James Horner – In Memoriam – August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015

This is not intended to be an exhaustive post about James Horner. I know enough about his writing style and his repertoire to honestly write a short book; but he had an enormous impact on me as an artist, filmmaker, and composer. When I was still a teenager, I wrote a letter over the Internet to a magazine called “Film Score Monthly,” as I had seen a ton of press from them recently attacking James Horner’s skill and originality. They published my letter. I felt cathartic and justified till I learned more about human nature and success and people writing things on the Internet.

I was in the process of writing a score for a fantasy film, and I had written a very small motif for a female character. This character had mere moments on screen in the film so there wasn’t time to flesh anything out. In the end credits, I put more time into it, and specifically and harmonically structured this part of it to pay just a small bit of homage to the master. May his family and friends find love in remembering him, and may we all learn from someone so dedicated to his craft.