[GerateWohl]

Starting from the end. To be honest I didn’t really hear about Horner’s death when it happened. I might have even only hear about it, when there was a discussion, who will score the Avatar sequel when he is not around anymore.

I first heard about Horner in a radio show that I caught by accident, called “filmharmonic concert”. It seemed to be a one time thing as I permanently tried to find the radio station and the time, but couldn’t find it anymore. That was in the early 80s. And the host told the story, how young Horner sat in front of the door of director Peter Yates to get the gig and how it payed out with a great symphonic score. They played a track and then I wanted the album. I found it within the next Month in the store window of the little cinema in my area.

And this is in that sense spectacular for me as, like I said, the radio show was a one time occasion that I caught by accident. And I spend a lot of time of my youth in that cinema. But that was the only time that they sold soundtrack records.

Next contact with Horner was the TV premiere of Wolfen, which was praised for it’s visual effects. So, I had to see it. There I already recongized a lot of similarities with Krull in the typical Hornerisms. Then I lost a little bit track of him.

Until Aliens. Aliens wasn’t only the greatest movie of the year. I was blasted away by the score. Really loved it.
Later on I loved it less and less, when I found, that almost all elements of the score that I loved also appeard in scores like Gorky Park, Brainstorm, later Patriot Games and many more. Suddenly it wasn’t so special anymore. Then I didn’t pay much attention to his scores anymore, even when I watched the movies.

Next touchpoint for me then was Titanic. Not only because Horner’s score was so great, but because sudddenly movie soundtracks were more than before a topic in the media and public discussions.

And then of course Avatar which was a huge disappointment musically. Same for his Magnificient Seven.

In the past two years I was discovering then a lot of his scores after following some discussions around him on JWFan. In the meantime I have a very little collection of his scores. If I needed to select my five favourits I would probably list A Beautiful Mind, Casper, Braveheart, Iris, Aliens. In no particular order.