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Posted: |
Jun 28, 2015 - 10:28 PM
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By: |
connorb93
(Member)
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I know this board is quite full of Horner tributes so I wanted to make one a bit different. Though I'm a huge Horner fan, I'm occasionally distracted when I hear something out of his bag of tricks (or James "pushing the right buttons" as he put it) but most of the time I don't mind much and, in fact, welcome those musical ideas because they work so damn well.
I'm not skilled in musical language so half of the musical ideas I want to reference I can't explain correctly. I'm thinking other posters will have an easier time doing that.
I think my #1 idea that Horner often revisited during his career was those deep piano chords he used in scores like The Perfect Storm, The Pelican Brief, and Sneakers. It's a very warm, somber idea, that repeat throughout scenes, not intruding but propelling the drama forward. I always get a chill when they come up, there's something about that particular chord and it's placement that I've always admired as a sort of calling card of his.
Not far behind that is his typical 7-beat snare rhythm, which opens Aliens and Apollo 13, almost constantly representing the government/military. Like any militaristic musical call, this motif gets your attention immediately, and when used quietly in the underscore of a scene, you're reminded of the systematic presence in the film.
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Posted: |
Jun 28, 2015 - 10:43 PM
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By: |
Trekfan
(Member)
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I think my #1 idea that Horner often revisited during his career was those deep piano chords he used in scores like The Perfect Storm, The Pelican Brief, and Sneakers. It's a very warm, somber idea, that repeat throughout scenes, not intruding but propelling the drama forward. I always get a chill when they come up, there's something about that particular chord and it's placement that I've always admired as a sort of calling card of his.
If it's that arpeggiated "resolution" you're speaking of, it's a favorite signature element of mine as well. On the prior FSM thread "A Catalogue of Hornerisms" (which I liked), http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=93355&forumID=1&archive=0 , it's classified as #7 "The Driftwood Chord".
Horner is actually asked about this piano motif in the excellent BAFTA Guru podcast, http://guru.bafta.org/the-guru-18-a-conversation-with-screen-composer-james-horner from an April 2015 interview. He had a nice response about using it to solidify the harmony especially in the context of parallel lines. Indeed, I've always found it like the punctuation of a period onto a sentence - structurally necessary, and sonically satisfying.
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Posted: |
Jun 29, 2015 - 7:49 AM
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By: |
MikeP
(Member)
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Unlike most everyone else, I've always LIKED Horner's trademark elements. It makes me smile, it makes the sound unique and it's a nice way to comment on the fact that scenes across genres are similar.
So thumbs up to the danger motif, the crashing pianos, the pulsating shakuhachi flutes, the minimalistic figure he often uses in dramas and so on.
But if there's one particular thing I love about his work, it's the loooong melody lines, and the way he uses them to build the equally long tracks.
Bravo, Thor  I love his old standbys too. They don't bother me at all as they always work within the context of the current score. I DO loves me some danger motif, the crashing piano and clanging anvils.
Sure sometimes I'd shake my head or roll my eyes when one score turned up in another, but damn if I didn't end up loving each score every time.
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For me it's the "Brainstorm progression" (taken from Mixolydian mode?) in which the "dominant" is minor, the tonic, major (say D minor to G major). An example of something being quite old, at the time, sounding quite fresh and unique (especially to someone just beginning to study music, collect soundtracks).
That's the one for me, though I also like the punctuation piano from Field Of Dreams and everything else.
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I thought you meant the quotes he gave.
I was a big fan of his cymbalom work as in another 48 hours, commando and gorky park.
Much used by schifrin previously and others but it became a horner trademark.
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-crashing pianos
-clanging anvils
-cymbalom work as in another 48 hours, commando and gorky park
-loooong melody lines, and the way he uses them to build the equally long tracks.
Horner had excellent musical taste: choices of borrowings; melodicism and his apt and occasionally surprising harmonization of melodies; orchestration. But what I am most often drawn to are some of his effects - especially the piano clusters that gave his action music a wholly distinctive feel.
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Posted: |
Jun 29, 2015 - 10:23 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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Horner's trademark elements. It makes me smile, it makes the sound unique and it's a nice way to comment on the fact that scenes across genres are similar.
So thumbs up to the danger motif, the crashing pianos, the pulsating shakuhachi flutes, the minimalistic figure he often uses in dramas and so on.
But if there's one particular thing I love about his work, it's the loooong melody lines, and the way he uses them to build the equally long tracks.
Yes, and yes! I love the "Danger Motif"! I always viewed it as Horner putting his personal signature on a score. It never irritated me, in fact when ever it came up it puts a great big grin on my face. Kinda like Horner is "winking" at me. I only have positive feelings about it. Yes, James I get it. 
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No one but Horner could accomplish the mix of steel drums and saxophone so beautifully in the 80s (and later shakuhachi merged with those two instruments)...that's probably my favorite "Hornerism"
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