James Horner's Biography

By Nancy Tang

The son of Harry Horner, a Hollywood director and set designer renowned for his work on films such as The Heiress, Red Planet Mars and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? James Horner was born in Los Angeles, California, the USA on August 14th, 1953. Despite growing up in the often competitive world of the film industry, young James showed a great aptitude for music, beginning piano lessons at 5 years old. At somewhere around 10 years old, he decided that he wanted to spend his life composing music - a dream he would indeed fulfill, and then some.
Sometime during his childhood James and his family moved to London, England, where they lived for a few years until they decided to move back to California, where James spent his teenage years and will eventually settle.

During his youth, James Horner attended many prestigious educational institutions such as the Royal College of Music in London and UCLA in California, where he received a Masters degree in Composition and Music Theory. He also studied with the famed Hungarian composer, Gyorgy Ligeti (who composed some atonal classical pieces featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey). At this time, James was looking forward to a life in conservatories composing modern classical music. In 1978, while he was teaching at UCLA as a graduate, he composed an avant-garde piece known as "Spectral Shimmers". However, Horner had a hard time promoting it to his peers and in the end it was performed only once, by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, to an audience of a mere 400 people. Horner was rather disappointed at the way the performance was quickly forgotten by everyone, even "the critics", and he realized how difficult it is to compose "pure" classical music and have it heard as well. Then, while he was still teaching, a chance call came from the American Film Institute. They were seeking a composer for some student films. James tried it, and instantly fell in love with film scoring - It was the one arena where you could write something and a few weeks later stand in front of an orchestra to see (or hear) your musical visions come to fruitage.

Horner's first ever movie score was for an AFI student film called The Drought. After a few more student film scores, he decided to enter the "real world" of film scoring, so he went to B-movie master Roger Corman's studio, New World Pictures, where he stayed until 1980. Roger Corman's movies were mostly low-budget horror flicks which never made too much money, but there Horner honed his craft, often giving the movies he scored a much better score than, in the opinion of many, the movies deserved. He resolved to stretch his budget for every film to give the maximum aural experience and, being a very serious composer, to constantly write for film and never do episodic TV show scoring for quick cash. Some of his movies from the Corman days are Humanoids from the Deep, The Watcher and - perhaps his most renowned in those days - Battle Beyond the Stars, the only one that was a reasonable hit. For this flick Horner composed a stirring symphonic outer-space action score which was often criticized for its resemblance to Jerry Goldsmith's score to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. (He was ordered to imitate Goldsmith and John Williams by Corman.)
During his time with Roger Corman, Horner met many people who he would become friends of and later work with. Perhaps the most distinctive one of those is James Cameron, cameraman and special effects person, who also worked on Battle Beyond the Stars.

The movies that James scored for Roger Corman may be far cries from the likes of Braveheart and Titanic, but his musical talent shone through nonetheless. Very soon, other movie studios were beginning to notice him, and soon he was one of the most sought-after new composers in Hollywood. In 1981, he scored two relatively major films: The Hand by Oliver Stone, and Wolfen, which featured some rather experimental musical techniques. These two scores only served to draw even more attention to James. Most importantly, they caught the eye (or ear, rather) of Paramount Pictures, who were seeking a composer for their Star Trek sequel film. This composer had to be able to give the musical power and bombast of Goldsmith's previous score but would not demand too much money. For them, Horner was the perfect one. The film that he scored for them, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, would be permanently remembered as not only one of the finest Star Trek films but an epoch in Horner's career. In popular opinion, his score followed up Goldsmith's very well without sounding too much like it, and captures perfectly the nautical, adventurous spirit of Star Trek.

With Star Trek II under his belt, James Horner's future looked bright. But he was not content to rest on his laurels: In 1983 he composed what many believe to be two of his very finest scores: For Krull directed by Peter Yates and Brainstorm by Douglas Trumbull (the effects wizard on 2001: A Space Odyssey). Krull was well-received by the public, and the score struck a chord with many, many film music fans - even with some who apparently didn't like Horner. His score for this fantasy/adventure film was extremely original and powerful, employing some experimental and even atonal textures as well as bold, brassy traditional adventure music. He also used the great London Symphony Orchestra for the first time on this score. (Horner conducts his own scores 99.9999% of the time, because he likes to be in charge of his own work and see his visions come as closely to realization as possible.) Brainstorm was a film dealing with "heavy issues" like life, death and thought, and Horner composed a complex, mindful score to reflect all that.

During 1983 and 1984 James also composed the score to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Besides that, he scored some quieter "thinking" movies like The Stone Boy, The Dresser and Something Wicked This Way Comes, his first film for Walt Disney Studios (not animation though). This pastoral score caught the attention of Ron Howard, an up-and-coming young director (famous for playing Richie Cunningham in "Happy Days" among other things!) Richie...Sorry, I mean Ron Howard took an instant interest in Horner and inquired about his availability for Splash, a romantic comedy about a man who falls in love with a mermaid. However, James was not available for that film. Instead he scored Howard's next blockbuster, the warm sci-fi fantasy Cocoon. The movie was a big hit among the public, and the score Horner provided was beautifully warm and emotional. The soundtrack of Cocoon is a favorite among soundtrack fans to this very day.

