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James Horner Essay

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James Horner was a very talented multi award winning film composer who has shared his talent in over 75 films, many of which were box office hits. He has set the bar for so many composers in the world of scoring. James Horner was born from an Austro-Hungarian dad and a Canadian mother. James’s dad immigrated to the United States in 1935 where he builds a career as a set designer and art director. James was born August 14, 1953 in Los Angles, California. At a very young age James was exposed to the word of Hollywood, so many of his decisions he made growing up was in many ways a reflection of it. He began his interest in music when he was five years old with the piano. When his family moved to London 5 years later he continued his interest of …show more content…

James was quoted saying “It was like lightning, I suddenly realized that I could be as expressive as I wanted. Each Film was completely different.” he told Los Angeles Times reporter Steven Smith in 1995. These days for Horner were stepping stones where he began to express himself more through the music he composed. He continued this streak and the more he composed for these films the more word spread around of the impressive work he presented. Horner’s lucky break came following the hit movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The Star Trek franchise was already very popular by this time; this film would positively change the direction of James’s career. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan debuted in 1982 and had a box office success of 97 million. This movie put Horner on the map with A-list Hollywood composers. He continued to write movie scores for a lot of high profile movies including Star Trek III: The search for Spock, Commando, Cocoon and many more. Also during this time he began to write his first orchestral score for family films; the first would be An American Tail. It wouldn’t be until the 1986 movie Alien where Horner would be nominated for his first Academy Award for Best Original Music Score. It would also be the first of many times Horner would work with director James

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