As I'm sure the majority of you know James Horner died in a plane crash recently. To honor him, I'm going to declare a bold statement:
"Titanic" (Music From the Motion Picture) is the greatest film score ever made.
"Titanic" perfectly captures the era, the themes, the ethos and the larger than life epic nature that has defined one of the highest grossing movies ever made. It captures the elegance, the sadness, the glory, and the loss that kept the film in theaters for over three months during its initial release. It was the first of it's kind, a commericial masterpiece greater than anything Hollywood could ever have dreamed of creating. Sure, "Avatar" made more money, but Avatar had the benefit of Titanic to hype it up. While Titanic is by knows means a complexly written film, it more than makes up for it in sheer massive scale. Movies are not literature. They are first spectacle, something out of a dream, something we are invited to spend staring at and believing we are inside of for several hours. "Titanic" the score is just as bit as epic and deserving of the top spot as the film itself.
James Horner more than rose to the occasion for the biggest thing to ever happen to the movie industry. He had over a decade of experience to work of and was no stranger to the Academy Awards nominations for music. Yet, Horner's masterpiece remains the best selling orchestral soundtrack of all the time. "Titanic" won Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for "My Heart Will Go on. "Titanic" also won three Grammy Awards, including one especially for "My Heart Will Go On." In Hollywood, studios observe a film project based on whether it can either earn tons of money or win Oscars. "Titanic" dominated in both fields and the only films that could ever hope to surpass it are it's figurative children "Avatar" and "Avatar 2." It is said that Leo di Caprio hasn't won an Oscar because Hollywood is jealous that at 21 he was already the frontman of the biggest film phenomenon to ever happen (over 200 fans, in vain, protested the Oscars for not giving Leo the win.) Yet, even with Leo's incredible career his words, uttered 15 years ago about what Titanic did for him: " I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to. It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either" remains very true.
Ultimatly, every track in Horner's score from "Rose" to "Death of Titanic" to the classic "My Heart Will Go On" are examples of a master at work. The genius of a man destined to lift the world higher through music. He was the sort of person that every artist hopes to be...a person born to do what they do. Proof that true art transends time and place and becomes legendary.
James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015)
American composer, conductor and orchestrator
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