Sunday 1 May 2016

Composer Research Task 3 - James Horner

From the previous pieces that I listen to, the one I enjoyed the most was "The Secret Wedding" by James Horner

James Horner:
Farmed for his lush, sweeping scores for films including Braveheart, Apollo 13, and of course Titanic, the prolific composer James Horner was born in Los Angeles on August 14, 1953. He began studying piano at the age of five, and trained at the Royal College of Music in London. After receiving a bachelor's degree in music at USC, he earned his master degree at UCLA and tough music theory there. He landed his first motion picture assignments during the 1970s, scoring B-movies like The Lady in Red, Humanoids of the Deep, and Battle Beyond the Stars for producer Roger Corman's New World organization.
By 1982, Horner had moved on to major studio fare including 48 Hrs. and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and four years later he notched his first Academy Award nominations for his score to the science fiction classic Aliens as well as for the song "Somewhere Out There," from the animated picture An American Tail. In 1989, Horner earned a second Oscar nomination for his score to Field of Dreams, that same year winning a Grammy for his work on the Civil War drama Glory; in 1995 he was honored with two more Academy Award nominations, for Braveheartand Apollo 13.
Horner finally struck Oscar gold in 1997, taking home statuettes for his score to the blockbuster Titanic as well as the film's original song "My Heart Will Go On," a hit for Celine Dion. After writing scores for movies like Commando and The New WorldFilm Music Masterworks: Original Soundtracks, which contained pieces from some of Horner's best-known work (Apollo 13BraveheartWillow, and of course, Titanic, among others), was issued in 2006. Horner's output in the 2000s was not nearly as prolific as in the 1990s, but he continued to produce sterling work, earning three further Oscar nominations for A Beautiful Mind (2001), House of Sand and Fog (2003), and Avatar (2009), the colossal success of which almost rivaled that of Titanic. He also wrote the theme to the CBS Evening News program, heard daily by millions of Americans. He continued to be an in-demand presence in film well into the 21st century, scoring big-budget box office smashes like The Amazing Spider-Man and Ender's Game. The year 2012 saw the release of a lavish, four-disc, 25th anniversary edition of his most popular work, Titanic -- the most successful orchestral score album in history. Horner died on June 22, 2015 when the single-engine turboprop aircraft he was piloting alone crashed in California's Los Padres National Forest west of Santa Barbara. He was 61 years old.

Analysis:

The song "The Secret Wedding" was composed by James Horner, this song is played in the movie "Braveheart", when there is a secret weeding at night in the middle of the woods. This song is about 5 minutes long, and it has a nice romantic start.
The main melody and the start of the song is played with the violin, and is followed by a violoncello, a flute and a piano.
The whole piece is a calm piece, with no dramatic change, it also transmits hope and a romantic spirit. 




2 comments:

  1. Farmed for... or famed for?! Tough music... or taught music?! The middle of your 2nd paragraph doesn't make sense. What are you trying to say? The basic information is there but you need to consider how you have added the information. Your punctuation & some of your spelling needs developing. (I know this is not your first language, but exam boards do mark quality of written communication).

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  2. Your analysis is way too short Ana. It gives very limited musical analysis. Have you looked up other examples of musical analysis? We have some in the music department that you can look at. You can also look at Jhanv's & Jenny's blogs as there last analysis were vastly improved.

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