Customer Reviews

Titanic And Other Film Scores Of James Horner (Film Score Anthology)

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At one time I belived the one and only great modern day film composer was John Williams, this album proved me wrong. James Horner, to me is still not as good as John Williams, but dangerously close. Horner in this album has basically summed up sum of his gratest songs ever written. The greatest song in this album is either Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn End Titles, the Courage under Fire Theme, or Apollo 13 (The Launch). Some other honorable mentions include Aliens (Futile Escape), Titanic(Southampton,Rose , Take Her to Sea Mr. Murdoch,and Braveheart's End Credits, and Cocoon: The Return (Returning Home). Mr. Horner has done a fabulous job in expressing emotion almost as good as John Wiliiams. These 13 collabarations dsisplay emotions such as hope, fright, compassion, and courage. This albums only problem's were the fact it left out the music of some other of Horner's best work(Land Before Time, Glory, and An American Tale). The album ignored Horner's "Rock" titles which include Red Heat, Commando, and Gorky Park. This has to be one of the must buy's of the year. Two Very Honest Thumbs Up For James Horner and Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus.

I had most of these tracks on other CDs, but this is a good sampler of Mr. Horners career on a single CD. There are some tracks which are from Original soundtracks in the Varese back catalogue, but most of hte tracks are re-recorded by the Royal Sottish National and Seattle Symphony Orchestras conducted by Cliff Eidelman, Joel McNeeley and John Debney. Also check out Heart of the Ocean (Sonic Images) and Titanic: Essential James Horner Collection (Silva America) for other overviews on Mr. Horner's career.

The sound quality is excellent. The choice in music is disappointing. I can name FOUR Horner movie scores or background music that is breath-taking enough that they should have merited inclusion (but alas were not recorded here).

I don't know the dates when these music pieces were released, but it could have been within a couple of years apart. Why? Because this collection has a few tracks that sound VERY SIMILAR. Hence, this CD does NOT fully explore the extent of this great composer's talent.

To say that James Horner is the most talented soundtrack composer would be an understatement. To my count he has written more than 10 scores. The score for Titanic is as exciting as it is relaxing. This soundtrack is so well made, that I bought the second one! Like the movie, each peice on the soundtrack builds up to the climax. If I had it in front of me, I would be sure to give specific examples, but unfortunetly, I don't. However, I will say that the peice, Rose, which I believe is #4, captures the true meanig of this outstanding movie, and therefore proves how well a composer James Horner has proven to be.