publishers, 1998: p. 328 http://books.google.com/books? id=-iEJAQAAMAAJ& q=james+horner+%22While+teaching+music+theory+at+UCLA%22& dq=james+horner+%22While+teaching+music+theory+at+UCLA%22& hl=en& ei=MSzSTuiDAcbV0QG_g_zyDw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=2& ved=0CFMQ6AEwAQ
Film and television scoring
Horner's first major film score was for the 1979 film, The Lady in Red (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 (film)|Krull (1983), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Commando (film)|Commando (1985), Cocoon (film)|Cocoon (1985), Aliens (film)|Aliens (1986), Willow (film)|Willow (1988), Glory (1989 film)|Glory and Field of Dreams (both 1989).
Aliens (film)|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 (film)|Aliens ranks fifth in the most commonly-used soundtrack cues for film trailers.cite web|url= http://www.soundtrack.net/trailers/frequent|title= Top 100 Frequently Used Cues|publisher=soundtrack.net|accessdate=December 19, 2007 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 (film)|Willow is substituted for the theme Kamen wrote for the 1993 remake of The Three Musketeers (1993 film)|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& #33; A Dinosaur's Story (1993), and Casper (film)|Casper , Jumanji (film)|Jumanji , and Balto (film)|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 (film)|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 (1997 film)|Titanic . The album became the best-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack in history, selling over 27 million copies worldwide. http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2002/2002-03-26-celine-dion.htm New mom Dion back with new album, Vegas deal
At the 70th Academy Awards , Horner won Oscars for Academy Award for Original Music Score|Best Original Dramatic Score and Academy Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song for " My Heart Will Go On " (which he co-wrote with Will Jennings ). In addition, Horner and Jennings won three Grammy Award s and two Golden Globe Award s for the soundtrack and My Heart Will Go On . http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp;jsessionid=BE5EFC1B797EC940FCE224CD99CE3385? curTime=1256537842439 Horner's win at the 70th annual Oscar telecast http://www.goldenglobes.org/browse/member/29146 HFPA – Awards Search http://grammys.com/GRAMMY_Awards/Winners/Results.aspx Grammy Award winnerdead link|date=March 2011Titanic also marked the first time in ten years that Horner worked with director James Cameron (following the highly stressful scoring sessions for Aliens (film)|Aliens , Horner declared that he would never work with Cameron again and described the experience of scoring the film Aliens (film)|Aliens as "a nightmare"). citation needed|date=March 2010 Since Titanic , Horner has continued to score for major productions (including The Perfect Storm (film)|The Perfect Storm , A Beautiful Mind (film)|A Beautiful Mind , Enemy At The Gates , The Mask of Zorro , The Legend of Zorro , House of Sand and Fog (film)|House of Sand and Fog and Bicentennial Man (film)|Bicentennial Man ). citation needed|date=March 2010 Aside from scoring major productions, Horner periodically works on smaller projects such as Iris (film)|Iris , Radio (2003 film)|Radio and Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius . He received his eighth and ninth Academy Award nominations for A Beautiful Mind (film)|A Beautiful Mind (2001) and House of Sand and Fog (film)|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 (film)|Cocoon in 1985. Coincidentally, Horner's end title music from Glory (1989 film)|Glory can be heard in the trailer for Howard's Backdraft (film)|Backdraft .
Horner composed the current 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. citation needed|date=March 2010 Horner recollaborated with James Cameron on the 2009 film Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar , which was released in December 2009 and has since become the highest grossing film of all time, surpassing Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic (also directed by Cameron and scored by Horner).
Horner spent over two years working on the score for Avatar (2009 film)|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 (2009 film)|Up . citation needed|date=March 2010 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." http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6936869.ece Times Online 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 (2010 film)|The Karate Kid replacing Atli Örvarsson . This is the first film Horner has worked on since Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar . http://filmmusicreporter.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/breaking-news-james-horner-to-take-over-karate-kid-remake/ Horner assigned to The Karate Kid film remake The film was released in 2010.
Horner's next projects will be the score to The Song of Names , http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1657517/fullcredits The Song of Names (2011) – Full cast and crew which is due for release in 2011 and The Reboot of The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 Starring Andrew Garfield.
Critical debate
Horner has been criticised for transposing hook (music)|hooks , orchestral motif (music)|motifs , or larger passages from other scores of his own or of other composers.Thomas Muething, "Wen immer es angeht" (To Whom It May Concern), in: Der Deutsche Film Musik-Dienst, Nr.30/1995 (in German)Alex Ross, http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/05/oscar_scores.html "Oscar Scores", in The New Yorker, March 9, 1998. These contentions are points of fierce debates between supporters of Horner and his detractors.Lukas Kendall & Jeff Bond, http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/features/titanic.asp "Letters about James Horner's Titanic," in Film Score Monthly, 1997.
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 film)|The Lady in Red
1979 Up from the Depths
1980s
col-begincol-3
1980 Humanoids from the Deep
1980 Battle Beyond the Stars (score reused in later Roger Corman productions)
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" http://www.asb.tv/videos/view.php? v=2dd34758dead link|date=March 2011 http://www.asb.tv/videos/view.php? v=6a0572b7& a=featuredead link|date=March 2011
Awards and nominations
Horner has received 10 Academy Award nominations, 8 for Academy Award for Original Music Score|Best Original Music Score , and twice for Academy Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song . Out of these nominations, Horner has won two Oscars, for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic .
Horner has also received five Golden Globe nominations, all in the category of Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score , winning one, for Titanic, as well as seven Grammy Award nominations, winning for Glory (1989 film)|Glory (Best Score), An American Tail , and Titanic (1997 film)|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:50%;"; Academy Award
1987 : Aliens (film)|Aliens ( Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
1987 : " Somewhere Out There (James Horner song)|Somewhere Out There " (from: An American Tail , Academy Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song )
1990 : Field of Dreams ( Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
1996 : Apollo 13 (film)|Apollo 13 ( Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Dramatic Score )
1996 : Braveheart ( Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Dramatic Score )
1998 : " My Heart Will Go On " (from: Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic , Academy Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song , Winner )
1998 : Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic ( Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Dramatic Score , Winner )
2002 : A Beautiful Mind (film)|A Beautiful Mind ( Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
2004 : House of Sand and Fog (film)|House Of Sand And Fog ( Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
2010 : Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar ( Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
1987 : " Somewhere Out There (James Horner song)|Somewhere Out There " (from: An American Tail , Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song )
1990 : Glory (1989 film)|Glory ( Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
1992 : "Dreams To Dream" (from: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West , Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song )
1995 : Legends of the Fall ( Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
1996 : Braveheart ( Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
1998 : " My Heart Will Go On " (from: Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic , Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song , Winner )
1998 : Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic ( Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score , Winner )
2002 : A Beautiful Mind (film)|A Beautiful Mind ( Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
2009 : Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar ( Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score )
style="width:50%;"; Grammy
1988 : An American Tail
1988 : "Somewhere Out There" (from: An American Tail , Winner )
http://www.runmovies.eu/index.php? view=article& catid=35%3Ainterviews& id=306%3Ajames-horner-interview& option=com_content& Itemid=55 James Horner interview (1983) from CinemaScore magazine
Template group|title = Awards for James Horner |list = AcademyAwardBestOriginalScore 1981-2000AcademyAwardBestOriginalSong 1991–2000Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score 1990–2009Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song 1990sSaturn Award for Best MusicGrammy Award for Record of the Year 1990sGrammy Award for Song of the Year 1980sGrammy Award for Song of the Year 1990s Persondata | NAME =Horner, James | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =1953-08-14 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Horner, James 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
