[Thor Joachim Haga]

Warning: Long post ahead!

This upcoming recording has made me think about “composer collection histories”, which is something we don’t often talk about on messageboards. We talk about our histories with composers, or collections in general, but the ebb and flow of a composer collection is a big and complex (and FASCINATING!) world that is rarely talked about, at least in-depth. Because in order to answer the question of where this new Horner TV soundtrack would fit into my existing Horner collection, I would need to look at how it has evolved over the years. Each composer collection has a history that goes with it.

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I discovered Horner in the early 90s, along with most other big names in film music. The Varese CD of ALIENS was the first I got, I think, via mail order. Later I got things like BRAVEHEART and APOLLO 13 in local record stores while the films were new. He’s always been a top 10 composer for me, and in the last few years I’ve ranked him at 4th place (me an my rankings, you know!).

I have a big hard drive folder that houses a whopping 103 Horner items, which is the rightful amount, given his high ranking. This is a completely curated collection and is basically everything I want to own by Horner. There are things I have no intention of owning on either CD or digital (here’s looking at you, P.K. AND THE KID!). I’m not a completist, but I need to have a lot.

But when I gaze over on my shelf, the physical Horner collection is tiny. 8 – EIGHT! – CD survivors. How the heck did THAT happen?

The survivors are STAR TREK II, STAR TREK III, THE ROCKETEER, LEGENDS OF THE FALL, BRAVEHEART, TITANIC, THE MASK OF ZORRO and AVATAR. Plus “Alamo Jobe” on the AMAZING STORIES set.

But obviously, I’ve had many more over the years that have left my collection, probably to get something I wanted even more. Many of them I regret, and want to reacquire. Some of them, I have no need to reacquire. Here’s a list of my “leavees” that I could think of, with a * next to the titles I want to reacquire on CD some day:

BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS
UNCOMMON VALOR
WOLFEN
KRULL * (I’d like the single-disc Southern Cross version)
BRAINSTORM
ALIENS *
WILLOW *
FIELD OF DREAMS *
GLORY
PATRIOT GAMES
THUNDERHEART
THE PELICAN BRIEF
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER
JUMANJI
APOLLO 13 *
CASPER
RANSOM
TO GILLIAN ON HER 34TH BIRTHDAY *
COURAGE UNDER FIRE
THE SPITFIRE GRILL *
THE DEVIL’S OWN
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG
DEEP IMPACT *
ENEMY AT THE GATES
PROJECT X

So once I reacquire those with an * next to them, there is another list of titles that I’ve never owned on CD, but would like to. Again, I have all of these in digital format, but I would like to own them on CD as well:

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS (my favourite Horner score, but the Intrada CD is super expensive)
AN AMERICAN TAIL
THE LAND BEFORE TIME
BALTO
A BEAUTIFUL MIND
IRIS
HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG
THE NEW WORLD
HOUSE OF CARDS
WOLF TOTEM

At this point I would have a) a completely curated digital collection, and b) a completely curated CD collection.

THEN I could lean back and be content with it in all shapes and forms. And only THEN would it make sense to look into this new Horner recording of obscurities from Lukas & co.

Put differently, there’s a long list of things I need FIRST, before I could get new, lesser known things or reassess those I’ve “dismissed”. It would be weird to buy ANGEL DUSTED on CD before I got, say, my favourite Horner score, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMES. Wouldn’t it?

So anyway, those are some thoughts on the ebb and flow of a composer collection. I could do similar “histories” of most other composers in my collection, as I’m sure could all of you, if you had my nerdy inclinations.