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James Horner (born August 14 1953 in Los Angeles , California ) is an American Composer of orchestral music. He is noted for his effective integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of traditional Irish ( Celtic ) musical elements. EARLY LIFE Horner's early years were spent in London , where he attended the prestigious Royal College Of Music . He received his Bachelor's Degree in music from the University Of Southern California , and eventually earned his Masters and Doctorate at the University Of California, Los Angeles . After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970s, he ended his teaching of Music Theory at the UCLA and turned to film scoring. FILM SCORING Horner began his career by working for '', establishing himself as a mainstream composer. Horner continued composing music for high-profile releases in the 1980s, including '' Krull '' ( 1983 ), '' Cocoon '' ( 1985 ), '' Aliens '' ( 1986 , earning his first Academy Award nomination), '' Willow '' ( 1988 ), '' Glory '' and '' Field Of Dreams '' (both 1989 ). Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Horner also displayed a talent for writing orchestral scores for children's films (particularly those produced by '' ( 1991 ), '' We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story '' ( 1993 ), '' Casper '' and '' Balto '' (both 1995 ). The year 1995 saw Horner produce no fewer than six scores, including his commercially successful and critically-acclaimed works for '' Braveheart '' and '' Apollo 13 ''. But Horner's greatest financial success would come in 1997 with an enormously popular score to '' Titanic '', which became the best-selling instrumental soundtrack in history with over 24 million copies sold worldwide. That year, he won Academy Awards for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for " My Heart Will Go On " (which he co-wrote with Will Jennings ), in addition to three Grammy Award s and two Golden Globe Award s. Since ''Titanic'', Horner has continued to score for major productions (including ''''). He frequently scores for the films of director Ron Howard , a partnership that began with '' Cocoon '' in 1985. List of Film scores
CRITICISM Among fans of film scores, Horner is sometimes accused of excessive self-'' (specifically, the Klingon themes) also reappear in very similar form in his score for '' Aliens ''. Also, the opening material in '' A Beautiful Mind '' ( 2001 ) is very similar to that of '' Bicentennial Man '', which was also scored by the composer. Don Davis , who orchestrated some Horner scores in the 1990s, answered a question about Titanic in an interview as follows: ''Q: "You've worked with James Horner on Titanic, so we've got to ask: Is it just us or does that Titanic score sound a bit familiar?" ''Don Davis: "You're talking about a composer who has established a very identifiable sound that filmmakers have come to rely upon for a successful collaboration of sound and image. It's obviously a very successful approach, and he has maintained a great deal of musical integrity while pursuing that identity, which is no small feat. And I think one would do well to remember that composers of the stature of Haydn and Beethoven were known to sell the same piece of music to different buyers. Making similar accusations against contemporary composers of film who commonly come under extreme conditions of time restraint (among many other real obstacles) might be seen as being irrelevant in light of those historical facts. So, the short answer is: it's just you."'' While it is generally acknowledged that Horner has a tendency to reuse musical ideas, opinions on the issue vary greatly. Some believe it truly compromises the merits of Horner's music, while others feel it is a minor problem that has been exaggerated. Most other composers also borrow heavily from classical works. For example, John Williams 's score for Star Wars contains quotes from Erich Wolfgang Korngold , Gustav Holst , Sergei Prokofiev , Dmitri Shostakovich and Antonín Dvořák , but unlike Horner he is rarely criticized by film score fans for his borrowings. TRIVIA
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