The success of Cocoon caught the eye of many, but especially of the former-Disney-animator-turned-independent-director Don Bluth, who was working on his animated project An American Tail. Having loved the Cocoon soundtrack, Bluth asked Horner to score An American Tail, which he agreed to - being a big fan of scores to the old Disney films. Apart from being James Horner's first animated film, An American Tail was the first time he had an opportunity to professionally write movie songs. He collaborated with legendary pop songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil on four songs for the film, including the instant classic "Somewhere Out There", which went to #2 on the American charts in 1987, won two Grammys and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Horner received another Oscar nomination in 1987 for his score to James Cameron's Aliens, a smash-hit sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien (Jerry Goldsmith, again, wrote the score to the first movie!). However Horner's experience on that film was far from enjoyable. When he was about to score the movie he was told that Cameron had finished shooting and almost finished editing, but in reality Aliens was still being shot and had not been edited a bit. Due to the hectic editing schedule, there were only 10 days left to score the film and Horner was reduced to sometimes writing pieces during the scoring session. Despite all this, the score was still nominated for an Oscar but Horner and Cameron swore never to work together again.

After the enormous successes of Aliens and An American Tail, Horner scored some relatively low box office performers such as the Steven Spielberg-produced Cocoon look-alike called *batteries not included (featuring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy from Cocoon!) and Project X, a very complex film which dealt with the issue of animal experimentation and starred Matthew Broderick. But Horner was soon to be in the spotlight again. Don Bluth, fresh off the success of An American Tail, made another animated feature called The Land Before Time. Again, he requested the service of James Horner, who responded by composing a symphonic work in the tradition of the old classical masters. Horner also wrote a ballad for the feature, "If We Hold On Together", which was performed by the legendary disco star Diana Ross and became another classic. ("If We Hold On Together" was very important for Horner as it was his first time working with lyricist Will Jennings, who would become a close collaborator and friend.)
In 1988, the same year which The Land Before Time was released, Horner also scored Willow, a sword-and-sorcery film starring Warwick Davis. Willow was made by George Lucas and directed by Richie Cunningham...Sorry, Ron Howard (Cocoon). Despite much publicity, the film didn't pull in much profit, but the score is still considered one of Horner's very finest despite some strong thematic similarities with Schumann's 3rd Symphony. The sequel to 1985's Cocoon, Cocoon: The Return, was also scored by Horner, but it wasn't very well received as many of the original cast and crew did not reprise their roles. Not even Ron Howard.

1989 was a fine year for Horner scores. The powerful Glory was a patriotic film about Black soldiers in the American Civil War who fought for their freedom despite strong racial prejudice against them. This film was directed by Edward Zwick and did very well in both public and critical opinion. Zwick originally wanted to score the film with "battle music", but Horner decided that the film needed something deeper than that. He composed the music to reflect the pride of the Black soldiers and the personal growth of the White protagonist Robert Shaw. As often happens between director and composer, Zwick accepted Horner's vision. Horner, given his fondness for human voice as an instrument, also used the Boy's Choir of Harlem in this score - a choice which only added to the music's profoundness. After the success of Glory, Edward Zwick and James Horner became friends and would work together afterwards on two more movies.
Horner also scored the blockbuster Field of Dreams released the same year. This was a supernatural-tinged baseball movie starring Kevin Costner, for which Horner provided an unconventional score utilizing orchestra, synthesizers and exotic instruments such as panpipes. He was awarded his second Oscar nomination for this work.

In the following years James Horner would score many noteworthy films, including the sequel to 1986's An American Tail, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells. James Horner composed a rollicking, enjoyable, Aaron Copland-like score which was criticised for sounding a bit too much like Copland. This animated film was important for Horner in two ways - First, it was his second time working with lyricist Will Jennings, who laid down the lyrics for Horner's three movie songs. One of them was the beautiful "Dreams to Dream" performed by child star Cathy Cavadini in the film and Linda Ronstadt (who sang "Somewhere Out There") over the end credits, and that's where the second way comes in. Originally Horner and Steven Spielberg had chosen an unknown French-Canadian singer named Celine Dion to sing "Dreams to Dream", but due to conflicts with recording labels, Ronstadt was picked instead. Celine was extremely disappointed. Fievel Goes West was not much of a blockbuster, but "Dreams to Dream" received a Golden Globe nomination nonetheless. Horner also went on to score Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Thunderheart, Sneakers and Mel Gibson's first directing project, a quiet thoughtful film called The Man Without A Face. In 1994 he composed a sweeping, epic Americana score for Legends of the Fall, a movie starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins and directed by Horner's old friend Ed Zwick. However, despite John Toll's beautiful cinematography and Horner's gorgeous score, the film received lukewarm reviews. The score is still very popular, especially with women and Brad Pitt fans.

