Beau Peep Notice Board

Beau Peep Notice Board => Outpourings => Topic started by: Mince on February 25, 2010, 05:25:22 PM

Title: James Horner
Post by: Mince on February 25, 2010, 05:25:22 PM

James Horner composed the music for Titanic and Avatar.

He is accused of borrowing/stealing pieces of music from others and from his earlier films.

Firstly, here is the wonderful opening to the excellent film "A Beautiful Mind".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y97RyBzAvJQ

And it's a shameless rip off of one of his earlier works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quINm_8HrKg

Title: Re: James Horner
Post by: Tom on February 25, 2010, 06:39:54 PM

Can you rip off your own thing?

Title: Re: James Horner
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on February 25, 2010, 07:03:29 PM

Some similar devises and sounds, but I couldn't say that was a rip-off, and I think borrowing elements and instrumental presentation  from your own previous works is more about individual style than anything else, isn't it? To draw an analogy with my own world, I've certainly used very similar characters in my cartoons over the years. almost always subconsciously, because of my particular style of drawing - but the situations and context they are used in are different each time.

I'd be more interested if you could find examples of him "ripping off" other peoples' music.

Title: Re: James Horner
Post by: Mince on February 25, 2010, 09:04:51 PM

Here's another example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwSA2qqy-uM

Title: Re: James Horner
Post by: Mince on February 25, 2010, 09:20:09 PM

As for my first post, listen to the first one from 1:18 and the second one from 2:40 and tell me that is not the same piece of music.

Title: Re: James Horner
Post by: Mince on February 25, 2010, 09:23:10 PM

Wow! Amazing what you find on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glsyYJksGtg

Title: Re: James Horner
Post by: Malc on February 26, 2010, 01:43:03 PM

Certainly the same brass theme in all three, but I think these film soundtrack composers just sit around all day listening to film soundtracks and ripping off phrases rather than coming up with broadly original work.
Why? Because it works. They please the directors who employ them because they write work that the director thinks is original.

Just like kids who go to clubs think that Vanessa Amorosi's songs are original, and Country music fans think Keith Urban's stuff is original. Of course it's not, because if it was truly original no-one would buy it. If you're basically a run-of-the-mill type of person who doesn't know much about music but knows what they like, stuff has to sound a bit like stuff you've already heard for you to warm to it immediately.

Title: Re: James Horner
Post by: Mince on February 26, 2010, 04:12:39 PM

I know Horner has a style, and it's not this I object to. If the theme music for a new science fiction programme was basically a rehashed Doctor Who, people would immediately call it a rip-off. That's basically what Horner has done with Beautiful Mind: not use a similar style or a few motifs, but basically rehash an entire piece of music from another film.