On the Death of James Horner

James Horner, 1953-2015

I'm honestly a little disgusted with myself.  I learned this morning that one of my favorite composers of all time, James Horner, died in a plane crash.  What's worse is that he died over two months ago and I had absolutely no idea.  In a time where film scores tend to be generic and unmemorable Hans Zimmer knockoffs, James Horner will be sorely missed.  Even if he did tend to recycle his own work, he packed so much heart into his music and added incredible spectacle to movies that wouldn't be the same without him.  As a '90s kid, I grew up with so many movies he had a personal hand in, including An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Hocus Pocus, The Pagemaster, Casper, and Jumanji.  Not impressed?  He's scored James Cameron movies like Aliens, Titanic, and Avatar; Ron Howard films like Cocoon, A Beautiful Mind, and Apollo 13; other classics like Braveheart, Field of Dreams, and two Star Trek movies.  He's been nominated for an Academy Award ten times, and won two Oscars for Titanic (best original score and song).

So you might say I'm pretty devastated by the news.  At only age 61, it wasn't Mr. Horner's time and he will be sorely missed.   Whether his music was charming, epic, sentimental, or exciting, it always added something special to the movie.  You've done a great service to the industry and have given me untold amounts of happy childhood memories.  Thank you for your contribution; your films will last a thousand lifetimes, and your heart will most certainly go on.