1995 would probably be the second biggest year in James Horner's scoring career. In that year he composed the tearfully emotional score of Braveheart for Mel Gibson's second directorial project about the ancient Scottish freedom fighter, William Wallace. The film was an international blockbuster and won Oscars for (but not limited to) director Gibson, cinematographer John Toll (who also did Legends of the Fall) and makeup artists Peter Frampton, Paul Pattison and Lois Burwell. Richie Cunningham...(Okay, I promise this is the last time I'll call him that!) ...No, Ron Howard also commmissioned his old friend Horner to compose the music to accompany the doomed space flight of Apollo 13, the subject of his latest movie. The historical drama starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon was also a box-office hit and won 2 Oscars. Unfortunately for Horner, he was not among any of the Oscar winners for those two great films. Both of his scores were Oscar-nominated, but as often happens at the Academy, the double nominations "cancelled each other out" and Luis Bacalov won instead for his soft, poetic score to Il Postino. Horner's devoted fans were disappointed, and some were even outraged, but then...

James Cameron, working on his dream project Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, was looking for a composer for the project. He tried to get John Williams and Enya, but Williams was busy scoring Spielberg's Amistad and Enya did not believe she could write a film score. At the time, Titanic was over-budgeted at $200 million US$ and few people in the film industry believed that it could succeed at all. However, James Horner was slipped a copy of the script by his agent Michael Gorfaine. He loved the story so much that he contacted Cameron, whom he had previously worked with on Aliens and swore never to work with again, but this time Cameron decided to use Horner. They both worked out their old differences and decided to put their hearts and souls into the feature, not even thinking about the unpleasant past. Horner had four months to compose the score, using a blend of synthesizers, traditional Irish instruments and the wordless vocal of Norwegian superstar Sissel to create a timeless, haunting sound which perfectly captured the romance and heartbreak of the movie. James Cameron was perfectly satisfied with the result, and the two men were friends again.

The famous song from Titanic, "My Heart Will Go On", was originally never planned to be in the film. James Cameron felt that a pop song would be inappropriate to the subject matter, but Horner felt that it was the only method to capture the emotions of the movie in a way accessible to a universal audience. So he wrote a love song based on his themes from the movie and commissioned his old friend, the lyricist Will Jennings, to write words to it. He then flew to Las Vegas, where Celine Dion was staying, and sang it for her. Celine and her husband/manager Rene Angelil loved the song and agreed that Celine would sing it as a demo which Horner could present to Cameron - especially since both were so disappointed at the failure of their last attempted collaboration on "Dreams to Dream". Horner waited until Cameron was in a very good mood, and presented him with the demo tape. He agreed to place it over the end credits of the movie, and both the Titanic soundtrack and the song became international hits. On Oscar night of 1998, Horner finally walked away with two Oscars - One for Best Dramatic Score and one for Best Song.

After Horner's amazing success on Titanic, he was not content to merely rest on his laurels. Instead, he went on to score blockbusters Deep Impact, The Mask of Zorro, and Mighty Joe Young, Ron Underwood's remake of the 1940's classic. In late 1998, a soundtrack sequel to Titanic was released, containing new compositions by Horner and source music from the blockbuster film. Horner was originally contracted by his label, Sony Classical, to premiere a world tour featuring music from Back to Titanic, but it was cancelled for some reason - Much to the disappointment of people everywhere.

As the 20th century drew to a close, the ever-busy composer scored films such as Bicentennial Man, The Perfect Storm, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas directed by Ron Howard. (See, I didn't call him Richie this time...Haha.) In 2001, he collaborated with French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud on the epic war film Enemy at the Gates, about the famous WWII battle of Stalingrad, and also with his old friend Ron Howard on A Beautiful Mind, the biopic of the math genius John Forbes Nash Jr. based on Sylvia Nasar's acclaimed novel of the same name which starred Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly. Horner had loved the book and was eager to score Howard's film, utilizing "mathematical" methods of composition and the background vocals of Welsh child star Charlotte Church (famed for her best-selling Voice of an Angel and Enchantment records). Charlotte also recorded a beautiful end-credits song written by Horner and Will Jennings, "All Love Can Be".
Despite having had only two weeks to compose its score, Horner nonetheless earned another Oscar nomination for A Beautiful Mind. The movie won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Nowadays, James Horner has scored Beyond Borders starring Clive Owen and Angelina Jolie, House of Sand and Fog starring Jennifer Connelly, Radio starring Cuba Gooding, Jr and The Missing directed by his old friend Richie Cunningham. (Okaaaaay, so slap me...Ron Howard!) He is now 50 years old and lives in Calabasas, California with his artist wife Sarah and their two daughters.

I hope this biography has been accurate so far and has been of help to any music students who came here looking for info on James Horner for their school project. :) If I made any mistakes, please inform me at [email protected].